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You Can’t Control the Market, But You Can Control Your Positioning 

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 the Spring 2025 report said that marketing is feeling increased pressure from the CFO, up from 52% who said the same in the Fall 2023 edition of the report – Marketing Charts), agencies and professional services firms can’t sit back and wait.  

Your messaging has to do more, especially your site. You Can’t Control the Market, But You Can Control Your Positioning 

Because like it or not, that homepage headline might be the only shot you get. 

In this post (1 of 3), I’m walking through a few real-world agency site examples—anonymized on purpose—because this isn’t about being a jerk.  

This is about showing you what’s not working, so you can take back control of your new business narrative. 

And yes, these are real examples, laid out by the issues they represent. 

Issue #1: Saying Nothing with a Lot of Words 

“Turn up the volume on your marketing.” 

It’s the first thing a prospect sees on this particular agency site—and it tells them nothing. 

Catchy, I suppose, but it doesn’t give the visitor any sense of who the agency helps, what problems it solves, or what type of firm it is.  

That space is prime real estate.  

Don’t waste it on metaphors that could apply to any firm, anywhere. 

It doesn’t get better on the second try, as the prospect scrolls down: 

“We are experts, leaders, strategists, creators, disruptors and innovators revolutionizing the marketing landscape.” 

You lost them at “disruptors.”  

This kind of language is well-intentioned, but ultimately meaningless without context. 

 What’s the actual benefit to the client? What makes this firm worth their time? 

Issue #2: Claiming Results—Without Showing Any 

“Our results speak volumes.” 

Cool. Show me. 

This is the same site, and this language is found after scrolling a few more times. 

If your site makes a claim about results but doesn’t back it up in an easily found way—case studies, proof points, metrics, quotes—it’s a red flag.  

Prospects are skeptical by default.  

You don’t earn trust by declaring it—you earn it by demonstrating it. 

Issue #3: Making Prospects Work Too Hard 

“Join the Transformational Growth Journey Powered by the Transformation Growth Engine.” 

Now we’re on to a different site, and this is a real headline. Unfortunately. 

When a prospect lands on your site, they need clarity in seconds.  

Not a puzzle. Not a buzzword bingo board. And definitely not charts above the fold.  

If it takes more than a few seconds to understand what kind of firm you are and who you serve, you’ve already lost the click. 

This site goes on to break messaging into a scroll-through of  circular diagrams, icons, and hard to read copyrighted names—without ever really saying what they do or who they help. 

That’s a problem.

Especially when today’s buyers are moving fast and hunting for solutions, not abstract philosophies. 

Issue #4: Leading with Fluff Over Substance 

Another firm’s site opens with a name and a word cloud of adjectives.  

That’s it.  

The prospect doesn’t even get a sentence—just a collection of brand-y words that could just as easily describe a candle line or a wellness app. 

Further down, their mission statement reads: 

“To delight, inspire, create affinity and form essential connections with audiences, brands, products and services.” 

There’s a place for aspiration—but not at the expense of clarity.  

Especially when, a few scrolls later, the firm itself says: 

“In a media-saturated, hyper-connected world, we have mere seconds to capture attention.” 

Yes. Yes, you do. And that’s why your messaging has to work harder. 

You Can’t Control the Market—But You Can Control Your Positioning 

Issue #5: The “Process Page” Problem (AKA, Prospects Don’t Care About Your Process) 

Again, you can’t control the market—but you can control your positioning

A lot of firms try to prove their legitimacy by showcasing their process—but it ends up doing the opposite typically. 

Two examples: 

  • One agency maps out their process in a giant workflow diagram filled with generic icons and buzzwords. It’s visually busy, conceptually vague, and feels like it was pulled from an agency template circa 2011. 
  • Another opens their homepage with what looks like a PowerPoint slide: circular diagrams, arrows, and labels like “Transformation Growth Engine.” (see #3 above) 

It’s hard to read, and harder to care about. 

Here’s the problem: if your process page could be copied and pasted onto another firm’s site and still make sense (or not)—it’s not distinctive enough. 

