How to Grow Your Agency by 20% Overnight - 5 Ways to Assess Current Clients for Growth Opportunities

In the category of things you might intuitively know until an actual assessment reveals some surprises . . . When was the last time you sat down to strategically assess the growth potential of your current clients? 

No, we’re not talking about that client on the lowest possible package retainer who nickels and dimes you every time you come up with a great idea to bring him more leads.

And no doubt you’ve got a plan to expand into any enterprise client orgs where you’re only working with one department, right? Right?!

But what about the middling client accounts? The ones that bring you a decent number of projects every year, but haven’t pushed out the boat. Or the ones that are buying a couple of your most popular services, but it seems like there could be more? When did you and the account manager last intentionally review the account? 

Remember, growing current accounts is the fastest, most profitable way to grow your agency. Perhaps not overnight, but more quickly and easily than any other growth strategy. 

Your clients already know and trust you. Hopefully they like you too! That’s a fast track to a more robust bottom line. 

The Cheatsheet for Assessing Current Client Accounts for Growth Potential

1. Big Picture - Market and Economy

• Is the client in a growth industry? 

• Are there any unique or upcoming challenges faced by your client or his/her industry that your work can help address? 

2. Client Specific

• Is the client hiring? Top or bottom level positions? 

• What proportion of the client’s marketing budget are you managing? 

• Do you know the ratio of your client’s marketing spend to total revenue? Would investing more help them achieve their goals faster or better? 

• What other agencies is your client working with? Does it make sense for your client to transfer any of that to you? Why? 

3. Current Results - Maximizing Value

• Are there obvious ways you could provide superior results with just a little more investment? Can you provide that in a visual?

• What does the data say? 

4. Future Success - Client Trajectory

• What are your client’s goals for the next year? Three years? Five years? 

• Are they growing market share? 

• Looking to acquire? Be acquired?

• Changing positioning? 

• Expanding into new markets?

• Has the client mentioned anything in passing that you could support? 

5. Innovation

• Have you had any shower thoughts that would support this client even further? 

• Do you have any new products or services that would further support this client?  

How Often Should you Strategically Review Client Accounts?  

I know, I know. You’re talking with the account team about each client on a weekly basis. Do you really need to add yet another meeting to discuss each client account? Yes, actually. You should be baking a strategic account review into your operational plans at least annually, possibly even quarterly.

It’s absolutely essential four to six months ahead of when you know your client is building budgets for the following year. You know your clients’ fiscal year end dates, right? 

Because project updates don’t uncover account growth opportunities nor what you need to be doing to ensure that any opportunities to further support this client come to you and not someone else. 

This is easy growth for you and your clients. Why wouldn’t you make this part of your regular planning?