Bill Ross: Today I have with us MaKena Zannini, who is the founder and CEO of the Boutique COO, the flagship company of a larger portfolio of marketing agencies and staffing companies.

McKenna grew the company to 7 figures within a year as an expert with scaling small businesses and medium-sized businesses. Her story is quite unique as well. After growing up in a cult in Pennsylvania, McKenna was accepted to Wharton at 17, and went on to work on Wall Street before starting her own business.

I'm excited to hear what she has to share with us today. That said, McKenna, welcome to our Expert Interview Series.

Makena Zannini: Thank you so much for having me.

Bill Ross: Great! So, short time here so that we can get some great strategies to the listeners. So, I'm going to jump right into the question, which is, what is the most effective strategy you recommend for business owners to increase sales while also strengthening their company's reputation?

Makena Zannini: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a great question, and especially in this economic, world that we're living in for small businesses, it's really important to think about where you're putting your marketing efforts that's going to have the maximum impact for your business, for your sales, for your brand marketing, right? And so, for me. the biggest recommendation I would make to small businesses is network marketing. And so what I mean by that is things like.

Affiliate programs, really leaning into referrals, asking for referrals, even something as simple as that.

Being involved in events, co-posting on social media with clients, anything where you can really kind of develop associations and really share case studies and build trust. At the same time, you're reaching new audiences via people that are instilling trust in your brand, right? So you're much more likely to buy something if your friend tells you that they like it, versus if you find it on your Facebook profile scrolling, right? And so. it's kind of the same thing for your business. How can you get the people who know you, who already know, like, trust you, who are already your fans.to help you to basically market your company, and I think especially now, it's a pretty low-cost way to get your name out there if you're looking for that.

Bill Ross: Fantastic. So we know that's a proven system that has… stood the test of time, right? So let me ask you, if somebody's coming into this and they're going, okay, well, I know that and I understand that, but they're obviously not doing it at the frequency and scale that it needs to be done.

I'm a big systems person, so how would you systematize that so that it's not just throwing things against the wall everywhere, right? How would you actually turn that into a strategy that they could follow step-by-step?

Makena Zannini: Absolutely. Yeah, I think to your point of not throwing so many things against the wall at once, I think it's a really important step is to be intentional, and then to track the metrics, right? Like, if you're gonna spend time or money on a program or on a networking effort, then you want to track if it's working.

You know, what works for one business might not work for the other, and so I would recommend picking one, maybe two things. Things that I often recommend to start with, an affiliate program, if you don't already have one, where you're basically Offering some sort of discount, a free session, a free gift. Credit towards our next purchase, whatever the case is, some sort of gift, some sort of incentive.

to existing clients if they refer you new clients. And so, that, you know, is kind of just that little extra incentive that someone might need to, like, tell their friend about you, or are their friends talking about needing your service or your product. Perfect. It's, like, a great place for them to to be a little extra incentivized to share about you, so if you don't have an affiliate program, I would absolutely start there.

Bill Ross: I also… oh, go ahead. Yeah, so you're saying use an affiliate program as basically a referral program for your existing clients. I think that's… a great strategy.

Makena Zannini: Yeah, absolutely, and it works really well, because if your clients are buying from you, and they're happy, and they're, you know, servicing your business, then it's a really easy way to talk about it, you know, and sometimes… it's just about being top of mind for that client when, you know, they hear someone else who needs that service or recommendation. If you're the last one who kind of reminded them, like, oh, I'm here, this is what I do, this is what I offer, and by the way, I'll give you a percent off next time. You know, it's a… it's a pretty easy referral.

Bill Ross: So, as opposed to a typical affiliate program where you would actually pay them, you're suggesting offering something more incentivized to have them utilize your services again and again, more or less. So, it not only encourages them to bring in new people that they've referred, but it also encourages them to increase their own business usage with you. I think that's… that's amazing. It's a great idea.

Makena Zannini: Absolutely. And naturally. it will generate content, right? Like, people might repost one of your stories on Instagram, people might tag you in their LinkedIn post talking about how your business affected theirs, right? And so… it can also generate a lot of, like, knock-on effects that I think are extra beneficial marketing-wise as well.

