The official blog of Ignition Consulting Group
When you equip clients and prospects with options, you’re not only providing immensely useful decision-making context, you’re also fundamentally altering the dynamics of the agency compensation game. Offering different options changes the dialogue away from “How many hours will this take to “Which of these options would work best?” Showing different combinations of program elements and deliverables keeps the conversation focused on what clients really buy: outputs, not inputs …
Has your firm ever run into a pricing cliff, cascaded off a pricing waterfall, or put up a pricing fence? Chances are, no. That's because pricing in most professional firms like agencies is an oversimplified afterthought that consists of adding up your costs and calling it a price. But in client organizations, pricing is a core competency -- separate from finance -- that navigates through the minefields of pricing psychology to optimize profit margins for their company …
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If you’re like most agencies and other professional firms, you’re likely missing a critical component in the model upon which you have built your business. Here's why having a cost structure is not the same as having a revenue model …
When a talented ad agency transforms the global reputation of a brand through a brilliant marketing program based on unique customer insights, that’s an example of the kind of high-value problem solving professional firms get hired for in the first place. It’s the kind of “magic” that characterizes knowledge work, creative thinking, and professional expertise …
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When sitting face to face with the buyers of your services, remember you’re not just selling the value of the work you create. The value your firm brings to the table is deep and multifaceted. But don’t count on your client to point them out for you …
Knowing the costs of serving your clients is important, but it’s not the same thing as knowing how to price your services. Costing is objective and tactical; pricing is subjective and strategic. Costing uses formulas; pricing requires judgment …
When we walk into a store to purchase a product in a category in which we have no prior experience, how do we make our choice? Mostly, we depend on value signals. The same dynamics apply to evaluating and selecting professional services …
Exceptionally talented professional firms are distinguished not by what they do, but what they believe. Their work is unique because their beliefs are unique. They create dissimilar solutions because they have a dissimilar mindset. In a business context, our paradigm about the business we’re in is the mental map that guides our daily decisions. So having the right paradigm — an accurate map — is essential to effectiveness. No amount of “hard work” will compensate for a faulty field guide …
Take away timesheets, and most agency executives will proclaim the end of the world. But back when agencies were earning average profit margins of 30%, there were no agency timesheets. The fact is, time tracking isn't required for either pricing or resource management …
If your firm uses the term “full service” on its website, here are two good reasons you should stop. First, “full service” is one of the phrases that has officially joined the lexicon of expressions so overused they’ve lost their meaning. And second, because it does absolutely nothing to differentiate your firm from the thousands of others who make the same claim …
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Like all humans, we business executives are subject to what behaviorists call “confirmation bias.” Nowhere is this dynamic displayed more prominently than in professionals’ perception of how well their firm is differentiated from rivals. Just because some competitive differences exist within your company, they really don’t matter if no one else outside of your own board room perceives them. You’re much less differentiated than you think you are …
While no one can predict the future, one thing is abundantly clear regarding what it will take for agencies and other professional services firms to be successful in times to come: we need much more innovation infused into our offerings …
Strengths contribute everything; weaknesses contribute nothing. When we spend all of our energies trying to fix problems, there's no time or energy left over to capitalize on opportunities, which is the real basis of your firm's success …
There’s new money to be made in the agency business, but it lies in the white space of our business model – the unmet needs of today’s marketers. Unfortunately, most firms are too busy selling yesterday’s services to uncover and develop the solutions...
If there's more money being If there’s more money being spent in marketing than ever before, why is average agency income (and agency profit) declining? Let’s count the ways...
