Welcome to Sell With Authority — I’m Hannah Roth, Director of Strategy here at Predictive ROI — and your resident mad scientist. If you’ve been around a while, you’re probably used to hearing Stephen kick things off. But today’s episode is a little different — you’ve got me in the driver’s seat.

And I’ve got my strategic co-pilot joining me — Erik Jensen, our Chief Strategy Officer. Erik and I are in the trenches every single day with agency owners, helping them spot and fix the nine money-draining mistakes — those sneaky patterns that quietly erode your profit, your confidence, and your growth.

One of the biggest culprits we see over and over again is what we call the Expertise Discount. It’s what happens when you downplay your value because the work feels “easy” to you.

Erik and I are digging into how that mindset ties directly into multiple money-draining mistakes — and how it chips away at your distinction, creates confusion, and traps you in the underpricing cycle.

We’re giving you ways to reframe the value conversation — both in your own head and with your clients — so you can start charging what your expertise is truly worth.

• Why so many agency owners equate hours with value, and how this mindset leads to underpricing
• Why work that feels “easy” to you is often the most valuable to your right-fit clients — and why speed should command a premium
• The direct link between undervaluing your expertise and several of the 9 money-draining mistakes
• Practical ways to anchor your fees to outcomes — time saved, revenue unlocked, risk removed — instead of deliverables
• The subtle ways you may still be discounting yourself
• How to confidently raise rates, simplify your offer suite, and sell with clarity instead of apology

• Website: www.predictiveroi.com
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Erik’s LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-jensen-b9946068/
• Hannah’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-roth-387a6b223/
• Order your free paperback or Kindle copy of our Book: Sell with Authority

Why does business development feel so much heavier than it did even a year ago?

Biz dev pipelines feel fragile. Opportunities stall unless the founder is in the room. New hires struggle to deliver results. And after a while, agency leaders start to wonder: “Is it just us?”

It’s not you. It’s distrust.

In this solocast, Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI, breaks down the first brick in The Trust Architecture™ — a 60-minute session called Help Me Understand.

It’s a conversation designed to flip the script on new business by building trust at scale, long before you ever talk about solutions.

You’ll hear:

• Why distrust — not “pipeline” — is the real barrier holding agencies back.
• The five core questions that form the spine of Help Me Understand (and the follow-ups that unlock candor).
• The five lessons that elevate this from “just discovery” to a trust-building experience.
• A real story of how one agency leader (we’ll call her Sally) shared more vulnerability in five minutes than most prospects do in five months.
• The exact playbook: how to prep, open, guide, and close the session — plus the one recap email that cements clarity.
• The outcomes you can expect when you run this session with excellence.

When your prospects experience Help Me Understand, they don’t just feel heard — they leave thinking, “If this agency runs their sales process this well, imagine how well they’ll run my work.”

Now’s the time to double down, architect trust, and sell more of what you do.

• Why Distrust is Rising and What Agencies Can Do About It, with Hannah Roth
• Website: www.predictiveroi.com
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Stephen’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Order your free paperback or Kindle copy of our Book: Sell with Authority

So many agency owners struggle with building a steady, profitable biz dev engine that doesn’t leak time, energy, money — and most importantly — opportunity.

What if the biggest culprit isn’t the volume of your outreach, the size of your list, or even your pitch?

What if the leaks are about something far more fundamental — understanding?

Working alongside agencies, we too often find their ideal client profiles aren’t nearly as sharp as they think. Too often, ICPs are built on assumptions — not data. And when that happens, everything downstream starts to wobble.

Targeting documents look good on paper but break down in execution. Messaging is crafted around what sounds clever — instead of what prospects are actually saying. And thought leadership is positioned around belief — not proof.

If right-fit prospects don’t hear their own words reflected back, in your voice, they won’t lean in. They won’t see you as the guide who “gets it.”

But — when you do capture their exact language, when you listen deeply and build strategy from their voice instead of your assumptions — the whole biz dev game changes. Suddenly, you’re speaking their dialect, and they can’t help but lean in.

Agencies that guess at their ICPs — or only check in with clients once a year — are really building pipelines on hope. And as we know — hope is not a strategy.

Listening is.

That’s why I’m thrilled to welcome back today’s guest expert for an encore conversation. Ana Laskey, President and Founder of Ground Control Research joins to give us a deep dive into how agencies can stop guessing, listen deeply, and use both AI tools and human touch to extract critical client language that sharpens targeting, elevates your content, and builds a biz dev process that’s a real engine — not just a random act of marketing.

If you’re guessing at who your right-fit clients are, or if you’re hoping content sticks when you toss it at the wall — this conversation is for you.

Ana’s approach will help you stop shouting in a crowded arena — and instead, speak with such precision that your right-fit prospects say… “Finally. That’s exactly what I need!”

• Why most agencies’ ICPs are built on assumption — NOT data
• How to build an ICP so sharp that you attract right-fit clients on repeat
• How to use AI to spot the red threads in your client conversations — without losing the human touch
• Why it’s vital to understand your buyer’s company and the full “deal path” including secondary decision makers
• Ana’s tips for open-ended, empathy-driven interviews
• How to turn client insights into marketing strategies that actually move the needle

• Website: www.groundcontrolresearch.com
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastassialaskey/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/groundcontrolresearch/
• Ana’s Bio Page: https://ana.bio/
• How to Sharpen Your ICP, with Ana Laskey