Clients don’t need to understand every step of your process. They need to understand: 

  • What outcomes it leads to 
  • Why it’s important 
  • How it solves the specific problems they’re trying to fix 

Don’t lead with the machine—lead with the result.  

Then, if they’re interested, you can show them how the gears turn. 

So What’s the Fix? 

Well, that’s in my next post, but for now: 

  • Be specific. Say who you help, how you help them, and why that matters. Quickly. 
  • Lead with outcomes. Start with what your work does, not how you feel about it. 
  • Back up your claims. Results don’t speak for themselves—they need a microphone. 
  • Think like a buyer. If you were your ideal client, would your site make you want to learn more? 

The Big Idea: You Can’t Control the Market—But You Can Control Your Positioning 

Your site may not be the first way a potential client hears about you—but it is where they’ll go next. 

And when they do, the messaging they find will either move them forward… or close the door. 

You can’t control the market, but you can control how you show up. 

If you were a prospect, would you hire you? 

In many of these cases, you don’t need a complete site re-work, you just need to change up the copy, or where it sits on your site. 

Now’s the time to revisit how your firm tells its story. 

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Challenging but Signs of a Turn

2008. 2020. 2025.

This whole tariff thing and the wild state of inertia it has seemed to cause in the market is unlike anything many of us have ever seen.

The 2008 recession was hurtful, but it did not affect every type of business, nor did it have nearly the global impact that tariffs are having today. And consequently, agencies kept their foot on the new business gas.

And the 2020 pandemic was stunning, but PPP helped a lot of business through some tough times and in our world helped us help clients and prospects that wanted to keep things rolling.

While things may seem very out of control, with the stock market rising and falling throughout any given day, and all the uncertainty that is surrounding us, we are seeing some signs of life for the small-to-mid-size agency world.

In-Housing on the Slide?

Ok, maybe not on the slide…but what’s happening today could prove a blessing for agencies.

Pepsi just announced that it’s moving some in-house content work to Vayner Media.

In a release, PepsiCo and VaynerMedia said: “We are excited to form a unique partnership that leverages our combined marketing and advertising strengths on digital platforms for the PepsiCo portfolio of carbonated soft drinks.”

While I certainly don’t wish ill on anyone, I suspect that as margin pressures grow on companies due to tariffs and other market pressures, the value in having an expensive in-house team, loaded with overhead, might prove to be challenging for companies.

Working with marketing agencies can provide greater flexibility and allow for more agility in moving as the market moves.

We’re already seeing marketers recognize the value an agency can bring to their marketing worlds.  In our on-going series “The Marketer’s Edge“, marketers consistently tell us that they use outside agencies for things they simply aren’t good at or when they need help to manage overflow work.

Therefore, the door has been, and will continue to be open.  I suspect it will only continue as companies look to manage their worlds more cost efficiently.

Slow, But Steady!

The other trend we’re seeing now, right here in our world of outsourced agency new business, is more agency clients winning new business.  It was a slow start to the year.  Lots of good meetings, but not a whole lot of movement on the part of marketing prospects. Proposals submitted, but a good deal of wait and see.

While you would think that what’s happening in the world today would squash any movement by marketers, just the opposite seems to be happening.  More meetings with prospects and more clients winning new business.

I saw this happen in 2008 and 2020. At some point, marketers have to turn things back on. They can’t ride on the “no spend train” forever.

While your marketing clients and the prospects you’re going after may not want to go “all-in” just yet, they need to fully recognize that, like you, they need to stay at least a half-step ahead of their competition.

And you need to help them strategize on how to best communicate to their end-users and reconsider the marketing channels being used, given the state of the economy and uncertainty surrounding us.

In his “Slams Laptop Shut” newsletter last week, Nathan Jun Poekert, a CMO advisor and marketing consultant, advised brands to optimize those performance marketing channels that are currently effective and reduce channels that are not so immediately measurable, such as print and out-of-home, in the near term.

