A practical, no-fluff guide for Account Executives who want to close faster, qualify better, and build long-term partnerships instead of just chasing revenue.
At Soda Spoon Marketing, we’ve built our entire sales process around transparency, results, and mutual fit. This playbook is the bible every Senior Account Executive follows. It’s not theory—it’s what actually works in real conversations with business owners who are ready to grow.
Whether you’re new to the team or a veteran refreshing your approach, keep this as your reference. Let’s dive in.
1. Who Soda Spoon Marketing Is (and Who We Are NOT For)
We are a full-service digital marketing agency based in Draper, Utah (right outside Salt Lake City), founded in 2022. We help ambitious small to mid-sized businesses turn marketing from a mysterious expense into a predictable growth engine.
We are for founders, owners, and operators who:
- Treat marketing as a serious investment with measurable ROI
- Want a true partner who embeds in their business and obsesses over outcomes
- Are ready for consistent, systematic execution over 6–12+ months
We are NOT for:
- Companies hunting for the absolute cheapest vendor or one-off projects
- Businesses expecting “set it and forget it” magic campaigns
- Large enterprises with fully built in-house marketing departments
- Anyone who believes marketing success comes from pretty graphics and wishful thinking alone
If you’re looking for a quick logo refresh or a single month of ads, we’re probably not the right fit. If you want a team that runs the entire marketing machine for you—strategy through execution—welcome aboard.
2. Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) – By Industry & Revenue Range
We focus on businesses where we can deliver outsized impact quickly. Our sweet spot clients share these traits:
Primary ICPs
-
Local Service Businesses (Salons, spas, gyms, med spas, home services like plumbing/HVAC, dental practices)
- Annual revenue: $750k – $8M
- 5–50 employees
- Owner-operator or small leadership team that wants to dominate their local market
-
Ecommerce / Lifestyle Brands (Beauty, home goods, apparel, wellness, supplements, cannabis-related)
- Annual revenue: $1M – $15M
- Already spending $50k+/month on ads or primed to scale aggressively with better strategy
-
B2B Professional Services (Consultants, boutique agencies, SaaS under $20M ARR, financial advisors, law firms)
- Annual revenue: $2M – $20M
- High-ticket offers ($5k+ average sale)
- Need consistent inbound lead flow and strong thought-leadership positioning
Firmographic & Behavioral Filters We Use Every Time
- Minimum marketing budget: $1,500–$2,000/month
- Existing website and some online presence (even if it’s outdated or underperforming)
- Decision maker (usually founder/CEO/CMO) is directly involved and accessible
- Willing to make data-driven decisions and commit to 6–12 months
We politely pass on startups with <$500k revenue, massive enterprises, or companies unwilling to share data access.
3. Core Problems We Actually Solve
Business owners tell us the same frustrations over and over. We fix them systematically:
- “We’re invisible online” → Dominate local search with Local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, review generation systems, and map pack strategies.
- “Ads are burning money with no returns” → Strategy-first paid media (Meta, Google, TikTok) — we build audiences, test creatives, and optimize relentlessly instead of “launch and pray.”
- “Our website converts like a brick” → High-conversion website redesigns + ongoing CRO (A/B testing, heatmaps, speed optimization).
- “Content is sporadic and gets zero traction” → Full content systems with calendars, production, distribution, and repurposing.
- “I have no idea what’s actually working” → Crystal-clear monthly reporting, custom dashboards, and quarterly deep-dive strategy reviews.
We don’t just do tactics. We solve the root problems keeping businesses stuck.
4. How Our Full-Service Package Is Positioned
We never sell isolated services like “SEO” or “social media management.” We sell predictable, compounded growth through one integrated system:
Strategy → Creative → Execution → Measurement → Optimization → Repeat
You get:
- One dedicated point of contact
- One contract
- One unified dashboard
- Monthly retainer covering strategy sessions, content production, paid ads, SEO, website updates, reporting, and full team access
Our go-to positioning line in every proposal:
“Most agencies give you pieces. We give you the whole machine — and we run it for you.”
Clients don’t have to coordinate five different vendors. We handle it end-to-end.
5. How Soda Spoon Is Different
Compared to Traditional Agencies
- No junior account managers who hand off your work and disappear
- No bloated “strategy teams” that never talk to each other
- We research, test, analyze, and innovate — we don’t recycle outdated playbooks
Compared to Freelancers
- One person can’t sustainably deliver elite strategy, ads, SEO, copy, and design forever
- We bring depth, redundancy, and cross-discipline expertise
Compared to In-House Teams
- You skip the pain of hiring, payroll, benefits, turnover, and skill gaps
- You get senior-level talent across every marketing discipline for the cost of 1–2 full-time hires
We’re the high-leverage option between fragmented freelancers/agencies and expensive in-house builds.
6. Pricing Philosophy & Guardrails
We use value-based monthly retainers tied to the growth we expect to drive.
- Starting point: $1,500/month (Brand Accelerator package)
- Most clients land between $3,000–$8,000/month depending on scope and goals
- Minimum commitment: 6 months (12 months strongly preferred for best results)
- No lifetime lock-in contracts—if we underdeliver, you can walk
- Quarterly performance reviews with clear KPIs
- If we miss agreed targets, we adjust strategy and resources at no extra cost
- Upside options: performance bonuses or equity arrangements for exceptional partners
Non-negotiable guardrails
- We walk from anyone who wants to constantly nickel-and-dime or add endless scope creep
- We require full access to analytics, ad accounts, Google Business Profile, etc.
- We only onboard clients we’re confident we can 3–5× in the first 12 months
7. How Deals Are Qualified, Advanced, and Closed
Qualification (Discovery Call – 20–30 minutes)
- Budget reality check
- Deep pain + goal discovery
- Confirm decision-maker involvement
- Understand timeline and urgency
Advancement Stages
- Discovery → Custom Audit + Strategy Deck (we often do a deep paid audit or thorough free session)
- Tailored proposal + Mutual Action Plan (clear next steps and timelines)
- Onboarding Kickoff (treated like a mini business launch with team intros and goal alignment)
Closing Techniques That Actually Work
- Future pacing: “Imagine your business in 12 months with consistent 20–30% month-over-month growth…”
- Risk reversal: “If we don’t hit [specific milestone] in the first 90 days, we’ll work the next month at no charge.”
- Scarcity: “We limit onboarding to 3–4 new clients per month to maintain quality.”
We close on value and fit, never pressure.
8. Common Mistakes to Avoid (The Stuff That Kills Deals)
- Talking features (“we do SEO”) instead of outcomes (“you’ll own page 1 in your city”)
- Skipping the question: “What happens if nothing changes in the next 12 months?”
- Chasing every lead instead of ruthlessly protecting the ICP
- Over-promising unrealistic results in the proposal
- Sending a proposal and then ghosting follow-up
- Forgetting to ask directly for the close
Avoid these, and your win rate climbs fast.
Final Note
This playbook isn’t static. We review and update it quarterly based on real field results, new tactics, and client feedback.
If you’re an AE on the Soda Spoon team — print this, pin it to your wall, and let it guide every call. If you’re a business owner reading this — now you know exactly how we think, how we work, and whether we’re the right long-term partner for your growth.
Ready to see what the machine could do for your business? Book a no-BS 30-minute strategy call. We’ll audit where you are today and map out where you could realistically be in 12 months—no pitch, just clarity.
Let’s build something that actually moves the needle.
Richard and The Soda Spoon Marketing Team
