5 Tips to Tackle Growth Challenges in Agencies
For over twenty years, Verity has worked with the world’s leading advertising, media, and marketing communications agencies.
Every year, we ask them what their biggest challenges are and their answers are a useful guide to what’s keeping them awake at night.
The leading challenge this year? New business and growth — no surprises there.
The second biggest challenge? Relationship building. This didn’t surprise us. We’ve long identified a declining focus on this unsung driver of commercial growth, the result of a transactional drag in the industry taking attention away from relationships.
So what can agencies do to overcome it?
We’ve got a few tips.
1. Operations vs relationships — where do your resources go?
At a time when much of the noise is around investment in tech, particularly AI, and transactional drag continues to pull the client-agency dialogue into the operational and tactical, relationship building can feel like a forgotten art.
More than that, these days, increasingly junior agency teams are often thrown into reaction mode without being given the time or space to master the skill.
And that’s a costly mistake.
Yes, the potential commercial value of AI-driven efficiency and effectiveness is undeniable. But overlook the potential ROI of strong client relationships and you’ll be holding yourself back from achieving your full growth potential.
If there’s one thing we know unequivocally after looking at the findings from a million client surveys, it’s this:
The strength of an agency’s client relationships is one of the most significant drivers of its growth.
It can feel almost counterintuitive, but prioritising the relationship will drive business growth. The happiest clients are 3x more likely to talk about the relational experience when they describe why they’re delighted, than they are to talk about the product itself.
2. Put relationship building right at the heart of your client growth plan
To do this, consider your client relationship as a commercial lever in its own right, just as you would talent and capabilities.
A good plan identifies the operational requirements and potential barriers to success.
A great one considers what relationships need to be like to achieve your business goals.
Why? Because a poor relationship will always get in the way of a good plan, no matter the strength of your competencies.
It only takes a client who…
- Doesn’t feel you’re as passionate about their business and brand as they’d like you to be, or
- Is quietly interpreting team change as a lack of commitment to their business
…and your growth ambitions will soon be dust.
3. Beware the trap of too many details, not enough vision
All too often we see growth plans that are either:
1. Reaction plans — merely tactical responses to multiple client demands, creating a sense of limited control over your own destiny, or
2. Inaction plans that live on paper but never really make it into the real world because ‘urgent’ keeps winning over ‘important’
These are both entirely human responses to the challenges of managing clients in today’s pressured environment and often a sign of overwhelm, but they won’t help your ambitions.
What’s more, often it’s the very shape of a plan that leads to its downfall. Too many details and not enough vision will reduce the drive to follow through.
4. Set a North Star
So how do you make sure your plans become actions? Start by setting a North Star.
Ask yourself:
- For the agency to achieve its ambitions, what narrative should your clients hold about it?
- How far away from that narrative is the agency currently? What’s the gap you need to close?
This is a powerful place to start because it will:
- Identify the journey you need to take your client on
- Separate what is and isn’t important
- Improve decision-making
- Increase motivation and focus
- Help teams execute with a sense of purpose
5. What should the relationship be?
Finally, consider how does the relationship need to be for you to succeed?
By giving the relationship its own focus you will be shaping your own destiny, rather than allowing it to be the result of everything else that happens along the way.
Of course, successfully reaching your destination will take tactics and action. These will need to be plotted and undertaken with zeal. This is the second part of our approach. With a clear purpose, your team are much more likely to:
1. Know where they are going
2. Do what’s needed — to action the actions
That’s exactly what Verity’s North Star planning approach accomplishes. It sets a clear and compelling purpose. With a clear vision that puts the relationship front and centre, your team are much more likely to succeed.
In our workshops and masterclasses, we share exactly how to implement strategic client management in your agency.
As Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