The Smaller Agency Advantage

While smaller agencies may not have all the resources of a big networked agency, they do bring a boatload of advantages that have and will continue to help them excel. Some of those include:

  1. Lower overhead and more affordable services.
  2. Top-tier talent and none of this “C-Team” garbage you get from bigger agencies.
  3. More nimble and agile to move as the market moves.
  4. More entrepreneurial, which clients in today’s unpredictable marketplace will appreciate.

So as you think about your message to the market, whether it be your existing clients or the prospects you’re working to engage, plug some of this into the conversation.  Don’t hang your hat on every element of it, because any small agency can talk these things whether they deliver them or not.  But bake it into your positioning, have examples of where you’ve delivered against these advantages, and make sure every element of what you’re putting out in the market (from your website to your proposals and RFP responses) are reinforcing the value that your marketing agency can bring to potential client partners.

Head Down and See You on the Other Side

All we can do is do our best, keep our head down, be flexible in how we market ourselves and what we offer the market, and don’t be afraid to take a few chances.

And by all means, don’t go quiet.  Keep your brand out there because like Pepsi’s move to take work out of house, you need to be present when that prospect opens their doors and looks for some outside help.

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When Brands Skip the Pitch Consultants—and Go to LinkedIn Instead
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When Brands Skip the Pitch Consultants—and Go to LinkedIn Instead

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 like The North Face and Jordan have made headlines—not for their creative campaigns, but for how they’re choosing their creative partners.  

By posting open calls for agency support on LinkedIn, they’ve bypassed the traditional consultant-led pitch process and triggered a wave of debate across the industry.  

Is this a smart, cost-effective evolution? Or a chaotic cattle call that commoditizes creativity? 

Individuals more experienced than I have weighed in, but before I get to the main point of my post, the implications for agency business development, I did want to briefly respond to a few quotes from the piece: 

The North Face: Good Intentions, Bad Execution?

The North Face example, I would agree, appears to be a straight up cattle call.  

The North Face originally posted an announcement on LinkedIn for a “nationwide RFP” to hire “a studio for our digital e-commerce creative and operational needs”. 

Per Lindsey Slaby (who you should follow if you’re not): 

It also forces agencies to position themselves broadly—without the necessary details—diluting both their credibility and TNF’s ability to evaluate them meaningfully,” she wrote. “This is the process agencies frequently criticize—one that shifts the burden onto them, leading to wasted time, misalignment and frustration. … If the goal is to find the right partner efficiently, this method seems counterproductive.

And then Jonathan Balck, co-founder and managing director of independent creative shop Colossus, said:  

The tactic risks commoditizing creativity, which has recently become a hot-button topic, because it creates an auction-style process that feels entirely transactional. 

All of a sudden you’re delivering ideas to a client you’ve never met just to get in the door,” Balck said. “I don’t necessarily blame these agencies that are replying. I get it. It’s not a criticism of them. It’s more like, ‘Is this where we are?’

This Isn’t New—It’s Just More Public

Yes, but, isn’t this just the RFP process anyway, whether it’s posted on LinkedIn or not? 

(And to be clear, we’re not fans of the RFP hamster wheel at RSW.  We don’t ignore them as we’re working for our clients to drive new business, some do make sense, but we’re also not constantly chasing them.) 

And them Lindsey points out that these types of callouts –

 . . . have attracted a slew of responses from agencies that may not necessarily be fit for the job. 

But this is North Face’s problem isn’t it? (And one they probably came to quickly regret fomenting.)

When Open Doesn’t Mean RFP

But reading the piece, the Nike Jordan and Feastables examples weren’t RFPs, and that’s where I don’t have a problem.

In fact, I would call it an opportunity. 

From the Ad Age piece: 

Benjamin Kaplan, a senior creative director, global brand creative, Jordan Brand, also recently said in a LinkedIn post that he was seeking creative agencies specializing in seasonal retail storytelling, retail and brand activations and events. 