Bill Ross: Fantastic. Okay, so in addition to, say, that strategy, if somebody's just like, wait, that's over my head, or just not the direction I want to go, what would be one of the other systems, or the ideas that you would use to fill that bucket, so to speak?

Makena Zannini: Yeah, definitely.

I would think about… people sometimes talk about the concept of raving fans, and I think that this is a great place to lean into that. So, thinking about, of your clients that you've worked with, of people who have purchased from you.

who are the ones who just absolutely are your people? They love what you do, they love your product, they would just, like, scream from the rooftops, and they keep coming back again and again. How can you capitalize on how stoked they are about you and your business for your business, right? And to have them help support you. So, easy ways to do that, doesn't even have to be super fancy, is, like, ask them to film a testimonial. ask them to write a blog for you and co-post the blog on each other's social media posts. You know, have them go to an event and say, hey, like, can you just, like, drop my card at the table of business cards at the event for me? And really, like, ask them for support if they love you and they love your business.

It can be a way to get your name out there and really you know, kind of involve your clients in growing your business. And a lot of times, clients are really happy to do it.

Bill Ross: That makes sense. So… so taking the strategies you've given so far.

it's not just doing it once. It's creating a methodology where you put it in your process, right? So that you do this over and over, and you're looking at this… these strategies as to how can you execute them every day, every week, every month, is that the idea?

Makena Zannini: 100%, and that's the other thing, is if you do this twice and it doesn't work out.

you can't stop after twice, right? You have to really keep on it and keep tracking. I would say minimum sample size for this type of thing is, like, 100. So if you're not willing to do it 100 times over the course of… it can be over the course of time, over months.

then you're not gonna get really to see if it works or not. So I'd say, you know, schedule in, say, okay, in the month of October, I'm gonna reach out to my 10 biggest clients and ask them for a testimonial.

And just set a goal like that, where you're holding yourself accountable for kind of getting the ball moving on this. You're also isolating, like, this is the initiative that I'm doing, so then I can track how it impacts my business. But yeah, you certainly can't just, like, do this willy-nilly, or do it once or twice and expect that it'll work.

Bill Ross: So let me go back to what you just mentioned here, because you said it once in the beginning as well, and that is, you've got to track the results, right? So… so give a little bit of a framework on how, you know, somebody new to implementing these type of things would go about tracking what they should be looking for specifically.

Makena Zannini: Yeah, for sure. So, I would look at a couple things. One is I would track what you actually do.

Whether that's, you know, asking for a review, doing some sort of affiliate referral program, anything like that, I would track exactly what you do, because part of this is how much is it costing you?

Whether that's something you have someone on your team doing, or it's your own time, you want to understand, okay, how much am I actually putting into this, and is it going to pay off? So that's, like, one side of the equation is tracking the cost.

The other side of the equation is, what's the impact to your business? So things I would look at is, how many… new purchases, new clients are coming in that are from referral. So if previously 10% of your clients were from referral.

And then you, in the next couple of months, it's 25%. I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that that additional bump is from these efforts, right? So then you can start doing the math. Each client spends this much with you, how much extra revenue, and does that cost-benefit actually trade off? It doesn't have to be fancy, you don't have to buy any sort of fancy software, just throw it in a Google spreadsheet and wait maybe a couple months after you do it to really see if it impacts

How many referrals you're getting.

Bill Ross: That's great. Well, listen, I think the advice you've given is… is… obviously foundationally solid, it's proven, but it's always one of those things that I can speak for myself as I've sort of gone… branched off and done this and that and this. I get lost in what I'm doing, and I think you've given a framework that somebody can say, okay, this is the process, this is what I'm going to do.

Sit down and create a schedule and do those things and track the results, and I think that's an amazing piece of information and advice you've shared. One more question for you, and that is, if people want to know more about you, if they want to see what you're doing, how you can help them. How can they reach it?

Makena Zannini: Yeah, absolutely. You can learn more about us at theboutiqueCOO.com or theboutiqueCOO on Instagram.

Bill Ross: Perfect! Great, I appreciate it. Well, listen, we really respect and appreciate your time, and thanks for joining us today, and we look forward to catching up with you soon.

Makena Zannini: Thanks so much for having me.