. . . well, let us help you answer it. Before we start, humour me for a minute, imagine you get a new email from a prospect, they have seen the work you have done with one of your clients and want you to help them too.
Now there are two ways to go here; they could mention a client that was difficult to work with, slow to pay, in an industry that was not very interesting and needed to have everything explained to them over and over again. Or, they mention one of your favourite clients who were flexible, open to new ideas, paid on time or even in advance, were in an industry that was interesting and fast moving so there was plenty of content to create, oh and a bonus, you liked working with them. So which would you prefer?
That is agency specialisation in a nutshell - the choice to work with more good fit clients in industries we like who are good people and good customers. It is your agency, so you should be able to choose who you work with (after you get up off the ground).
Sign up for our live webinar on agency specialisation:
Thursday 14th July from 2-3 pm Dublin time.
So how do you decide?
Well, there are a few of simple steps you can take to get you on the right path - there is a full lesson in the HubSpot Academy if you are an agency partner. But if you want to start getting started with where you are today here are 4 steps.
1. Analyse your current customer list
What services do you provide for them, how long do they take, how much do they cost you and how much do you charge? In this exercise, you need to see which of your clients are profitable. The ones you think are “ticking along” are generally the ones that can suddenly not see value in the work that you are doing & the ones that are taking up too much time can be unprofitable for your business. If you want to learn more about how to do this drop me a line - clodagh@growitgroup.com
2. Walk your team through the customer profitability findings and get their input
Who do they like working with and why? What industries are you enjoying working with and are they profitable? Why are specific clients better to work with? Brainstorm together on the services that you provide that are profitable. Start to formulate packages and services for certain industries based on your current clients.
Read more: How to have an agency that you love [Part 1]
3. Who are the personality types you like to work with?
As a team, list the people you love working with and write down all the traits they have as people, are they flexible, available, good communicators? These traits should be the ones you look for in new people that you work with. Over and over again, I hear agency owners say the “had a bad feeling” about working with certain types of clients, listen to your gut - but have an analysis to base it on. Create a checklist of personality traits they need to have in order to work with you, and if they don’t meet a healthy amount of those, then you need to reevaluate.
Case study: Growing your agency - with Growit Group
4. What industries have you all worked in before that you could help as a team
Again brainstorm these ideas, how can you help the people you like to work in the industries you have experience and want to work in. What results have you got before? Making a package around the success factors and the services that are profitable for your agency is the key here.
As I said there are lots of training/blog posts and books etc. on this topic, however if you would like to hear from an experienced agency owner who recently shared his formula for assessing on how he grew his agency 10 x in 3 years then join Perry from Penguin Strategies and us next Thursday 14th at 2-3 pm Dublin time.
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