And Bryan Waddell, senior brand director of marketing at Feastables and a former marketer at Nestlé for six years, explained how he did it in 2024: 

“We are not running an RFP, instead my DMs and inbox are open for the next 45 days to hear from you,” he had written in the LinkedIn post, which garnered nearly 500 likes and more than 150 comments in one week. 

As an executive at Feastables, a small snack brand launched by YouTuber MrBeast, Waddell said he didn’t have the resources to run a consultant-led pitch like he did when he worked at Nestlé. 

Here’s the Shift That Matters

How Brands Are Hiring Agencies on LinkedIn—Without RFPs

Now to my point: 

Brands are increasingly using alternative tactics to formal reviews. 

That comes directly from the Ad Age piece, and as an agency principal or growth leader, you already know this. (Or you should) 

One last quote: 

For him [Waddell], he said the goal of the LinkedIn call out he launched was to create a Rolodex of potential agency partners that could be a fit for an immediate project or one down the road. And he said Feastables was successful in identifying those partners. 

 “Any crack in the door is an opportunity,” Waddell said.  

This. 

Regardless of where you stand, one thing is clear: this shift has implications for agency business development, and how big those implications are, we’ll see. 

But for shops willing to adapt, it presents new opportunities to get in front of brands, in some cases, without the red tape of a formal RFP.

BD Leaders: Read Between the Lines

Below are three key BD takeaways every agency should be thinking about now. 

(And these should be incorporated into your new business efforts whether this LinkedIn strategy continues for brands or not.) 

1. Optimize your Agency LinkedIn Page Yesterday 

Even if you’re skeptical of the “LinkedIn cattle call,” more brands could use the platform to scout talent in the future. (Ands again, even if they don’t, you should be using LinkedIn to follow and interact with your prospects. More on this below) 

 That means: 

  • Your agency’s LinkedIn presence should clearly communicate your specialties. 
  • Key leaders at your shop should be actively engaging and posting relevant work. 
  • Keep case studies, client wins, and differentiators front and center. 

BD Tip: Treat your agency’s LinkedIn page like a storefront—because for some brands, it’s becoming the front door. 

2. Refine Your Outreach Pitch for Fast, No-RFP Scenarios 

When brands post these open calls, they’re not asking for a 20-page deck. They want fast clarity. 

You should:

  • Create a lean, well-positioned intro message that highlights relevance to the ask. 
  • Lead with results, not philosophy. 
  • Be ready with modular creds you can personalize quickly. 

(Forget LinkedIn for a moment, this is something you should have, period.) 

BD Tip: Build a “Quick-Strike Kit” that lets you respond in 24 hours with purpose and precision. 

  3. Rethink How You Identify & Nurture Opportunities 

This shift signals that the agency search process is potentially becoming more fluid—and often less formal.

And yes, it’s only a handful of brands right now, but you should be doing the following 3 things regardless: 

  • Track your key marketing decision-maker prospects on LinkedIn and engage with them meaningfully.  
  • Don’t pitch—comment, contribute, and add value to public posts. 
  • Use LinkedIn outreach not only for prospecting but also to stay top of mind for project-based work. 

BD Tip: Business development isn’t just about knocking on doors—it’s about already being in the room when the conversation starts. 

You Don’t Have to Like It—But You Can’t Ignore It

Again, it will be interesting to see where it all goes, but in the Nike and Feastables situations, at least, I see those as more potential opportunities. 

And we can talk about commoditizing creativity all we want, but as they say, it is what it is. 

Agencies can choose not to be a part of it, as is their right, but their competitors will be there. 

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Do What Others Aren’t

A frightening tale with a happy ending.

I’ll never forget the day when I thought the world was going to implode and our outsourced new business company would fold.

It was March, 2020 and it appeared all was over.  Calls came in from clients wanting to bail and employees had no idea what tomorrow would bring them.

The Kellogg Graduate School at Northwestern never taught me how to muscle through a pandemic, so I had to figure it all out on the fly.

I did however, have one good point of reference, and that was the ’08 recession.

I had just started RSW/US in late 2005 and was told by my former partner in the UK who started RSW in 1992, that when times got a little tougher, firms generally needed us more.  But even that re-assurance was no guarantee.

