Agencies providing B2B services are in a unique position to capitalize on the high demand for mobile apps. Rather than trying to acquire new leads from scratch, you can simply tap into your existing client list and sell them app development services.
You’ve already done the hard work that’s required to land these clients. Now it’s time to extract maximum value by providing them with additional solutions that their businesses need to grow.
Digital marketing agencies, advertising agencies, PR firms, web design and development businesses, social media agencies, consultants—really any B2B agency can sell mobile apps to their existing clients.
Find a Platform That Simplifies Your App Development Process
The very first thing you need to do is figure out exactly how you’re going to build mobile apps for your clients. Using a white label reseller platform is by far the easiest and most profitable approach here.
With Buildfire’s reseller program, any agency can start creating and selling mobile apps without writing code or hiring a development team.
This allows you to get your share of the $252.89 billion mobile app market without sacrificing your core agency services. You can continue doing what you do best without having to hire a new team just to manage your mobile app department.
Unless your clients are trying to build the next Facebook or Uber, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll need custom coding. So you can just white label an app builder, create what they need using a drag-and-drop editor, and then sell apps for high profits.
You can unlock Buildfire’s reseller program for a low fee and rebrand everything as your own. So your clients will never know the difference, and you’ll have access to the exact same platform that’s been used to create and launch over 10,000+ successful apps.
Additional Reading: How to Make Money With White Label Apps
Identify High-Value Opportunities in Your Client Base
Targeting clients with bigger budgets is often the first thing that comes to mind whenever agencies enter the app development space. While you obviously want to make sure you’re pitching to clients who can afford an app, this isn’t the only way to identify high-value opportunities.
First, start with active clients or ones that just finished a contract. This will be much easier than reaching out to a former client you haven’t spoken to in years.
Then narrow that list down to the clients to whom you’ve successfully delivered positive results with other services. From there:
- Focus on industries where mobile apps provide clear value (retail, restaurant, fitness, education, etc.).
- Prioritize brands whose competitors have already launched mobile apps.
- See if any of your clients are already getting significant site traffic from mobile devices.
- Consider clients who have previously indicated problems with operational inefficiencies.
- Target clients seeking ways to improve customer loyalty, streamline bookings, or any other clear initiative that can be solved with an app.
Here’s something else to consider. Don’t ignore clients who already have a mobile app.
Download their app and see if it’s useful or delivering on its promise. If not, you can still pitch those clients and offer to build them an app that actually works.
In these early stages, you should focus on 5-10 high-value clients. You can always scale your app development services down the road, but the first few apps will build a solid foundation for everything else.
Develop a Compelling Value Proposition
Why should clients use your agency to build their mobile app?
This is not a rhetorical question. After all, there are other app development agencies out there who have been building apps for years. And right now, you’ve (probably) built zero apps.
So you need to have a clear and concise value proposition that conveys:
- You already know their brand.
- You already know about their customers.
- You understand their pain points.
- You offer everything under one roof (app development and your other services).
The reason why businesses turn to an agency for anything is because they want access to talent, expertise, and resources that they don’t already have in-house.
You can position your app development service the same way. Your clients need an app—they can’t build it themselves, and they already have an existing relationship with you.
If you’re using a white label app builder like Buildfire, your service can also be offered at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional development. Since the platform is so affordable, you can pass those savings along to your clients while still charging enough to generate high profit margins.
Create a Sales Pitch to Specifically Target Existing Clients
One benefit of starting with a shorter list of hand-picked clients is that you can make your sales pitches ultra-specific. This will be totally different from your normal sales calls where you’re speaking to new leads.
You already have a point of contact and an open line of communication with your existing clients. So it’s less about pitching your agency and explaining what you can do and more about adding value or solving problems.
Don’t make this a broad pitch of, “We sell mobile apps.”
Instead, leverage your existing relationship and results as much as possible.
Your sales pitch should be centered on “When working on [whatever service you provide], we noticed [a specific problem]. We can create a mobile app for you that [solves this problem].”
Early on, you may even consider offering some type of exclusive discount to your clients who are among the first to use your app development services.
It’s a win-win for both of you. You’ll get to sharpen your skills and have a proof of concept for marketing purposes down the road—and your clients can get an even better deal.
[CASE STUDY]: See how Social Connection Marketing, a digital agency, used Buildfire’s white label platform to build ten apps for clients within the first year of offering this new service. Read the story here.
