Bob Weissman, Your Agency Specialist Consultant

3 Agency Growth Strategies To Get You To 20% Growth

By on June 20, 2014 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Is Your Agency Growing At a Rate of 20%? Could It Be?

Here are three agency growth strategies that can get you there:[list style=”Check1red”]

  • Organic Growth
  • Partnering for Growth
  • Mergers & Acquisitions for Growth

I’ll cover each of these agency growth strategies in this brief overview. For many agencies it is not choosing just one path but perhaps a combination. And in the following series of posts, I’ll come back around and dig a little deeper into each of these three in more detail.

Organic Agency Growth Strategies

Here’s where you work from within and do it yourself. With this approach there is a heavy emphasis on building strong People Strategies that insure success. Clearly, this is can be the least expensive option in terms of actual dollar investment. But, it could well be your most expensive option in terms of time to return on your investment of resources.

When taking the organic growth route, you are building internal teams (which is risky), developing your internal capabilities, and you’re continually improving your services from within your agency.

Partnering For Agency Growth

In this day and age, you’ll grow faster by being a specialist than being a generalist. Your agency should look to FOCUS – specialize. What works is narrow, not broad. Standing for everything is the same as standing for nothing.

The challenge may be, your client would really like one-stop shopping rather than doing the hard work of cobbling together a team across four or five different specialist agencies. How can you retain specialist status AND deliver the full spectrum of services your client needs? Focus on what you do best and find strategic alliances for the rest.

Partnering for growth is your best option here.

Keep your focus on the specialty services you are best positioned to deliver, but pull together a team on behalf of your client. And now function as a general contractor so that you retain control as the point of contact with your client. Deliver the full spectrum of what the project requires by providing seamless integration with your subcontractors.

The Pro is that you stay specialized AND provide a range of capabilities. You position yourself as the “Go-To” resource no matter what the client needs.

The Con is that you have to create enough margin in your fee structure and that of your partners to remain profitable. You also have to have strong processes in managing the engagement and all the personalities between the client and your partners.

Mergers & Acquisitions for Agency Growth

This strategic approach, involves combining capabilities with others to deliver significant value for the client and greater profitability for you.

The greatest advantage is speed, time to market. Rather than organically developing new skills from within, or establishing and coordinating projects with partners, you merge with those partners into a larger entity. Oftentimes this kind of relationship begins with partnering (dating).

The problem is that this requires the financial resources to make this kind of deal work. And, one of the greatest barrier to success tends to be dealing with the egos of the principals. Who is acquiring whom, can I work with or for someone else? And what is the new role the various players are to play? Can the various parties cooperate and compromise? And of course, there are valuation issues to consider and integration of processes.

Which Is The Best Strategy For You?

In over 10 years of consulting, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide range of agencies, 50+, as they’ve moved through all three of these forms of growth. As an agency specialist, I’m uniquely qualified to help you understand the pros and cons of each approach as applied to your highly specific circumstances.

In the next series of three blog posts and videos, I’ll walk you through each of these agency growth strategies in more detail. So make sure you get on my email notification list using the form in the right hand column on this page.

And if you’d like to have a personal chat about how your agency is dealing with growth (or the lack thereof) then please contact me directly. I’d be happy to provide you with a free consultation.

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About the Author

About the Author: Bob Weissman has consulted with more than 50 marketing, advertising, PR, and technology agencies. He's helped them develop an agency growth strategy targeting a 20% minimum growth rate. He is a board member of the Philadelphia Ad Club and has been a consultant with the AAAAs and Ben Franklin Technology Partners. .

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