To grow your advertising agency (or PR, design, digital, etc), start with a professional evaluation.
Take a close look at your chances for success.
We call that professional evaluation a DayOne. Agencies who want to improve go through this process to unleash their real potential. DayOne is a top-to-bottom look at your agency’s strengths and weaknesses including client retention and new business. And from management style and effectiveness to agency organization and structure. Your agency brand is examined. Your staff’s key concerns are identified and highlighted so you can take action.
Advertising Agency Growth.
They had grown to ~50 in staff. They owned most of their region by having the accounts they wanted to win. They were running a good profit. And they had been sitting right where they were for the past 8 years. Something needed to change, and the president knew it. After reading one of our articles on new business, it was a given that he would change his agency. His plan: set up a new business program second to none; and ramp-up the staff skills by implementing a new organizational model. How he was going to do that was not defined. Yet.
The plan we developed together was longer, but the results have been worth it. Adopt an agency vision (focus). Get the agency change ready. Redesign agency processes to drive the structure. Build client-focused teams. Support the redesigned operations with all agency resources. Align your employee programs with the agency’s vision. Ensure that heavy duty training becomes the new norm.
It’s been over a year, and they have a new business system that is starting to generate impressive results. New teams are up and running, following new processes, and supported with newly developed tools, resources, and functions.
Some unexpected problems did show up, and each time the new teams used it as a learning opportunity, taking charge and providing the solution. With each step, each little bit of progress, the agency improved, learning and growing.
Just as any advertiser needs an outside perspective when going though a branding exercise, so must an agency when serious about change. As one president told us “it’s a little like trying to do your own appendectomy; you can do it, but who would want to!”
For more information about a DayOne assessment, contact Sanders Consulting Group at 412.897.9329 or [email protected]. To build the type of agency you want, take this important first step.
