I had the pleasure of working all last week from Palma – mostly from a hotel room overlooking the stunning harbour complete with full flotilla of luxury yachts. I was in town to deliver a workshop based on the Solutions Focused Thinking methodology I now use, courtesy of being a Licensed Partner of Go Mad Thinking. It’s been an exciting week and one which has afforded me the luxury of doing my own personal development.
And so, it’s with that in mind that this week’s Agency Advisory has come together. There’s a broad variety of topics from thinking traps to what introverts wish leaders would say in meetings. In between, I cover how to escape from being held hostage by one large client; how to cut through biz dev lingo; how to win pitches using a flipchart; why sales is a side effect of doing things well; and the difference between growth and scaling.
As always, I give all the credit to the authors of the posts I cite below. Without their generous contributions on LinkedIn, we’d not have a weekly roundup. Thank you to one and all.
Thinking Traps & How to Spot Them
I was interested to look through this handy carousel posted by Colby Kultgen on the topic of thinking traps. Having delivered a workshop this past week helping an agency to think differently about networking and new business, my mind has been focused on how our brains work and how we can train our way of thinking to achieve more. Colby’s post summarises nine thinking theories, all of which we will recognise. The trick in avoiding the traps is to spot them and to understand how to deal with them. A skill which we could all improve, I am sure.
Cutting Through the Biz Dev Lingo
We are all guilty of using too much business jargon and of perhaps confusing listeners and readers in the process. So Florian M Heinrich’s post simplifying business development methodology and lingo should come as a refreshing short read. In it, he explains in everyday language, how the specific components of a consultancy's value proposition combine to help establish your firm's focus and positioning. This to my mind is a key area for all agencies to pay attention to, particularly as we head into Autumn and the 2025 strategic planning season.
Value proposition in simple terms. Read it here:
Being Held Hostage by That One Large Client
One of the biggest issues that I know keeps agency leaders awake at night is the thought of losing a major client. The adage of having all your eggs in one basket is so true when it comes to running a resilient agency. In this post, Stuart Ramsey explores the challenge, highlighting the precarious position being held hostage to one major client creates. He advocates breaking free and offers up sound advice on how to take that step. And from personal experience, I have been through this with clients that accounted for a significant % of agency business. Only by being courageous, strategic and extremely proactive, did we extricate ourselves from the financial straight jacket we were in at that time. Like Stuart, I’d be happy to share how we did that.
Free your agency from being a hostage
What Introverts Wish Leaders Would Say in Meetings
Another useful carousel to browse through, this time from parenting and work life influencer, Rachel Carrell. Now I would probably be labelled an extravert, so it’s instructive for me to pause and consider how the introverts in my orbit are made to feel in certain situations. Rachel makes the point that sometime, introversion is seen as something to overcome. I wonder how true this is in the communications & PR world where development conversations might implicitly say this. Rachel states that introverts have superpowers and that most extraverts don’t know how to get the most from them. Her carousel gives some insight into how remedy this and so she lists practical tips via Dora Vanourek.
Here's how to unlock those super powers
Win by Flipchart
Many moons ago, my Boss Tim Dyson insisted that every pitch deck should contain the minimum of words. No more than five. I’ll confess I found this incredibly tough, but it was a great discipline and a powerful learning experience. And so, one of my pet peeves today is when presenters simply read what’s on the slide. So, when I saw Gemma Moroney’s post recounting an experience at Frank PR via Graham Goodkind of a time when en route a pitch, the tech failed leaving them to write up the deck on a flip chart, I had a wry smile. Graham’s belief that: “You need to be ready to pitch it on a flipchart” is a winning one (witness Frank’s success!) and clearly has influenced Gemma’s thinking now at her own great agency Shook. Graham’s question is a great filter / question for all pitch teams in my opinion.
Sales is a ‘Side-Effect’
Boutique consultancy performance advisor, Luk Smeyers, posed an interesting concept that sales in a high performing consultancy is a side-effect of doing your job well. He argues that with the right specialism, with a signature methodology, and by demonstrating deep expertise, firms will generate sales, often through organic growth. I would counter that while Luk’s assertion is true if your agency ticks all the boxes, consistent revenue growth comes about through a combination of hard effort and a consistent focus. My belief is that it starts with great people, doing great work. If you have that, you’ll attract great clients. And great clients attract great people who do great work. This circle of agency life in my opinion. Which I think is broadly aligned to Luk’s thinking.
Get involved in this debate here:
Now it’s the 5 ‘P’s of Sales
I recently gave a talk to a group of independent agency founders and leaders on the topic of sales. Most of the audience were founders. Many had been running their agencies for more than 20-years. So, they were a highly experienced bunch. What then could I talk about that they didn't already know?
In these circumstances, I find it helpful to pose questions about issues, actions, governance, process that they are aware of but perhaps not getting around to addressing. And sales is one of those issues. Using the 'Cobbler's shoes' analogy, I went through a series of questions framed around the 5 'Ps' that I believe fuel great sales fitness – these are now captured in a LinkedIn carousel which features in my post on the subject.
Check out the 5 'P's carousel here:
The Difference Between Scale & Grow
Here’s an interesting LI article from Manish Kapur in which he makes the distinction between scaling your agency and growing your agency. Put simply, he contends that growth is the process of adding more resources – hiring more people, investing in more resources etc. While scaling is all about maximising what you already have to achieve greater results without a significant increase in resources. He makes the excellent point that growth can cap margin as costs rise in tandem with revenue. Scaling is about breaking that ceiling. It’s a useful distinction and one which I’m sure many will refer to.
Read about those differences here:
LinkedIn Tip of the Week: When to Post
You might be an expert on LI, or you might have a social team that will know this already, but I am always grateful for tips on how to get the most from this platform. So Surojit Mahato’s post was worthy of a save as it explains when best to post. And it’s caused me to wonder whether to change the publication date and time of The Agency Advisory from Monday to Tuesday. It’s a question I’m pondering but thank you Surojit for your post.
Check out the best time to post here:
Solution Focused Thinking – Westofcenter Signs up to Go M.A.D. Licensed Partner Programme
And finally, a little bit of self-promotion (and as referenced in the intro). Many have noticed that I posted a new role last week by signing up to be a licensed partner of @Go M.A.D, a change and transformation consultancy that specialises in enabling leaders and teams to improve results and solve their biggest problems. This partnership gives me use of the Go M.A.D. solutions focused thinking approach and it’s seven proven success principles. I will be using these across my current and future portfolio to help clients overcome the many challenges that limit growth and have an impact on personal and business confidence.
If you’d like to know more, do please get in touch.
If you like what you have read in this newsletter, please do repost it to your network, comment on one or other of the topics that have been covered, and if you don't do so already, follow me for more shared posts on matters relating to agency management and comms in general.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyjhwest/
Many thanks.
Andy