Tag: #marketingconsultants

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How to Grow Business Organically

New business gets attention. It’s obvious when you win and depending on the size, it can lead to getting press coverage. But, in a lot of cases, organic growth can have a bigger impact on the agency. Organic growth is a testament to the strength of the existing client relationship and validates their satisfaction with the agency’s performance. But getting organic business can be tricky. Below is an overview of organic growth and 10 keys to acquiring organic business:

What is organic growth?

Organic growth is any business that is added to an existing account. It can come in many different forms – adding a different line of business, a new channel (e.g., website or CRM) or department (e.g., media or production). It varies in size and effort.

10 Keys to Acquiring Organic Growth

  1. Create a Strong Foundation.

It starts with a solid foundation. If you don’t have it, the chance of growth is extremely low. The team has to be delivering strong work and have a solid client relationship to grow.

2. Share Capabilities.

Make sure clients know the full breadth and depth of the agency’s offering. In a lot of cases, clients don’t realize you have experience and capabilities outside of what you do for them. You need to be proactive and weave these additional core competencies into your day-to-day discussions with clients.

3. Share Latest Agency News.

It’s human nature to want to work with companies that are trending upwards. Companies that are doing well and are growing. Make sure to share regularly your agency news, such as client wins, new and relevant case studies, and new initiatives that the client might be interested in. A couple of ways to do this is through a monthly agency email that is specifically for clients and agency leadership check-ins with the client.

4. Understand the Client’s Entire Business.

Led by the client service team, develop a strong understanding of the client’s entire business, including outside of the business that you currently work on. What are their pain points? How is their relationship with other partners? What are their future objectives? What other service lines could use more support? The key is listening to help identify the opportunity.

5. Develop an Action Plan.

Based on what you’ve learned, develop an action plan that leverages what you’ve learned. This action plan is to include what you are trying to solve, potential solution(s), resources and effort needed, and potential timing. This is the framework that sets the stage for creating a custom solution.

From an agency standpoint, it’s helpful to challenge all client leaders to do this yearly, potentially including in annual planning.

6. Go for the Ask.

Asking for new opportunities can be awkward. Timing is critical. It helps when you are coming off something positive such as a great meeting. Must convey you have a solution to one of their problems, that it won’t interfere with the work that you are currently doing for the client and ask to be able to share your thoughts.

7. Develop Solution.

Organic growth can put your reputation at risk if you don’t develop a strong solution. It’s opening the door to other team members/resources that don’t work on the business today. Team leads must be confident that these additional resources are good, would be a great fit with this client and have the ability to continue the momentum that is already established.

Once you seed the idea and the client is open to hearing more, the next step is developing the solution. The solution should be grounded in:

  • Addressing the pain point/opportunity previously discussed.
  • Knowledge of the business as you know their business better than anyone.
  • Share the efficiencies that can be gained by acquiring more business.
  • Reassure clients it won’t hurt the existing business.

8. Share Solution.

Determine when it’s appropriate to discuss the solution with the client. This could be when you’re planning for the upcoming year. Usually, it’s best to have the existing leader of the team be the key figure in the presentation, supported by the leader of the business that is trying to be added. For example, if you are trying to grow by adding internal studio production work, you would have your client leader and the production lead be the central figures in the presentation.

9. The Journey.

Hopefully, you made a solid impression. Most likely the journey to get organic growth doesn’t end here. There are probably future steps like presentations with other clients or potentially the client deciding to create a formal pitch. The key is to continue to strengthen your solution as the client gets closer to awarding you the business.

10. Seamless Onboarding.

The onboarding process should be simpler than new business since you already know so much about the client. The leader of the business that is being added (e.g., in the example above would be the production leader) is to spearhead the onboarding process. The account leader should be kept informed of progress, help establish relationships, ensure the efficiencies are taking place, and doesn’t negatively impact the existing business.

And don’t forget to celebrate the win. Although not as glamorous as a traditional new business win, a lot of work goes into organic growth and the opportunity can be the same. So it should be celebrated the same. Good luck!

If you have any questions on organic growth or need any support, please feel free to contact brianphelps10@gmail.com

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Agency Operations: Overview

Overview: Operations is a personal passion of mine. I’m not sure if it’s due to starting in engineering before switching to marketing early in my career. Or maybe it’s due to living in the automotive capital and learning about the assembly line (patented in 1901 by Ransom Olds; first moving assembly line for the Ford Model T in 1913) at a young age. But I have always enjoyed mapping out the optimal way to do something and then working on continuously improving it. I take this mantra when framing up agency operations.

