The official blog of Ignition Consulting Group
If discussions about agency compensation seem like a circular conversation, it’s because most firms are debating the wrong thing. Clients will always try to steer the discourse to focus on cost. Your job is to present and defend the value you’re creating for your client’s business …
Grow or die. It's embedded in the capitalist psyche. But is there such a thing as "bad" growth? Or more to the point, "bad" profit? The answer is yes, and many companies -- including professional service firms -- are engaged in a short-sighted harvesting strategy that yields revenues in the current year but fails to plant the seed corn to produce profit pools in the years to come …
Should you aim high or low when a client asks you to “guesstimate” the price of a project? Most of us know the answer to this question, and it’s thanks to the world of behavioral economics that we have insights into the principles of pricing psychology. Decades of study and experimentation in behavioral economics have produced a set of immensely useful guidelines that can help professional service firms get paid what they’re worth …
If you want the attention of an agency leader, manager, or department head, you’ll have to wait until they get a break in the action from the latest new business pitch. In agencies of all types and sizes, new business presentations are all-consuming. As a speculative investment, new business is always a gamble. But an even bigger problem is the misdirection and misallocation of agency talent spurred by the new business process …
Economists dating back to Adam Smith have taught that people don’t buy products or services, they buy the “utility” the product or service creates in their lives. It’s both ironic and unfortunate that agencies have fallen into the bad habit of selling the means to the end (hours and activities) rather than the end itself …
Advertising agencies are facing competition from every dimension and direction. Upstream, they complete with marketing consultancies and brand strategy firms who seek to provide planning and strategy services to marketers. Downstream are production companies, independent freelancers, and even media companies who now aim to not just sell media but produce content. Traditional agencies are arguably in the worst place of all – right in the middle …
Has your firm turned the corner on agency compensation? Many agency executives insist they have, pointing to the fact they have negotiated better hourly rates, better retainers, or better terms on cost-plus remuneration agreements. The problem, of course, is that they are simply getting better and better at doing the wrong thing …
When describing your firm to a prospective client, it’s easy (and arguably lazy) to run down a list of all the things you do. But do you have the ability and willingness to say what you don’t do; the services you don’t offer and the markets you don’t serve? You can claim to have a focused business strategy only if you’re able to describe what your strategy is not …
The gravest sin committed by marketing communications professionals is their tenacious tendency to sell services instead of solutions. A bullet point list of capabilities is hardly the most effective way to frame the value you create for your clients. These generic service descriptions are worse than useless; they project a certain kind of naivety …
There is a cardinal belief in professional services that our inventory is not parts, but people. If that’s true, professional firms are facing unprecedented inventory shortages. Competition for the best people has always been fierce, but is now intensified by the economic impact of a global pandemic. The roots of the current talent war actually go back decades — especially for agencies — thanks to the devastating consequences of agency remuneration structures. A business model that bills for employee time can’t possibly compete with other companies that are looking to hire the same caliber talent …
Imagine a work environment in which you are judged solely by your effectiveness. Not by how many emails you answered, how many online meetings you attended, or how many hours you logged on a timesheet. In a world where only effectiveness matters, you’re have all the incentives you need to focus on the most important emails, participate in the most critical meetings, and execute the most essential tasks. Trivial pursuits are much less of a temptation, because distractions seriously erode your ability to produce results …
By definition, “average” means the center of the bell curve — the place where most people and companies live. Average isn’t always a bad thing, such as average life expectancy. But in the realm of business strategy, average can be lethal. The interesting work in any field isn't happening in the middle, but at the edges …
While advertising agencies are famous for innovating on behalf of their clients, only rarely are they recognized for applying original thinking to their own business model. At the root of this enigma is the belief among agency executives that they are in the service business. True, agencies provide specific services in response to specific client needs. The problem is the mindset; the “client service” mentality that centers on responding to client requests instead of proactively solving client problems …
Dutifully filling scopes of work for clients is "thin value." You're doing what's asked, meeting your deadlines, and staying within budget. “Thick value” is created when we help our clients explore and answer the question "What is possible?" Instead of just helping them meet their needs today, we're helping them define and develop what they should be doing tomorrow …
ake a close look at your standard pitch deck, the “about us” section of your website, or your new business materials. Highlight every instance of words like “leading,” “excellence,” and “innovative.” Claims of leadership, quality, and excellence have all lost their meaning, not only because they’re ordinary terms but because so many companies have used — and misused — these expressions over the last century of business history. In professional services, there is a clear “top 10” when it comes to pointless claims …
