Agencies often find themselves stuck in a cycle of being busy, without really thriving. But failing to address the underlying blockers to growth leads to even greater risks.
We’ve all been there – growth is solid, but it could be better. When you’re asked how your agency is doing, you might say ‘we’re doing okay‘. Or if you’re British, it’s probably more like ‘pretty good’, but with a grimace.
This stage of growth is usually associated with being busy. A bit too busy, really. Alongside the daily demands of BAU, this nagging overwhelm often swells when your pipeline is healthy. Perhaps lead generation is working well or a partnership is delivering opportunities. Maybe you’ve been acquired and you suddenly have access to a cornucopia of friendly decision makers to sell to.
Whatever the cause, the relentlessness feels like drinking from the fire hose. People tell you it’s the classic ‘nice problem to have’, even though it’s all a bit much. But you can’t really complain. I mean, busy is good, right?
Are you winning enough?
Obviously your key metric is success. This is where your concerns start to multiply. You are winning, but not quite enough. Often it’s the smaller opportunities that convert. With the larger ones, you keep coming a close second. So some money’s coming in, but the toll is high. You and your team are exhausted. The return on energy invested isn’t enough.
Your instincts point to some underlying issues. You’re having to super work hard to convince clients that you’re different. You sense it would help to refine your positioning or have a more compelling value proposition. Greater differentiation would certainly boost conversion, organic growth and your profit margin. But who’s got time for all that?
Right now, it’s not perfect, but it’s okay. Like a creaky old rollercoaster, things are moving fast, even if you don’t quite feel in control.
Don’t wait for a crisis
Unfortunately being crazy busy isn’t the same as making progress. That’s obvious but easy to forget. You’re winning enough to keep going, but not enough to thrive. At the same time, momentum feels fragile, so investing time to think about the bigger picture doesn’t quite reach the top of your to-do list.
This places you right in the danger zone. It’s all too common for agencies to avoid questions of strategy and differentiation until they’re struggling. They only commit to change once they’ve hit the wall – emotionally, as well as commercially.
At that point, you’re facing a turnaround job – more urgent, higher risk and far harder to do.
Break the cycle
The good news is that it’s entirely possible to make meaningful changes quickly, even when it feels like taking your foot off the pedal could stall your engine. Although big questions about alignment, vision and differentiation often feel like they’ll take months to resolve, that’s actually not the case.
Co:definery’s Acceleration Workshop takes just one day. With all the key players in a room, we get right into the big questions and get clear on what needs to be done. We assess the clarity of your vision, your positioning and what makes you different. You leave with complete clarity on what’s working and what needs to be improved, with clear steps to follow and ownership of who’s doing what.
The reality is that whatever actions you uncover will be high priority, but you’ve defined and agreed them in just a few hours. In this case, speed is your friend. With the right people in the room, change happens fast.
At the end of the day – literally – you’ve avoided the biggest risk: waiting for disaster to strike. Making changes in times of plenty is a far safer bet.