To some, agency operations sounds like a vague term and doesn’t feel like a real thing. One challenge is that it doesn’t neatly fall within one of the primary five agency departments: strategy, creative, account, media, and production. But agency operations are truly key and should be engrained within the agency culture.

Below are my thoughts on why operations matter and its key components:

Why Agency Operations:

The importance of operations continues to grow, driven by:

  • Financials: client budgets continue to decrease while having increasing expectations for efficiencies and discounts.
  • Competition: the amount of competitors continues to increase with consultants, specialized agencies and in-house agencies growing in popularity.
  • Projects: continued decrease use of the AOR model with more clients choosing to do project work and jump balls.
  • Speed: the space has always required agencies to move quickly but the growth of real-time communication it’s even more important.

What are the Benefits:

Operations should increase “efficiencies”. The value can be seen in several forms – increasing the profitability of the agency / projects, improve the speed of projects, and decreasing the overall pain of getting work done by eliminating inefficiencies and thereby improving overall agency morale.

Who is responsible for Agency Operations:

It really should be a shared responsibility across the entire agency. But without a dedicated focus of having a team oversee, it can fall through the cracks. Some agencies dedicate a separate group, usually laddering up from within production or account groups. Having a non-biased lead that is focused on what’s best for the agency will have best results.

What makes up Agency Operations:

Below is what I feel are the primary components of agency operations:

  • Processes: Documenting how the work actually gets done. This includes reviewing the existing workflows by channel and capturing the process. Once defined, collaborate and determine if there are ways to improve. Then ensure that the process is top of mind for team members and embedded into the training curriculum for the agency.
  • Tools and Technology: Analysis of each tool and technology that is being used within the agency. This is wide-ranging including internal and external tools: routing, copy edit, and communication tools to servers, team computers, and asset sharing technology. Need to evaluate if they are helping the team as much as possible, understand the competitive set to see if other options are better and stay abreast of the latest updates/new functionality of the existing tools and technology.
  • Resource Management: this area overlaps with human resources and finance and includes:
    • Organizational structure: Is the way the agency is structured preventing it to be as efficient as possible. How can it be improved?
    • Financial modeling: project analysis that reviews the volume of resources used and effectiveness.
    • Training: What is being done to help existing workforce continuously improve.
    • Analysis of existing employees: A transparent review of the current workforce through the lens of operations. Do they have an operations mindset?
  • Infrastructure: This includes the physical space of the agency – from the building itself to the employee work stations and even bathrooms.

So that’s a high level overview of operations. Next up is what are they key learnings of doing agency operations.

If you or someone you know is looking for operations support, feel free to reach out at brianphelps10@gmail.com.

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Top 8 Learnings of Working Remotely

I’ve turned into a coffee drinker (if you consider hot skinny venti vanilla lattes coffee….). I never thought it would happen. But working remotely, bouncing from client to client, I find myself working out of coffee shops, mostly Starbucks, and drinking coffee.

And I’m not alone. The amount of people working remotely is higher than ever before. One major factor is the “gig economy”, defined as a labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. Intuit predicts that by next year, 43% of the American workforce will be attributed to the gig economy.

The benefits of working out of coffee shops are high, including the noise helping be more creative, escaping day-to-day distractions being able to focus more, and the rub off effect of seeing others there working hard.

So now being a coffee aficionado and spending a lot of time at Starbucks, below are my top 8 learnings:

Store Layout

Just like types of drinks, there are a ton of different store layouts. Seems like every location is just a little different, which is a good thing. Explore to find which one you prefer best (large/small/narrow, etc.). Given the diversity, I like to rotate between different locations.

Use the App

The Starbucks app is fantastic. As a loyalty member, you get free drinks/food once you hit a certain threshold. It also helps speed up the ordering process. I haven’t attempted to use the pre-order functionality, preferring to order from a human.

Dress Warm

Even in the summer, plan to bring a sweatshirt. They kick up the air conditioner, which they say is due to helping prevent the employees from getting overheated. Be prepared.

Comfortable Seating

All about personal preference but most have several different options for what type of seat/table to work in. The key is finding one that you like as you’ll be there for awhile. Really nice are the tall bar seating along the window.