My experience in 2008 really helped reinforce the need for agencies and other professional services firms to do what most other agencies don’t do – which is probably the same thing you try and tell your clients: Keep visible.  Invest in your business. Don’t retreat.

We had many clients in ’08 that stuck with it.

Almost saw it as an opportunity to do what others weren’t.

One of our longest-standing clients (of 12 years) did just that and here they sit today.

They were a small firm when they came on board (about 7 people).

They have since doubled in size and investing even more today in new business than they were in 2008.

To-date they have won close to $3M in new business as a result of our efforts (not including any recuring revenue).

So let’s return to 2020.

We have a client on the East Coast that was among the “need to pause” clients that called me during that one month stretch when the pandemic set in.

His New Business Director and I saw all the potential opportunities we had opened for him and while we were having some issue connecting with prospects because of the uncertainty of the pandemic, connections didn’t stop.

Reluctantly, he stayed on…believing in what we believed to be right and true and not only did he win some nice business within the months that followed, but he has since increased his spend against our programs and is going strong…heading into his 10th year with us!

He has close to $4M as a result of our efforts (and that doesn’t include any year-over-year account carry-over revenue he’s pulled in from his account wins).

So why all this, you ask.

Well, probably obvious…but just in case it’s not.

Today isn’t too different than what we dealt with in ’08 and ’20.

The uncertainty we face with all the stuff happening in DC, the unwillingness of your clients’ clients to pull the trigger, the slowness of your prospects to commit.

It makes for a very challenging environment for all professional services firms.

So some advice based on my trifecta of economic and global pandemic disasters:

Jack Be Nimble

Use this time as an opportunity to change up your game in how you service your existing clients, how you interact with your employees, how you sell the services that you have. Consider something we recently shared – a story about “productization” could prove an interesting way to make it easier for your prospects to engage with you.

Don’t Retreat—Engage!

Don’t retreat! Just because your prospects are slow to the draw doesn’t mean they don’t have needs now – or will soon have needs.  As I told clients in ’08 and again in ’20…”these people can’t not spend forever!

They have to turn things back on at some point.”  Same holds true here.

And if you’re not there, finding your way on to their radar, you run the risk of the train leaving the station without you.

A New You

Yes, I know you’re an agency that only focuses on a couple of core categories, but think about a local effort across lots of different categories – using your relative proximity as a selling point.

We’re doing this for some of our clients that partner with us on the RSW/US full-service side of our outsourced new business program and some of it within our lower-cost LAUNCH program.

Think back to when you first started your agency.

You didn’t have a whole lot of experience operating in the sectors you do today.

You need business (more than likely) so in addition to targeting the sectors you know…open it up a bit and see what it ultimately gets you.  You might be surprised.

It Will All Be Ok

Be Calm. “Protect us from all anxiety.”

Something I think about every day.

At the end of the day, all will be good.  You’ve hopefully got your health, your family, your friends.

Keep a clear head as you work through any challenges that might confront you on any given day.

And use what surrounds you that appears not so calm to find more order in what you do for your firm every day.

As an example, in the midst of all this craziness we are re-looking at our Vision and Mission to make sure that it is clear, compelling, and meaningful to employees, clients, and prospects.

Size Doesn’t Matter

Not in this case.  Regardless of whether you’re a small firm of 7 or a bigger firm with double digit counts on FTEs or 1099s, the need is still the same.

You need to be out there.

Now For Something Completely Different!

So whether you do it on your own (here’s a clip from our recent virtual new business conference where we hosted RSW/US team members talking about creating a successful new business program), or you turn to a skinnied down program like our outsourced LAUNCH program or our more strategic, full-service RSW/US program, you don’t want that prospect you’ve been pining for to wake up one day, realize they need to turn it on, and you’re not there – you’re not on their radar.

Do what others aren’t!

Tell that to yourself and your clients!

Some Additional “Bonus” Perspective.

