You finally get the meeting. It goes well. Good energy. Smart questions. Maybe even a personal connection. And then… silence. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. According to our 2025 Professional Services New Business Survey, 78% of firms say it takes up to six months to close a deal after the first meeting. This […]
When outreach falls flat: If getting in the door with prospects feels more difficult this year, that’s because it is—but it’s not insurmountable. From our 2025 Professional Services New Business Survey Report, 58% of professional services firms say the biggest challenge right now is either “fewer opportunities” or “harder to break through.” Yes, it’s crowded […]
Why You’re Not Getting That Second Meeting (Even After a Great First One) You landed the meeting. You were prepared. You walked through your creds deck, your client wins, maybe even some creative. So… why didn’t it go anywhere? It’s one of the most frustrating realities in business development—especially for agencies and professional services firms. […]
Sigh. Let’s talk about your site. And start with a little tough love. If you’re relying on referrals and repeat business to keep things going right now—you’re not alone. But here’s the problem: in a market where budgets are tight, competition is fierce, and decision-makers are under pressure (some 63% of CMOs responding to […]
What happens when big brands like The North Face and Jordan start crowdsourcing their agency searches on LinkedIn? The industry starts buzzing—and splitting. An Ad Age post from Lindsay Rittenhouse that made the rounds on LinkedIn this week: Why major brands are hiring agencies on LinkedIn—and dividing the industry In recent weeks, brands […]
“The average CMO tenure is notoriously one of the shortest in the C-suite. Most Fortune 500 CMOs last just 51 months” This is from the piece by Rebecca Stewart & Paul Hiebert in Adweek this past week titled The Real Reasons Why CMOs Get Fired and it’s an important read for your agency business development […]
The Agency Business Development Playbook: Navigating a Competitive and Cost-Sensitive Market Time to wrap up my series around our latest RSW/US report. Marketers continue to be selective in their spending (not a new thing), agency search methods are evolving, and the traditional RFP process is (potentially?) losing traction. In response, in previous posts I’ve […]
There are two prospecting objections that stifle agencies , and they get hung up, or worse, give up when faced with them: We already work with an agency We handle that in-house Let’s tackle each: How To Handle The “We already work with an agency” Objection As an initial aside, you should actually want to […]
For the past several years, productization has been a consistent topic in our industry, however, since we included questions on it in our latest report (RSW/US 2025 New Year Outlook Report), I’ve had several agency principals ask about it, and what exactly it looks like. So, for the uninitiated, and even for those agency principals […]
AI won’t take your job. It’s somebody using AI that will take your job. Richard Baldwin, economist and professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland Agencies believe they’re holding their own when it comes to trends and tech, but marketer confidence is eroding. 77% of Agencies Confident in Staying Ahead of Trends, But Marketer […]