Power Up

Another key is finding a great location that is near power cords. Kind of amazing that more table locations don’t have accessibility to outlets.

Stretch

Make sure to walk around and stretch your legs. Don’t recommend longer than about four hours at one time.

No Conference Calls

Don’t be that person. If you need to take or make a call, go outside. Or go sit in your car. No one wants to hear your conference call.

People

You never know who you will run into. A lot of great people work there. Able to choose to converse with others or tune out with ear buds.

Yesterday at a local Starbucks while waiting for a client meeting to start, I looked up and someone was talking to me, saying “Yea, I’m homeless“. Not sure what to say to that, just uttered ok. Obviously down on her luck. Ended up getting a gift card that said “You’re Awesome” and then had an employee give it to her after as I left. Hopefully it helped make her day a little better.

So each day is different. Different environments. Different experiences. Enjoy!

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Developing a Client Portfolio Strategy

All clients are important. They should be made a priority, respected and given 100% effort to help them solve their business problem(s).

Each client is different. Maybe they’re focused on consumer communications. Or B2B. Maybe they’re looking for more strategic help or creative or having a production focus. Some have smaller budgets and some larger. Some are focused on blocking and tackling deliverables and some on winning awards. Much too often a one size fits all treatment is used by agencies. The agency solution must be customized to each client’s needs. These differences should be a consideration when building and managing an agency.

Another consideration is diversification. In today’s climate, the importance of diversifying continues to grow. With the average client relationship lengths decreasing, in-house studios growing and total budgets shrinking, having a diverse client set of clients to mitigate the risk of loss is important.

One way to view diversification is by looking at the agency client roster as a portfolio, just like the stock market. We all took an introductory finance class that talked about putting stocks into four categories:

  • RISING STARS:
    High market share in a
    growth market
  • QUESTION MARKS:
    Low market share in a
    growth market
  • DOGS:
    Low market share in a
    slowing market
  • CASH COWS:
    High market share in a slowing market

The same approach can be used for analyzing your client roster: 

  • STARS: established clients that want/expect award-winning, breakthrough work. Ability to create great work to propel them upwards.
  • COWS: stable clients that have a large volume of work, potentially needing blocking/tackling support and where the ability to do breakthrough work is less common. They are a known brand and are of good size.
  • QUESTION MARKS: less established clients that with breakthrough work, could springboard their business to become well-known. 
  • DOGS:  hopefully you don’t have any of these but it could be a relationship that is trending the wrong way. Or there aren’t a lot of opportunities.

So to develop a client portfolio strategy:

  1. For each client, determine which bucket they fit into. Be transparent/realistic.
  2. Once done, look at how diversified your offering is as across the total agency. 
  3. Determine where there are gaps (in general, it’s good to have a few in each of the main three categories).

This strategy can help you manage your resources and agency effort, as well as when tied in with your new business strategy, help identify areas of growth.

So, what does your agency’s client portfolio look like? 

For more marketing thoughts, please see my blog at: brianphelpsconsulting.com/passion

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Are you a “Specialist” or a “Hybrid”?

We have been trained to think we must be specialized in something. To focus all our energies. Because the belief is, to excel you must have a singular focus. Even at a young age. Look at athletics. Kids are told to choose a sport rather than enjoy multiple. 100% focus on baseball rather than enjoying other sports like football, tennis, and soccer. Or to specialize in one instrument rather than experiencing and enjoying a range of instruments.

The same is true in the workplace. Are you an account person or strategist? Business or creative? Art director or writer? So that the goal is you can do that function over and over again and excel at it through repetition. And thereby make more money.

Well, it’s a myth. Empirical evidence shows that “hybrids” or “generalists” (a term that itself is poor, giving the feeling you are an expert in nothing) are stronger, better for organizations, and will be more successful. They’re more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see. 

A great new book and one on the #1 on the New York Times Best Seller’s list dives deep into the power of hybrids, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, and details the inaccurate stereotypes. 

Taking it a step further, with AI and the power of machines, specialists will be replaced by automation, making the need to have deep generalists only continuing to increase.

We are starting to see the growth of hybrids being recognized as a positive in the advertising industry. One tangible example is the “growth” of Chief Growth Officer. Adweek recently discussed this role, as the name implies, to drive growth—but in ways that serve internal functions (build cross-functional teams) and external (keeping an eye on customer demand; what does the consumer want from us?).