As I was researching this topic, came across a good article titled “18 Maxims That Keep Entrepreneurs Strong In Tough Times“.  Provides some good counsel for those of you that either started or are running the business to help you through these tougher times.  Enjoy

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NAEYC Featured Logo
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Building a Smarter Brand for a National Education Association

Non-profit, Associations, Branding, Full-Service

Building a Smarter Brand for a National Education Association

$84k

Project

Building a Smarter Brand for a National Education Association
RSW Client Type: Brand Development Full-Service Agency

Client Verticals: Early Childhood Education Programs, Professional Development, Program Accreditation & Quality Standards, Policy Advocacy, Research & Best Practices

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a leading organization dedicated to promoting high-quality early childhood education and professional standards for programs serving children from birth to age 8. It advocates for effective policies and practices that support educators and foster inclusive, enriching learning environments for young children.

6 Key Elements of the RSW/US process:

1. Kickoff

The program begins with a comprehensive 3-hour briefing session, preceded by our review of existing agency materials, such as capabilities decks, content, collateral, and proposals, to understand how you currently position yourself externally. During the briefing, we explore your specific work, future vision, key business challenges you solve for clients, and delve deeply into your firm’s philosophy, character, and expertise. We also identify your top “reasons-to-believe”—both functional, like category expertise or unique insights, and emotional, such as creative tone and the feelings it evokes—to craft a compelling narrative that clearly differentiates your firm. Leveraging our extensive experience from collaborating with agencies and discussions with hundreds of agency leaders, we develop targeted messaging and strategic programs designed to capture prospects’ attention and motivate meaningful engagement with your firm.

2. Experienced New Business Director

Each program is led by a tenured New Business Director (NBD) with 10-15 years of experience in sales and marketing, who integrates into your agency’s team. To the outside world, they appear as a direct extension of your firm, with a dedicated email, voicemail, and phone line. Their role extends beyond setting meetings—they guide strategic follow-ups, nurture prospects, and provide consultative support to move opportunities closer to close.

3. Targeted Prospecting Lists

Our prospecting lists are custom-built and verified by human intelligence, ensuring higher quality and relevance. We leverage a combination of list platforms, research tools, AI-driven insights, and intent tracking to identify companies actively searching for services like yours. Unlike generic database pulls, our lists are strategically refined, reviewed quarterly, and continuously updated based on real-time data, giving your outreach a sharper competitive edge.

4. Business Development Process Driven by an Omnichannel and Expertise-Driven Approach

We employ a multi-touch, omnichannel approach—combining phone, email, LinkedIn, direct mail, and technology-driven insights to build awareness and engagement. Our process strategically integrates personalized outreach, thought leadership, and our tech stack to ensure that prospects are engaged at the right moment. Each campaign is designed to maintain a balance between technology-driven efficiency and human-led relationship building, maximizing opportunities for meaningful connections. 

5. Coaching & Counseling

Beyond prospecting, we coach and counsel agency leaders throughout the new business journey. This includes preparing you for meetings, strategizing follow-ups, refining proposals, and optimizing your agency’s positioning to close deals effectively. We also provide ongoing insights into industry trends, digital marketing best practices, and recommended improvements to your website and social presence to enhance credibility and conversion.

6. RSW/US Tech Stack

We leverage a robust tech stack to enhance every aspect of its business development programs. The platform includes tools like Instantly for automated yet personalized cold email outreach, PhoneBurner for efficient dialing, and Visual Visitors for tracking website engagement. Additionally, ZoomInfo, AI-driven list-building platforms,, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator help identify high-value prospects at the right time. These technologies, combined with RSW/US’s human-driven strategy, ensure agencies reach the most relevant decision-makers while maintaining a tailored and data-informed approach to new business development.

Contact us to discuss how we can help you get in front of the right prospects and win more business!

