Start Small to Win Big: New Offerings for Your Agency

For many agencies, a central tenet of project success is essentially, “You Must Follow The Process”. Many agencies have an often rigorous process refined by insights formed over many client engagements. The pattern often looks something like this: as each engagement finishes, the team gathers to reflect on what went well and what could be improved. Some decisions are made and the process is refined.

Over time, the process generally gets more complex. This often happens while the agency becomes more ambitious and takes on larger clients and projects. The process, budgets, and scope of services all grow together.

Eventually, however, many agencies hit a point where a new client shows up looking for a much smaller starting project. And, sometimes that new client looks like a great potential partner. As you discover the mismatch between their expectations and your singular, refined process, it looks more like ruts in the road that you are unable to break out of.

It doesn’t have to be so hard. Small projects can be an excellent way to get started with a new client, build trust and demonstrate results. Agencies who have successfully adopted this mindset are often able to turn small starts into much larger long-running engagements with trusted partners. They also allow these agencies to break into new markets and verticals because of the low barrier to entry for potential clients.

This session will briefly cover the difficulties agencies experience when adding new processes/products, offer real-life examples from agencies who’ve done this successfully, and provide several new offerings your agency could try next week that will start small to win big.