As you probably can tell I am a big fan of hybrids. I’m a little biased as I consider myself a hybrid, having played different roles throughout my career – from account to operations, new business, and strategy. Knowing and excelling in a wide range of areas, in my opinion, is critical to having a successful team, especially in a leadership position. This way you understand what it takes and you should have more empathy towards the team members who do the work.

However, I’m not completely dismissing the role of specialists. I think they have value, with the key being developing a ratio/balance of hybrids and specialists for the greatest success. For example, 70% hybrid with 30% specializing in specific tasks, like SEO, etc.

From an efficiency standpoint, it’s also better having one person that is can do more topics rather than having to pay for several people.

So the questions for you is: are you a specialist or hybrid? Do you agree in the power hybrids? And what is the ratio across your team?

Check out more business thoughts at: brianphelpsconsulting.com/passion

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The Journey: Top 10 learnings from starting a small business.

Starting this journey a few months ago has been a roller coaster – fun, challenging, had its up and downs and a little scary. I’ve enjoyed the flexibility and the ability to carve out my own path. In this short amount of time, I’ve learned a lot on this journey, including:

Crazy hard. 

I have always been impressed and admired those who have had the courage, confidence, and determination to go out on their own. Especially those whose hard work pays off and can create something successful and impactful. 

Unlike large organizations, it’s all on you to create success. Given this, it’s a ton of work. The amount of foundational work at the point of creating is high. and includes LLC creation, tax info, branding, templates, and platforms like your site, etc.

Three paths.

A key is being able to multitask – juggling building a brand, working on initial client business, and prospecting for new business to continue to grow. Each one is critically important. If fortunate, you have to do in parallel.

It’s always important to have each touchpoint be strong but crucial when starting out. Each one is setting a tone for things to come.

People business.

I have always had the opinion that relationships matter. Your network. Understanding who is great already so you know who to leverage when you need help. And you’ll need help. 

But I’ve never really invested the time for connections as much as I should have. Networking, conferences, etc. Something that I’ve learned matters and focused on doing in the future.

Smile more. 

Studies show the power of smiling. People want to interact and spend time with people that smile. Yea. Ha. I’m a pretty even keel person and don’t show emotions. This serves as a nice reminder to pump up the energy and emotions. 

Continuously learning.

Starting something brand new there are a ton of unknowns. Leverage online tools, networks, and LinkedIn to continuously learn.

LinkedIn has some great training in their LinkedIn Learning series. They are easy to do and pretty quick. I recommend downloading the app and carving a little time throughout the week to continue to improve yourself. Here’s an example that ties into smiling…https://www.linkedin.com/learning/creating-great-first-impressions/your-first-impression-challenge

Financial game plan.

Not a ton of fun, but having a financial game plan is crucial. Work with an account and financial advisor that you trust to make sure the foundation is strong. Also, make sure you have contracts with those that you pull in. I’ve learned this one the hard way.

The small things.

Don’t let being “busy” be an excuse to not do the little things. The term busy is I think a trap. It’s an out to not do things you should do. Send a note back to someone who reaches out of the blue. Go to coffee with an old acquaintance. Reply to an email, even if just a couple of words. Help someone that could use it. Carve out time to make these things happen. I was pretty bad at this.

Templates

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Leverage the templates/content sources that are out there that you can customize. And wow, are there a ton. Test them out and see what you like best. Then document which ones you like. Here are a few of my favorites:

Envato: templates for designing everything from presentations in keynote to designing communications.

Graphic River: more templates and can purchase one-off.

Unsplash: stock photography that you don’t have image issues and is free.

Are you a Tiger or a Roger?

There’s a great book called Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Everyone knows Tiger Woods’ story. Child golf prodigy when most kids are learning how to talk and walk. But did you know that arguably the greatest tennis player that ever lived grew up playing multiple sports, focusing much later on tennis?

Most think the best route in life is to specialize in something. This book contradicts this opinion and outlines why being a generalist/hybrid is a better path. So the question is, which one are you? I’ve figured out that I’m a hybrid.

Determined.

So it’s early. Still learning and enjoying the journey. The key is staying determined and focused. For those out there doing the same, congrats and best of luck.

If you want any advice or need any marketing support that leverage this learning, visit: https://brianphelpsconsulting.com/contact/

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Leadership: the Anti-CEO Playbook.