Contact Us
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To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

Wings ETC Featured Logo
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Cooking Up a Winning Strategy for a Casual Dining Franchise

Causal Dining, Restaurant, Hospitality, Franchise, Full-Service

Cooking Up a Winning Strategy for a Casual Dining Franchise

$900k

Project

Cooking Up a Winning Strategy for a Casual Dining Franchise
RSW Client Type: Franchise-Focused Full Service Firm

Client Verticals: Causal Dining, Restaurant, Hospitality, Franchise

Wings ETC. is a family-friendly grill and pub chain founded in 1994 that’s renowned for its award-winning jumbo buffalo wings, 22 signature sauces, and a laid-back sports bar vibe complete with plenty of TVs for game viewing. With an emphasis on genuine service, generous portions, and quality ingredients, the restaurant offers a welcoming destination for both families and wing enthusiasts alike.

6 Key Elements of the RSW/US process:

1. Kickoff

The program begins with a comprehensive 3-hour briefing session, preceded by our review of existing agency materials, such as capabilities decks, content, collateral, and proposals, to understand how you currently position yourself externally. During the briefing, we explore your specific work, future vision, key business challenges you solve for clients, and delve deeply into your firm’s philosophy, character, and expertise. We also identify your top “reasons-to-believe”—both functional, like category expertise or unique insights, and emotional, such as creative tone and the feelings it evokes—to craft a compelling narrative that clearly differentiates your firm. Leveraging our extensive experience from collaborating with agencies and discussions with hundreds of agency leaders, we develop targeted messaging and strategic programs designed to capture prospects’ attention and motivate meaningful engagement with your firm.

2. Experienced New Business Director

Each program is led by a tenured New Business Director (NBD) with 10-15 years of experience in sales and marketing, who integrates into your agency’s team. To the outside world, they appear as a direct extension of your firm, with a dedicated email, voicemail, and phone line. Their role extends beyond setting meetings—they guide strategic follow-ups, nurture prospects, and provide consultative support to move opportunities closer to close.

3. Targeted Prospecting Lists

Our prospecting lists are custom-built and verified by human intelligence, ensuring higher quality and relevance. We leverage a combination of list platforms, research tools, AI-driven insights, and intent tracking to identify companies actively searching for services like yours. Unlike generic database pulls, our lists are strategically refined, reviewed quarterly, and continuously updated based on real-time data, giving your outreach a sharper competitive edge.

4. Business Development Process Driven by an Omnichannel and Expertise-Driven Approach

We employ a multi-touch, omnichannel approach—combining phone, email, LinkedIn, direct mail, and technology-driven insights to build awareness and engagement. Our process strategically integrates personalized outreach, thought leadership, and our tech stack to ensure that prospects are engaged at the right moment. Each campaign is designed to maintain a balance between technology-driven efficiency and human-led relationship building, maximizing opportunities for meaningful connections. 

5. Coaching & Counseling

Beyond prospecting, we coach and counsel agency leaders throughout the new business journey. This includes preparing you for meetings, strategizing follow-ups, refining proposals, and optimizing your agency’s positioning to close deals effectively. We also provide ongoing insights into industry trends, digital marketing best practices, and recommended improvements to your website and social presence to enhance credibility and conversion.

6. RSW/US Tech Stack

We leverage a robust tech stack to enhance every aspect of its business development programs. The platform includes tools like Instantly for automated yet personalized cold email outreach, PhoneBurner for efficient dialing, and Visual Visitors for tracking website engagement. Additionally, ZoomInfo, AI-driven list-building platforms,, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator help identify high-value prospects at the right time. These technologies, combined with RSW/US’s human-driven strategy, ensure agencies reach the most relevant decision-makers while maintaining a tailored and data-informed approach to new business development.

Contact us to discuss how we can help you get in front of the right prospects and win more business!

Contact Us
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To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

Agencies That Lead Win - Why CMOs Need More Than Just Order Takers
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Agencies That Lead Win – Why CMOs Need More Than Just Order Takers

“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 strategy and your client retention strategy. 

The High-Stakes Reality for CMOs

Gartner’s study revealed “the average marketing function is involved in or accountable for 10 business areas and will take on additional responsibilities by 2029”. 

