I’m talking with a lot of agency owners who are feeling anxious right now. They’re seeing deals take longer to close at the same time that clients are cutting back or even ending their relationships.
The red “breaking news” chyrons the past few days are matched by a sea of red on the stock market tickers, and that can be unnerving for individuals and businesses alike.
While you shouldn’t be oblivious to these events and stick your head in the sand, you do need to focus on controlling what you can control.
I’ll discuss this more a bit later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
P.S. If you want to talk about how to navigate these times, book a free coaching call with me.
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Latest from SAGA
- Delegation for control freaks: How to let go and trust your team (webinar replay)
Articles & Blog Posts
- Working, Wounded and Weary and Why It Matters (Solo PR Pro)
- How to tell your employees that you’re selling the agency (Sakas and Company)
- Who Actually Owns the Client Relationship? (Bureau of Digital)
- Who wants to hear me complain? (Anchor Advisors)
Podcast Episodes
- Financial Planning for Agency Owners, with Jason Peck (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- Elevate Your Leadership With These 5 Essential Business Stories (Spin Sucks)
- Communicating Tariff Impacts (For Immediate Release)
- How Agencies Can Drive Growth by Farming Existing Clients with Matt Pensinger (The Digital Agency Growth Podcast)
Videos
- Is LinkedIn killing the RFP? (RSW/US)
AI in focus
- Why It’s Time to Advance AI Discussions in PR (That Solo Life)
- Buyer Psychology Meets AI, with Rai Cornell (The Innovative Agency)
- Adam Nathan, Blaze.ai – AI for Agencies (Agency Bytes)
- Terms and Conditions Apply: What You Need to Know About AI Platform Terms (Legal + Creative)
Control what you can control
It can be tough to turn on the news these days. We’re being inundated with talk of conflict and economic uncertainty.
That kind of environment rarely lends itself to helping agency business development and growth.
And that’s borne out by the agency owners I’m talking with who have clients hitting pause, cutting back, or even cancelling.
At the same time, pipelines are slowing down again.
That leads to agency leaders worrying about cash flow and profit margins.
It can all feel a bit overwhelming.
With all the uncertainty, we need to focus on what we can control rather than worrying excessively about what we can’t.
What does that look like for agencies?
You need to continue to focus on having meaningful conversations with prospective clients and potential referral partners.
You need to tune in to the concerns your team might have and tackle those head on — even when it may be uncomfortable.
You need to evaluate all of your client work to see what needs tweaking or tuning to be more responsive to the current environment in order to get them the results that they need.
Most importantly, you can’t turtle and wait for the storm to pass.
If things have already started slowing down for your agency, ask yourself if you can redeploy your team’s time to drive more growth conversations (because there are still clients and projects out there for everyone).
Evaluate your cash flow and if you see real problems on the horizon, don’t wait to act by making cuts — no matter how painful they may be. The longer you wait, the greater the pain for everyone.
If your agency isn’t seeing any impact right now, then recommit yourself to business development efforts because when things are going well it is easiest to slack — and then be in a tough spot when an eventual dip appears.
When you hear the breaking news sound effects and see the animations on your screen, it’s easy to feel a bit paralyzed as a business owner.
But by focusing on the things that you can control — which usually isn’t the breaking news — you put your agency and your team on a better path while making it a bit easier to manage through the uncertainty.
