As agency owners, we have a tendency to love falling in love.
With prospects, that is. (Don’t worry, I’m not turning this into a life coaching or personal therapy newsletter.)
I’ll explore this thought more a little later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s look at other insights I have shared along with Jen’s usual roundup of useful resources.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Latest from SAGA
STOP GAMING THE ALGORITHM. BUILD A PROFILE THAT ACTUALLY WORKS. LinkedIn rebuilt its feed from the ground up, and most of the old advice is now wrong. The biggest shift: your profile now directly affects who sees your posts. A thin or vague profile doesn’t just undersell you to humans — it limits your distribution. Using Trust Insights’ Q1 2026 Unofficial LinkedIn Algorithm Guide, I broke down what the new algorithm actually means for agency owners and what’s worth changing.
THE BRIEF COMES BEFORE THE PROMPT. If your team can’t describe your process clearly enough to prompt an AI tool, the problem isn’t the tool. In this week’s SAGA Signals AI Brief, I look at the practices that need to be in place before prompting — including why bad AI output is usually a brief problem in disguise.
HIRE FOR THIS OR REGRET IT LATER. Most hiring processes obsess over tool proficiency while ignoring the one thing you can’t train: the ability to solve problems independently. In the latest Agency Leadership Podcast episode, Gini and I dig into why problem-solving ability should be the primary hiring criterion — and why it matters even more as AI handles an increasing amount of tactical work.
Jen’s Weekly Roundup
There’s a conflict that shows up in this week’s agency content: the pull toward the shiny and new versus mastering what you already have. Whether it’s AI agents, productized services, or smarter pitching, the advice is consistent even when the topics aren’t. Doing more things rarely beats doing fewer things better.
WHAT CAUGHT OUR EYE THIS WEEK:
THE CASE FOR DOING LESS — Jody Sutter offers a three-part marketing plan for agencies that resists the urge to do everything at once, and David C. Baker at Punctuation makes the case for dipping your toe into productization rather than overhauling your service model overnight. Restraint is a strategy, not a limitation.
AI IS ASKING THE WRONG QUESTIONS — The Spin Sucks podcast takes on hustle culture, AI, and the cost of shallow thinking, arguing that the real cost isn’t burnout — it’s the work you can’t see you’re doing badly. Meanwhile, PR Daily pushes agencies to use GEO to predict which pitches will land rather than just sending more of them. The question isn’t whether to use AI, it’s whether you’re using it to do more, or do better.
PRICING, LABOR, AND THE MODELS WE’RE ATTACHED TO — 2Bobs takes on one of the more frequent questions in the agency world right now: is AI going to kill labor-based pricing? The truth is that a lot of agency pricing is already broken, and AI just adds another layer to the mix.
BOTTLENECKS, BALANCE, AND BUILDING CAPACITY — Anchor Advisors looks at the displaced CEO and the founder bottleneck problem, and the Agency Profit Podcast expands on it with Kristen Kelly, examining the implications of agency founder bottlenecks and how to fix them. The Digital Agency Growth Podcast adds a useful counterpoint from Adam Yaeger on balancing biz dev and ownership, scaling with partnerships, and hiring for soft skills. They’re all circling the same truth: getting out of your own way is a challenge for many owners.
INNOVATION, AI AGENTS, AND WHAT ACTUALLY MOVES THE NEEDLE — The Innovative Agency hosted Jeff Brecker on what innovation means for agencies now, and the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast brought on Alane Boyd to talk through mastering AI agents for business growth. Both are worth a listen, as is For Immediate Release’s Battle of the Bots episode: understanding the tools you already have before bringing in the next one is probably your best bet.
LEARNING IN PUBLIC — The Sutter Company featured Lissa Blackaby Forsterer in a Just Ask Jody Live conversation worth watching for its honest look at how to genuinely connect with outreach instead of the dreaded cold calling. Agency business development is one of those topics where real stories may do a better job teaching than polished frameworks.
THE BOTTOM LINE — The agencies that will navigate the next few years well aren’t the ones chasing every new capability. They’re the ones building clarity about what they’re good at, who they serve, and how they create value — and then using new tools to do that more intentionally, not to avoid having to answer those questions in the first place.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Don’t fall in love (with prospects) too soon
It’s easy for agencies to fall in love with prospects.
Potential new clients represent revenue and the promise of fresh creativity in action.
But when we fall in love with a prospect too quickly, it can lead to poor decision-making.
The most obvious problem is pricing poorly in an effort to win business we really want.
But it can also lead us to ignore red flags that suggest the client might not actually be a good fit.
Or fail to correct the prospect’s unrealistic expectations before the deal is signed.
Even though it can be challenging, we need to try to take a more dispassionate look at the opportunities that cross our desks in order to make sure we’re making the right choices.
Talking through opportunities with your team members and asking for their feedback and concerns can be a very helpful part of this process. Of course, they can suffer from the same affliction, so it’s helpful to have someone who is a natural contrarian or Devil’s advocate — or to have a preset list of questions you use to facilitate the discussion and surface those same thoughts.
Are the client’s expectations realistic? Can you produce the results that both you and they will be happy with? Will the proper pricing deliver a fair profit to your bottom line?
Since financial risk tops the list of concerns for many, it can be very helpful to use my project budgeting system to check your pricing.
This is also where having a clear identity and positioning — including a properly defined Ideal Client Profile (ICP) — comes into action. When you come across a prospect that excites you but doesn’t match, it’s a good opportunity to ask even more questions before jumping in with both feet.
I want you to be enthusiastic about your prospects and clients. I believe that you should have a good fit and your clients should motivate you and your team to do your best work — these are all key concepts that are part of by Build to Own approach.
But you need to guard against falling in love too soon with your prospects by taking the time to pause and ask yourself the tough questions and surface the possible downside risks to any engagement.