We’ve all seen TED Talks. There’s a lot of them. But I recommend taking less than 18 minutes to watch the founder of Chobani Hamdi Ulukaya’s talk on leadership.

CEOs play an instrumental role in business. They set the tone for the ship. The term Anti-CEO is, in my opinion, is a little drastic but his story and points are compelling.

Grounded in the American dream, he created a billion dollar company by starting with an abandoned yogurt factory, and led by four key principles: Grattitude, Community, Responsibility & Accountability:

Grattitude:

Businesses should take care of their employees first. Not the balance sheet or shareholders.

Community:

Ask what you can do for your community rather than what your community can do for you.

Responsibility:

Businesses must take a side in politics. Touchy topic in today’s climate. But agree that businesses can have a huge impact on our world.

Accountability:

CEO reports to the community. Everyone is empowered to make change. And consumers should reward those businesses that are doing it right.

His recap is spot on:

  • Right with people.
  • Right with community. 
  • Right with product.
  • You will be more profitable. More innovative. More passionate people and you will have a community that supports you. 

Already a fan of the product, knowing who is at the wheel and their story, will remind me which yogurt I should grab next time at the store.

For more leadership ideas, feel free to contact Brian Phelps Consulting: https://brianphelpsconsulting.com/contact/

References: thanks to TED Talks for use. https://www.ted.com/#/

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Leadership: The Power of “We”

“The ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team.” – Lewis B. Ergen

The smallest words can have a huge impact on a team, both directly and indirectly. This includes using “we” as a replacement to the term “I” in your daily vocabulary. Harvard Business Journal published a great article about the power of “we”. It cites research from Journal of Language and Social Psychology and finds:

  • When people feel insecure, self-aware, or diminished, they are more likely to focus their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors inward.
  • By contrast, the researchers theorized that individuals using first-person plural and second-person (such as “we,” “us,” or “you”) ought to demonstrate an outward focus, considering the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others.
  • Individuals with lower status overwhelmingly tended to use first-person singular pronouns (“I”).
  •  Likewise, higher status individuals used significantly more first-person plural (“we”) pronouns. 
  • While switching from singular “I” to the plural “we” it might help shift your perspective from self-focused to others-focused, make you more aware of the needs of others and, as you work to meet those needs, might just make you a better leader.

It’s hard to get used to doing because it sounds a little strange but has a lot of collective benefits:

  • Communicates that you understand that you’re a part of team
  • Gives credit to the broader team
  • Reinforces that you are not more important than the team
  • Shows that you are secure with your role in the team

For all leaders, I recommend the use of we in your daily vinocular. This is especially true for account team leads as you are tasked to be the voice of the collective team, both internally and with clients. Below are a few examples of singular-focused uses and suggestions for you to use moving forward:

  • “my client” vs. “our client”
  • “my POV” vs. “our POV”
  • “my account” vs. “our account”
  • “I did” vs. “we did”
  • “I need” vs. “we need”
  • “if you have questions, let me know” vs. “if you have questions, let us know”
  • “my opinion” vs. “our opinion”

Side note: you can never have enough good quotes in advertising, especially as you build presentations. Below are a few other teamwork quotes that I like:

  • “Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs
  • “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
  • “A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of others.” – Norman Shidle 
  • “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” – Reid Hoffman
  • “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry Truman

For more leadership advice or formal training for your team, feel free to reach out to: brianphelpsconsulting.com.

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Traditional agency vs. in-house agency

Interesting to observe clients bringing their advertising development in-house. Based on my experience, agree with Digiday’s analysis below regarding the pros/cons. But I believe there are three keys to success:

1. Passion: Being able to replicate the agency’s tenacity to deliver. Agencies bend over backwards to deliver on behalf of clients. The key is matching this passion to deliver when it’s done by co-workers rather than a partner.

2. Talent: ability to recruit diverse creative talent to work in-house and breakaway from agency background.

3. Management: having excellent oversight that helps inspire, prioritize and provides new and innovative opportunities to continuously stay driven.

Per Digiday article:

https://digiday.com/marketing/moving-marketing-house-control-speed-not-worth-hassle/

For in-house:

  • Greater speed and efficiency
  • Reduced costs
  • Control

Against in-house:

  • Talent doesn’t want to work on just one brand
  • Media buying is time consuming
  • Agency have more insights
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