Now more than ever, marketing communications firms need to analyze their revenue streams and find more ways to extract value from the services they provide.  “Business as usual” isn’t an option in today’s economy.

Agencies need to apply creativity to solving their revenue problems, just as they do to solving their clients’ marketing problems.  Here are twelve good questions to help you capture more value:

1. What opportunities could we pursue to develop or package our intellectual property for sale or license?

Instead making all our money in a “work for hire” model, do we have a knowledge base or proprietary information we could turn into a source of revenue?  What would it take to develop and package it for sale?

2. Could we experiment with charging minimal fees for concept and production and then charging for usage?

This is the business model of most of our creative services suppliers: photographers, musicians, talent, etc.  If it works for them, why couldn’t it work for us?

3. What missed opportunities have we had to apply some creativity to pricing (rather than just estimating our costs)?

This is the first and most essential question we should be asking.  How can we get our people to understand that we’re not selling our costs, but rather our value?

4. Do we have any current clients with whom we could structure a simple compensation agreement in which we are paid for leads, inquiries, clicks, downloads, etc.?

Which of our clients might be willing to pay us for the results we produce rather than the hours we work?

5. Which of our clients would be willing to pay us more money if we take more risk?

Do we have a client who is sophisticated enough to want to “grow the pie” rather than focusing on how big of a slice they give us?  Are we willing to accept a different form of risk (knowing that every client relationship carries some risk, not the least of which is the risk of not making money!)

6. Could we propose a “value audit” for current or prospective clients to help identify drivers of success upon which we could base a compensation agreement?

Rather than jumping straight to “scope of work,” could we get some experience with the concept of “scope of value” Could we use this approach to help differentiate ourselves in a new business situation?

7. How can we help our clients identify their real brand success drivers and measure what matters (not just sales and market share)?

Could we employ account planning or analytics to help our clients identify and test their real success drivers, then build our compensation around our ability to move these drivers in the marketplace?

8. Would we make more money if we raised our prices on “high value” services and lowered our prices on “low value” services?

Could we make most of our profit on the services that are most highly valued by clients?

9. Could we add value to a particular service and charge more than other agencies?

How could we take a “standard” service and differentiate it in a way that adds more perceived value?

10. Could we find a more efficient way to deliver a particular service and charge less than other agencies?

Could we use technology or streamlined work processes in a way that would allow us to deliver a production/distribution service at a much lower cost than other firms?

11. Which 20% of our clients produce 80% of our profit?  How can we cultivate more work from them?

Knowing that a handful of clients produce most or all of our profit, how could we provide (and capture) even more value from these clients?

12. Who are our low-value, unprofitable clients?

Unprofitable clients really offer us only two options: develop new compensation agreements with them, or resign them.  What are we waiting for?