Wouldn’t it be great if we could get clients to pay us to learn?
The truth is that there’s a good chance you have already done just that without realizing it.
But what if we could find a way to make that a more regular occurrence?
I’ll explain more later in this newsletter, but first let’s take a look at the latest SAGA content (including the results of the Agency AI Survey!) along with what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
SAGA AI Agency Survey results
Most owner-led agencies think they’re ahead of their peers on AI.
In a recent SAGA survey of agency owners and senior leaders, 53% said they were somewhat or far ahead. Only 13% said they were behind. That’s either misplaced optimism or a very low bar.
The rest of the survey suggests adoption is broad but shallow, with the focus on efficiency and productivity rather than innovation and value. Owners are using AI heavily, but they see their teams lagging behind their own efforts.
Check out more of my take and download the results here.
Latest from SAGA
TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM IS NOT AS HELPFUL AS YOU THINK. As an owner, you pride yourself on looking out for your team. Maybe you don’t assign them business development because it’s non-billable, and you take on managing new hires because you don’t want to burden your already overtaxed veteran employees. Unfortunately, your sacrifices may be doing more harm than good – both to your team and to your agency (not to mention yourself). Chip and Gini push back on that instinct in the latest Agency Leadership Podcast episode, and make the case that most of these sacrifices create more problems than they solve.
WE DID A CROSSOVER EVENT AND DICK WOLF SHOULD BE WORRIED FOR HIS JOB. Podcast rock stars Karen Swim and Michelle Kane from That Solo Life join Chip to talk through the effect AI’s rise is having on PR solos and small agencies, including the necessity of adopting it, and how to treat it to get the most out of it. Listen to part one of the crossover here. The conversation continued over on Karen and Michelle’s show, where they got into client ghosting, the “so what” test for every PR recommendation, and the importance of business acumen. Catch part two on That Solo Life.
Jen’s Weekly Roundup
WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK:
THE PESO MODEL IS HAVING A WEEK — Gini Dietrich at Spin Sucks dropped a new graphic for the PESO model, and a clear set of rules on who can use it and how. Pay attention, because you all are using the PESO model (or should be). Also from Spin Sucks, Melissa Wickes makes the case in Integrated Marketing Is Like the Perfect Iced Coffee Order that having all the PESO elements in place isn’t enough, it’s the integration that does the work. I’m always up for an iced coffee.
BUILDING AN AGENCY WORTH SOMETHING — Rick Gould at Gould + Partners makes a point in Digital Presence Tied to PR Firm Valuation that should matter to any agency owner thinking about an eventual exit: your digital footprint is now part of what a buyer will be evaluating. Marcel Petitpas hosts Sei-Wook Kim of Barrel Holdings on The Agency Profit Podcast in Inside a Boutique Agency Holdco, unpacking what makes agencies worth acquiring.
NEW BUSINESS AND THE DECISIONS BEHIND IT — Lee McKnight Jr. at RSW/US writes in Navigating Prospect Decision Fatigue that smaller, more agile agencies have a real advantage when prospects are overwhelmed by options, but only if you leverage it. And David C. Baker at Punctuation walks through Making Staff Augmentation Work in detail: what it is, how it differs from nearshoring and offshoring, what to charge, and how to protect yourself when the client inevitably tries to poach your team member. His bottom line is don’t dabble, and make sure your team is on board.
THE BEST OF THE REST — Karl Sakas offers 19 Predictions for Agencies in 2030, which it turns out is much sooner than I thought it was, yikes. Sharon Toerek hosts Mike Barton at The Innovative Agency in Turn Accessibility into Revenue. 2Bobs takes on People vs. Profits, examining how different worker protection laws in Europe versus North America shape the decisions agency owners make. And Brad Farris at Anchor Advisors makes the argument in Have an Average Day! that consistency beats intensity, and that chasing peak performance every day is a good way to guarantee burnout. Good enough for me.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Getting paid to learn
Most successful agency owners are creative and innovative. They’re hungry for knowledge and growth. With any luck, they surround themselves with similarly motivated team members.
I often talk about the need for agency owners to lead, educate, mentor, and coach their teams.
But what if you and your team could get clients to pay you to learn and expand your skills and knowledge?
There are actually ways to do this — completely ethically — in a way that produces wins for your clients and you.
The first and most logical option for most agencies is to adopt some sort of paid discovery as a standard kickoff engagement with clients.
In my case, that’s the Agency Business Checkup. It produces real wins for clients by helping them to identify immediate challenges and opportunities and get a fresh perspective on their firm.
But it is a great learning experience for me, too, because it gives me access to valuable market research that improves the quality of work that I do for all my clients — while also informing the content that I create here and elsewhere to make it more relevant and valuable to the agency owner community. I also end up occasionally encountering situations I have never seen before, so it gives me a chance to understand and solve new issues.
Beyond paid discovery, though, there’s a whole world of opportunity.
Take AI. Today, that’s all anyone can talk about (said the guy who won’t shut up about it lately).
Yet few among us are truly experts at it, especially since it changes on an almost daily basis.
But we can still deliver value to our clients — it just may take a bit of learning along the way to get it right.
So how do we get our clients to pay for this learning? We start by bringing them a concept or an idea that we’d like to explore with them. It’s not a bad idea to explain that they would be the first to experience our work in this area — both because it sets appropriate expectations but it also can make a client feel like they’re getting early access to the leading edge of what’s available in the marketplace.
Then we need to price correctly. You might discount these learning engagements because you know you will get added value and because it helps de-risk the deal for the client. But if it is something that you and your team want or need to learn anyway, why not get compensated along the way?
Finally, there’s a riskier approach to getting paid to learn and grow that may appeal to those of you with a willingness to live a bit on the edge.
Michael Bloomberg has talked about selling the first version of the Bloomberg Terminal before it was functional. But he didn’t let on in his pitch that it was not even at the prototype stage yet.
Without knowing his story, I did something similar with one of my companies 25 years ago. We pitched a product that was not yet useable — and then had just a couple of days to convert what was barely a proof-of-concept into something that was functional enough not to get us laughed at. It was a stressful few days, but it worked out well in the end.
These are extreme examples, but it is not all that uncommon for agencies to pitch for business that they may not currently have the skills to deliver. So you pitch confidently and then assume the risk of being able to learn and produce results on whatever timeline you proposed.
We all know that we need to continue to develop our skills to be competitive in the current agency-client environment.
That means we should absolutely be investing in experimentation and professional development on our own dime. But with the right value proposition in play, there’s also an opportunity to get clients to pay us to learn.
