Advertising agencies are facing competition from every dimension and direction. Upstream, they complete with marketing consultancies and brand strategy firms who seek to provide planning and strategy services to marketers. Downstream are production companies, independent freelancers, and even media companies who now aim to not just sell media but produce content.

When asked to provide an inventory of services provided by your firm, most agency leaders supply the type of list that begs the question, "Could anyone agency actually do all that?"

Have you ever had the frustrating experience of trying to execute a “multi-pronged strategy?” It never goes well for the simple reason that a strategy with multiple prongs isn’t a strategy at all — it’s just a wish list.

Unless your firm has a business strategy that is crystal clear to every single associate, you are likely wasting valuable resources supporting multiple competing directions.

It’s been said that new business is a numbers game, but the most successful agencies would vigorously disagree. The very best in our business focus their talents in areas where they have a clear advantage and pass on everything else.

Have you experienced the “life-changing magic of tidying up” your home? Such is the promise and title of the book by Marie Kondo, who teaches the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing.

Is doing better enough? Marketing professional Harry Beckwith asks us to imagine the typical year-end company meeting in which the CEO’s approach to continued success is "Let’s look at what we did last year, and do at least 15% better."

Upon his return to the company he founded, Steve Jobs’ first executive action was to announce that Apple would scrub almost all of the 300+ projects currently under development and instead focus on no more than four.

Would you rather be hired for your ability to execute, or your ability to solve? Which is more valuable?

Knowing the costs of serving your clients is important, but it’s not the same thing as knowing how to price your services. Costing is objective and tactical; pricing is subjective and strategic. Costing uses formulas; pricing requires judgment.

If your firm uses the term “full service” on its website, here are two good reasons you should stop. First, “full service” is one of the phrases that has officially joined the lexicon of expressions so overused they’ve lost their meaning — words like “quality” and “excellence.”

Like all humans, we business executives are subject to what behaviorists call “confirmation bias.” Nowhere is this dynamic displayed more prominently than in professionals’ perception of how well their firm is differentiated from rivals.

What are the key criteria you use when looking for prospective clients? More importantly, what criteria are your key prospects using when they’re looking for you?

Despite decades of books and literature supporting the importance and value of a clear, well-defined focus, most business firms persist in trying to be a little bit of everything to everyone.

Imagine you’ve just received a notice from the IRS that they’re going to audit your most recent tax return. You’ve never been through an audit before, and because you’re in the habit of preparing your own tax returns, you decide it’s time to get some professional help.

When you think about the concept of positioning your firm, what comes to mind? A tag line you can put on your business card? A headline for you the home page of your website? A theme you can give to a new business presentation?

Countless agencies confuse having a philosophy with having a positioning. A positioning is a strategy, not a tag line.

Agencies are indispensable partners in helping marketers differentiate their brand. Differentiation is, after all, the essence of branding. But when it comes to their own brands, most agencies haven’t thought through their own brand touch points to look for opportunities to stand out.

If you’re like a lot of business executives, you may be concerned that you haven’t adequately defined your “mission” or “vision.” These often feel like buzzwords, and that offsite planning sessions that seek to define them often end in a bland statements that reflect more compromise than courage.

Somewhere in the notes from last summer’s offsite agency planning meeting, do you have a statement similar to any of these?