Agency owners often ask me how to respond when a prospect highlights a potential weakness.
For example, a prospective client might worry that you’re too small to serve their needs effectively.
The instinct might be to puff up your chest and try to look bigger than you are. It’s why so many small agencies list contractors on their team pages and do everything that they can to shield the actual size of the firm.
Instead, I encourage owners to lean into these potential weaknesses and sell them as strengths instead. Play offense, not defense.
This works with lots of things that go beyond size, and I’ll discuss it more later in this week’s newsletter — right after we look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
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
- The value of getting satisfaction from client work (Agency Leadership Podcast)
Articles & Blog Posts
- How to acquire another agency (Sakas and Company)
- That Beautiful New Biz Dance (Punctuation)
- Being vs. doing (Anchor Advisors)
- Standing Out by Finding Your PR Niche (Spin Sucks)
- You’re Here to Help, Not Sell! (RSW/US)
- 5 Ways to Avoid Being Interesting to the FTC in Your Advertising (Legal + Creative)
Podcast Episodes
- How PR Pros Can Use an Audit to Unlock Social Media Success (That Solo Life)
- Using the PESO Model© to Rebuild Institutional Trust (Spin Sucks)
- To Standardize or Customize (2Bobs)
- Has Night Fallen on Change Management and Enterprise Social Networks? (For Immediate Release)
- Build, Scale, and Exit, with Max Bidna (The Innovative Agency)
- Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through Paid Media with Courtney Tarrant (The Digital Agency Show)
- Breaking Down Earned Revenue to Drive Better Agency Decisions, with Ben Zittlau (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- The Five Levers of Business Growth with Dr Brenda Hector (Building Your Leader Brand)
Videos
- Sharon Napier on Just Ask Jody Live (The Sutter Company)
- What role should your AE play? (Agency Management Institute)
AI in focus
- Actionable AI Business Development Strategies for Ad, PR & Marketing Firms (RSW/US)
- Successful AI – Human Collaboration: Where Technology and Creativity Intersect with Marc Beckman (Smart Agency Master Class)
Stand tall where prospects think you come up short
Rather than tap dancing like Fred Astaire (Google him, kids) when you hear prospects raising concerns about your agency’s potential weaknesses, turn them into part of your story and lean into them as strengths.
If prospects worry you’re too small, focus on talking about the flexibility you have to serve clients with a personal touch that the big firms can’t match.
If prospects are concerned you are fully remote, tout the lean cost structure that you have that allows you to price more competitively (note I didn’t say “cheaply”).
If prospects fret that you are in a different time zone, explain how you leverage the schedule to keep their projects moving even while they sleep.
This strategy even applies to your focus in times (like these) when favored industries and tactics are changing along with economic, political, and societal forces.
If your agency focuses on DEI initiatives, for example, you should lean in to serving those organizations that may now be even more committed to the philosophy even as casual tickboxers are dropping their own.
If you serve industries that may be struggling or falling out of favor, you may be inclined to pivot but your better move may be to redouble your focus for companies that need even more help. Your offerings may need to adjust to new realities, but it doesn’t mean your expertise should go to waste.
Now, there is one big caveat to all of this advice. It only works if the weakness is merely one that prospects believe and not one that you know is actually true.
You can’t promise something that is beyond your team’s capabilities. You shouldn’t make claims that aren’t supportable.
When you hear prospects lamenting your perceived weaknesses, stop trying to defend yourself. That only makes you look even weaker.
Examine those perceived weaknesses and turn them around to make them assets instead.
