How would you invest $1M in your agency?
Congratulations—you’ve reached the final stretch of the year. If you haven’t already, this is a great time to start crafting your plans for the new year. We know that strategic planning is always important; but in reality, it usually gets less time and attention than it deserves. The good news is you don't need to reinvent the wheel every year! Here's a simple guide to getting started, staying aligned, and prioritizing your focus. Let’s make it easier than ever.
As we enter the new year, I know you have a lengthy to-do list that never stops growing. Allow me to help you focus by asking one simple question:
“If you had $1 million to spend on improving the competitiveness of your agency, how would you spend it?”
I first saw this question posed by former Harvard Business School professor David Maister. When we typically think about strategic planning, we don't put our ideas into action because we exaggerate our resource constraints. These resource constraints inevitably cause analysis paralysis—in other words, we overthink and don't make any action. The goal of this question is to free up your mind and remove resource constraints. Let’s focus your thinking on what must be done, so you can be the agency you say you want to be. Fun fact: I have yet to do this exercise with someone who came up with ideas they couldn't implement immediately.
Back to the question. For this theoretical exercise to actually help with strategic planning, your investment must meet the following criteria:
Cannot be spent on increasing salaries or bonuses for current employees.
Entire amount must be invested within the next 12 months.
Try posing this question at your next leadership team meeting or agency offsite. It's always fun to see how answers differ regarding where the dollars should be invested.
Here's a sample of what I've heard in the past:
Technology upgrades. Your creative team will often request newer computers or bigger monitors.
Business development person. You get excited at the thought of someone being able to spend their entire time focused on generating leads and filling your pipeline.
Project management software. Projects don't move through your system efficiently; therefore, your team recommends changing your PM software to one of the newer tools like Notion.
Training. You've outsourced one too many projects that you'd like to keep in-house. This is a good opportunity to invest in your people and upskill your team.
Paid online ads. Someone on your team (or you) has said these words: "We are the best kept secret in [insert your area of expertise]." To counter this, you think about using the money to increase your awareness via paid ads on Google, LinkedIn, and/or Instagram.
New location. For many agencies, most clients are within 50 miles of their office. The idea is usually that a new location gives you access to new clients. Btw… a lack of geographic diversity on your client roster (unless intentional) is usually a signal of weak positioning.
New services. You've had a new service on your roadmap for the longest time. You believe that once launched, you can increase your appeal to new clients and drive incremental business from current clients.
In all fairness, these ideas are smart and will improve morale out the gate. However, this is not where I recommend you prioritize investment. Remember: this investment should be used to meaningfully differentiate you from competitors. The differentiation should also enable you to charge a premium for your services.
My investment recommendation
If I were in your shoes, I would invest in large-scale research studies on topics of interest to prospective clients. To truly differentiate yourself in the agency space, you must provide insight that prospects cannot get anywhere else. Our industry has too much content that is simply meh, but lacks insight to help clients make better decisions. Having meaningful insight will fuel your thought leadership activities—like speaking at conferences/workshops/webinars/podcasts, submitting articles in trade publications, and publishing content on your website and social media.
Here's the thing. You don't need $1 million to launch a research study. Instead, you can start small and answer questions that keep your clients up at night (e.g., "We surveyed 50 small-to-medium sized businesses in our market, and here's what they told us..."). Once you have your answers, then you'll focus on leveraging the insight into your thought leadership activities. Developing primary research also affords you an opportunity to partner with an industry association or similar relevant organization. These helpful partnerships can provide credibility and—in some cases—offset the costs of the research.