At The Agency Collective, we have worked with thousands of agency owners, helping them run better businesses. Several agencies in and around Manchester have grown significantly as a result of implementing what we share at our events. Most notably, Blueleaf (who recently was acquired).
For years we tried to identify why some agencies excel so much quicker than others, while some just flat-line and never grow, despite all effort to do so.
Now we know!
The three correlations we discovered amongst the top-performing agencies:
The Founder: Their knowledge and ability to grow the business
Niche specialism: Full focus on either an industry niche, skill niche or both
Financial acumen: Having the tools in place to run a profitable agency
Data shows that highly specialised agencies (sub £5M turnover) are more profitable and grow quicker than those who are generalist agencies.
The challenges generalist and specialist agencies face
Generalists
There are many reasons why agency owners do not take the step towards a niche or are unable to implement it successfully. Some of them are:
- Not knowing which niche to enter
- Not having a portfolio
- Letting go of revenue sources that currently keep the lights on
- How and when to fully transition
Because of this, most agencies opt for saying 'yes' to everything in the hope that it will generate enough money to make it through another month. While the ones who say 'no', excel and grow significantly quicker.
Specialists
There are also many reasons why specialists don't progress further:
- Hitting a ceiling in the market
- Finding enough talent that have the domain expertise
- Scaling beyond the founder
Things you will take away from this event
This talk is relevant for agencies that want to become a niche specialist, as well as those that are looking to take their existing specialism to the next level.
Here's what you'll discover:
+ What excellence looks like and what these successful agencies do differently to the rest
+ Techniques to get you more of the clients you really want, with bigger budgets
+ How and when to transition from your existing position in the market to your new niche specialism
+ Leadership methods to lead your team to success in a particular niche or skill specialism
+ How to scale your specialism, taking your agency to the next level
Peer knowledge and partnerships
Beyond the talk on the night, we'll help you connect with other agency owners. You'll meet agencies who have already experienced some of your challenges and can give you tips, while others will have complimentary services and will be suitable to partner with.
Even if you are not a natural networker (name us a person who truly is???), we’ve learnt over the years to make the experience enjoyable. Everyone is welcoming and helpful.
About the speaker
Daniel de la Cruz is one of the partners at The Agency Collective. Having run his own agency in the past, he really understands what you go through every day. He’s spoken to over 3,000 agencies and has seen almost all the reasons why some agencies fail and others succeed.
Here is a previous talk, Daniel did about what he learnt about new business from speaking to all of these agencies. It will give you a good idea what to expect: https://vimeo.com/271093639/e0c09ab083