Prepare to Overcome Common Client Objections
Not every client you pitch is going to welcome the suggestion with open arms. That’s to be expected. But you should still be prepared to answer some of the most common objections associated with app development. Examples include:
- Cost — Bust the myth that app development is expensive by offering your services at an affordable monthly rate. Your clients may not want to spend $50,000, but charging anywhere from $500 to $1,500 per month is reasonable and still gives you plenty of room to make a profit.
- Technology — Some clients may not want to move forward because they lack the in-house technical skills to build, launch, and maintain an app. But you can handle all of this stuff for them by using a no-code app builder.
- Leadership Approval — Your current point of contact might just be a department head or manager, but not someone who has the authority to move forward with an app development project. If they need a decision-maker to sign off first, focus on ROI using real numbers for that specific client.
- Change — Sometimes your clients are just resistant to change and afraid to explore new ventures. In this case, position the app as a competitive advantage on their own terms. Failure to move forward could create a situation where they’re forced to change later on because they’re falling behind other businesses.
Having the right answer ready to a common objection could potentially turn into a sale with a client who was previously on the fence.
6 Pro Tips to Maximize the Total Value of Each Client and App
As you’re pitching and selling mobile apps to your clients, there are several ways that you can increase the total dollar amount of each sale and ultimately boost the lifetime value of your clients.
1. Use a Single App as Proof of Concept For Similar Clients
Once you create your first app for a client, you can use that framework to build other apps for clients in the same industry.
Buildfire’s white label app builder makes it easy to clone an app you’ve already built—so you can just make small changes to the branding while keeping the basic features and functions the same. You can even take a portion of that cloned app, add another client’s logo, and use it as a demo of what their app would look like.
This saves your agency a ton of time and money when you’re building similar apps moving forward.
2. Provide Ongoing Support and Maintenance
Rather than just building an app once for your clients for a fixed fee, you can generate recurring revenue for the lifetime of the app by providing ongoing support.
There are tons of behind-the-scenes infrastructure requirements that mobile apps need to function. From user authentication servers to push notification servers, analytics, integrations, app store updates, and more, you can charge a monthly fee for providing these components.
Buildfire doubles as a MBaaS (mobile backend as a service). So if you’re using Buildfire’s white label platform to sell apps to your clients, all of this stuff is included.
3. Look for Post-Launch Upsell Opportunities
In addition to charging a monthly or annual maintenance fee, you can also look for one-off upsells to earn even more revenue. Examples include:
- New features.
- Custom functionality.
- App redesigns or facelifts (at least a year after the initial launch).
- Adding new integrations and/or automations to the app.
Keep selling. Buildfire already has over 150+ pre-built features that you’ll have access to, and this list is continuing to grow. So you can always keep your clients updated about new features to improve their app and then charge them accordingly to implement them.
4. Sell Multiple Apps to a Single Client
Whenever you have a client that’s willing to invest in mobile app development, they could be a candidate for multiple apps.
For example, maybe you’ve already built a customer-facing app that’s designed to increase sales and boost engagement. Now you can pitch them an internal app that improves employee communication and internal efficiencies.
If your initial pitch worked, just revamp it and make tweaks for an additional use case.
5. Bundle App Development With Your Other Services
This is all about perceived value. Some of your clients will be more likely to move forward if they’re getting an app bundled with other relevant services.
It doesn’t work for every client, industry, or service. For example, bundling your mobile app with a reputation management service doesn’t make a ton of sense.
But this type of package deal works really well for web design and web development services—allowing you to provide a complete digital transformation for your clients.
Additional Reading: Why Every Web Development Agency NEEDS to Offer App Development Services
6. Use Your App Development Services to Land New Clients
I know most of what we’ve talked about so far has been about selling apps to existing clients. That said, you shouldn’t completely neglect the opportunity to acquire new clients from your app development services.
At a minimum, have a landing page that showcases the apps you’ve built for your clients. You can also share those testimonials organically on social media and include them in drip campaigns for new leads.
Instruct sales reps to mention your app development services on discovery calls. Even if new clients aren’t ready for an app today, you can always just sell them your other services and then follow these steps again once they become an existing client.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Selling mobile apps to your clients is an easy way to expand your agency services and generate new revenue streams from a service that’s in high demand.
The beauty of using an app reseller platform to sell apps is that it’s a low-risk entry into the industry. Rather than having to hire team developers or create an entirely new department for managing complex projects, you can simply pay a low fee for access to an existing no-code app builder.
You can break even after selling just one or two apps, and the opportunity to scale is virtually limitless. Plus, leveraging your relationships with existing clients puts your agency in a unique position that’s poised for success.
Book a demo of Buildfire reseller today to learn more about how you can create and sell apps to your agency clients.