Can You Scale Your Agency Fast Without Burning Through Talent?

<p>Are you struggling to retain employees? Do you know how to keep scaling without burning through talent? When Robert Glazer started <a href="https://www.accelerationpartners.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acceleration Partners</a>, he always had a vision of working with an international team. Now, his agency, which is focused on managing partnership and affiliate programs for high-growth brands, has 300 employees in eight different countries. Robert joined Jason in this episode to talk about how he avoids burning through talent, how he trains his employees to ask why, and what he invested in to get beyond the referral stage.</p> <h2><strong>3 Golden Nuggets</strong></h2> <ol> <li><strong>Beyond the referral stage.</strong> Robert ran a <a href="https://jasonswenk.com/successful-referral-program/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">referral-based</a> agency for about 15 years. Of course, it couldn’t last forever and eventually, they started focusing more on sales and marketing so he and his partner would be less overwhelmed by the sales aspect. It’s a stage every agency will go through and they faced it by investing in leadership, having great marketing, and great delivery. In the end, they have exponential revenue growth from the time they started scaling the sales and marketing team and hired a fully integrated sales and marketing team.</li> <li><strong>On not burning through talent.</strong> With an agency that has been in Glassdoor's best places to work, what have they focused on when building their culture? Robert says they always had a vision of working remotely with employees from different countries. They have also focused on <a href= "https://jasonswenk.com/agency-employee-retention/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offering a work environment</a> where employees can grow professionally, which is one of the main reasons people leave their jobs. In the end, agency life is not for everyone, some will love its unpredictable nature and others won’t, but Robert made sure to create a culture that does not re