Shauryajit S.

Shauryajit S.Aug 19, 2026

I Closed the Client in June but The Contract Was Signed 54 Days Later. I just spent 3 months in the sales cycle to close a Digital Marketing Agency Retainer for Opslabs Here's what I learnt about my sales process after 3+ meetings and 100+ email exchanges. Mistakes I made: 1. Solutioning too early: I understood their problems, but I should have spent much more time quantifying them before talking about AI agents, MCPs, workflows and architecture. Luckily, the client later gave me one of the strongest KPIs themselves: reduce one founder’s workload from roughly 80 hours a week to 40. I should have discovered that much earlier. 2. Talking too much about technology at Opslabs, trying to impress them, rather than doing discovery: Agents. MCPs. Claude. APIs. Infrastructure. Models. My focus should have been on: WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE HIRE YOU. Selling them goals, and aspirations, not my knowledge only. 3. Not standardising the offer: Since it was an AI transformation retainer, I sometimes mentioned 4–6 months and sometimes 6–8 months. This should've been fixed from before. 4. Creating urgency without enough consequence: I sold the client on what they're missing out, but not on how badly they need it and how important it is. This stretched the deadline too long. 5. Too many "Just checkin in" followups: The client said he liked my persistence but every follow-up should move the deal forward. Irrespective I closed them, basically 2ice. Here's how: 1. I positioned myself as a partner rather than an automation freelancer: I wasn't selling individual workflows. I was selling the idea of coming into the company, understanding how they operate and gradually improving the entire business. That positioning differentiated us heavily. 2. I didn't try to replace everything they had already built: KEY!! They had already invested time into their own stack. My pitch was: “We're not here to rip everything out. We'll keep what works, improve what doesn't, and build around your existing infrastructure.” That reduced switching risk and increase adoption power. 3. I was honest, and was not over selling them any lies: I was willing to tell them when AI couldn't reliably do something. 4. I used real proof instead of making ridiculous AI promises: I had double digit case studies and not just a 3x your capacity claim on the website and deck. 5. I protected the business during legal negotiations. 6. I followed up relentlessly: There were multiple points where this deal could easily have died. People travelling, Lawyers travelling, Internal reviews. Meetings moved, etc. Have you had a similar experience?

Shauryajit S.Aug 21, 2026

Most founders think growing means hiring. So they add heads, watch costs climb faster than revenue, and wonder why margins keep shrinking. Every hire is a salary plus onboarding, meetings, mistakes, and management. It adds up quick. The smarter question isn't who to hire next. It's what AI can handle so your team focuses on the work only humans can do. That's what we build at OpsLabs. Head over to the link in my bio to book a free Ops audit.

Shauryajit S.Aug 18, 2026

Every Agency needs client portals. I don't care if you do Ecom, Cold Email, Marketing, AI automation or even accounting. You need client portals for elevating your client experience. I've worked with 50+ agencies in the past 1.5 years, and all of them. Literally all of them benefitted from making client portals. Not regular client portals, custom branded, made to fit the needs of your business and of your clients. What this means is, you get a custom link, lets say Portals.Compname.com, it is made with your branding, design scheme, and it only contains content that you wanna provide to a client. In the case of a marketing agency, it could be ROAS, for cold email agencies it could be Positive reply rates, sending schedules, inbox and campaign progress. Whatever. If that's something you need, we will make it for you. Book a call today.