Focus on Teamwork, Not Timework
What is the primary reason agencies don’t deliver more innovative solutions for their clients? Lack of talent? Lack of time? In my experience, the latter is much more of a factor than the former. Most successful agencies have some pretty smart people.
Why Agencies Will Make More of Their Money From IP in the Future
One view of the future of our business is that increasingly agencies will make the majority of their revenues from the intellectual property they create instead of the hours they work. The “work for hire” model that has persisted for the last half-century is becoming a less and less profitable way to make a living.
What Really Motivates Agency Professionals
You would like your employees – or team members – to work harder. To care more about the agency and its clients. To put in more time, show more effort, or do a better job. Agency managers reason that what’s needed is to motivate employees with the promise of more money – a chance to earn more if they’ll work more.
Why Your Firm's Positioning Strategy Should Not Be Based on Facts
When it comes to your agency’s business strategy (positioning), the best place to start is to make sure you’ve struck the right balance between authenticity and aspiration.
Start Charging For What You Really Sell
In groups of agency professionals around the world I have often asked the question, “What do clients really buy from your agency?” Their answers usually include things like “Solutions to marketing problems,” “Insights and innovation,” “Expertise,” and “Successful marketplace outcomes.”
You're Not in the Components Business
When you shop for a car, you’re looking for an “outcome”, not a set of components that comprise an automobile. Imagine visiting your dream car’s website and finding in place of a compelling description of the car and its main benefits, an exhaustive list of features.
Why Agencies Are Worth Their Price
Is an agency that is twice the expense of an in-house unit (even when accounting for internal overhead) worth the price? Actually, yes. The right kind of agency is actually worth 11 times the price.
Instead of Trying To Fit a Client, Find a Client That Fits You
“What is it they do again?” That’s the reaction of many prospective clients looking at the list of diverse services listed on most agency websites.
How to Fundamentally Change the Dynamic of the Agency-Client Relationship
I’ve always believed that the greatest benefit of getting paid based on value instead of time isn’t that the agency has the potential to earn more money (although most do).
How a Focus on Effectiveness Changes Everything
Because most agencies run their businesses based on hours and time, they have come to believe that what they’re selling – and what clients are buying – is efficiency. That’s nonsense. When you take your car to the shop, are you buying fast work or good work?
Price Better by 1% and Earn 10% More Profit
Eavesdrop on management meetings of firms around the world and you’re likely to hear a discussion about how to cut costs in order to increase profits.
Why "Keeping Your Options Open" Is an Ineffective Way to Attract New Clients
As a agency brand, would you rather be moderately appealing to a large group of prospects, or intensely appealing to a select group of prospects? Most agency professionals would say the latter.
Why Architects Don't Install Sheetrock
Some agency executives bristle at the idea that their work is becoming “commoditized” by clients. Admittedly, “commoditized” is a strong word. So “devalued” if you prefer. The simple truth is that clients won’t pay much for what they consider to be widely-available services, and its killing agency profit margins.
Uncovering Lost Revenue Opportunities
It’s a popular belief among agency executives that the best opportunity for new business is among current clients. Sometimes that can take the form of new projects and assignments, but sometimes it can just mean doing a better job of capturing the income opportunities you already have …
Stop Worrying About How Efficient You Are; Effectiveness is the Only Thing that Matters
Two advertising professionals, Ken Starling and Julie Brighton, both worked 2,000 hours last year. Of those 2,000 hours, Ken billed 1,765 to client project work. Julie’s billable hours were 1,326. Which of these two executives was most productive?
Trading a Cost Focus for a Value Focus
Based on recent studies, the professional service firm spends over 10% of its time and energy recording, tracking, capturing, estimating, billing, and adjusting it’s time. In other words, feeding the “time machine” …
Expanding by Narrowing
Companies of all stripes make the mistake of assuming that narrow is the same thing as small; that if you’re focused in one area, you somehow limit your growth potential. While seemingly logical, this is simply not true. Of the top 25 advertising agencies in America, more than half are specialist firms, not “full-service” agencies …
Why Strategy Lives at the Edges
Statistically speaking, the concept of “average” means that you fall right in the middle of the bell curve. No company wants to be thought of as just average, yet that is precisely where their undifferentiated business strategy places them—in the center of the curve. The most interesting and powerful brands are at the edges of the bell curve, because they’re doing things differently …
Why Agencies Are a Company's Most Valuable Business Partner
To understand what’s happened to the perception of agency value, look no further than the invasive involvement of procurement in the agency selection process. Rest assured that procurement does not hire a company’s management consulting firm. How did this happen to agencies?
If You Just Copy, You Will Always Be Behind
Although most organizations don’t like to admit it, the way most business models are hatched is by copying the “success” of another organization. By definition, copying means you’ll never really be innovating, just following. And by the time you finally do successfully copy the features of another company’s business model, they’ll be onto something else …