That insight comes from the article, where Stewart and Hiebert reference a Gartner study in which 125 CEOs and CFOs were interviewed to reveal their expectations for CMOs and how they can extend their tenure.

Another pertinent quote before we dive in: 

The main reason marketers are fired, Gartner found, was the inability to deliver promised results, with 69% of CEOs and CFOs stating this would lead to CMO removal. 

I think (I hope) you see where I’m going here. 

Your Agency Can Help Extend CMO tenure 

In an agency panel I hosted this week in our RSW virtual conference on maximizing agency/client value, Stephen Larkin, Chief Marketing Officer at Erich & Kallman, said this:

Clients want to be led. Clients are under so much pressure . . . and advertising is literally 20% of her job. There’s the other 80% taking them in every other direction. 

The Dreaded Order Taker 

Oh, agency teams love hearing it: You have to be more than just an order taker. 

One of the main reasons marketers look for a new agency? 

They’re not bringing fresh thinking or ideas to the table. 

And the fact is, this is true. 

To Stephen’s point above, marketers are under enormous pressure, and they’re feeling isolated often because of it. 

(We did a 3 Takeaways episode around it last year after our key note speaker, who had worked on the agency and client side, explained the isolating nature of the marketing position post-Covid.)  

 

Marketers do want to be lead, and you have the opportunity to do that.

Agencies That Lead, Win.

They’re not paying you for what you do. They’re paying you for the result. 

That’s a quote from the same panel, and from Jamil Buie, Growth and Innovation at Campbell Ewald, in response to the order taker question. 

He went on: 

The same reason why folks go to a barbershop or a hairstylist. You could probably cut your own hair at home. It’s the result that you’re getting and it’s the experience to get you to the result. Like the consultive nature of, “I see where you’re trying to go, I see what you want to accomplish”. I can also see the blind spot that you can’t see behind your head and make sure that you take care of.  

And so that’s the reason why you can’t just be a flat order taker, because if you do that, at some point in time, they will build a structure that says, I can cut you out. And that’s what a smart marketer would probably do. So a smart agency would say, I can continue to listen, evolve, and be, as said, a couple of steps ahead of where you want to be. Because we focus and think about this all day, every day. And that’s how you create a tremendous amount of value for a client. 

Exactly this. And by doing this for clients, that effort can and should be employed as you engage with prospects. 

Don’t let that knowledge go to waste. 

Incorporate it into your thought leadership content and get it in front of your prospects. 

Seth Gunderson, Sr. Director, Growth at Signal Theory, gave a concrete answer and example of how they go beyond order taker status in our conference panel: 

They’ve paid us money to do a specific job. And what we’ve learned is that if you’re not answering the brief, if you’re not answering what the client request is, no matter what you present next, it’s going to fall on deaf ears. So first and foremost, we make sure that we answer the brief.  

But then we have also amended our process to carve out time for teams. That’s not necessarily billing against the client’s hours, but it’s a time to really understand the business, truly understand the business, and bring up proactive ideas. And we do that on a quarterly basis to make sure that we are providing extra value to those clients. 

Agencies That Lead Win - Why CMOs Need More Than Just Order Takers

Please Stop Saying We make the CMO Look Like A Hero 

I’ve been in too many conversations with ad agency principals where they eventually bring this up as a selling point. 

It is not. 

It’s fantastic, but it’s pure fluff when you phrase it this way.   

Instead, you need 5-10 concrete examples of how you make her or him look like a hero. 

Fill in this blank 5 to 10 times: We make X client look like a hero because ____________

As Jamil said and I repeat: they’re not paying you for what you do. they’re paying you for the result. 

And maybe you don’t have a concrete, “we increased sales by 45%”.

That’s OK.  I mean, let’s be clear, it’s great if you do have that, but if not, then succinctly explain how you solved their business challenge, which in turn, made them look like a hero. 

Turning Insights Into Action

The Adweek piece ended with this: 

CMOs can rebuild CEO and CFO confidence by clarifying their accountabilities, communicating how marketing is connected to growth initiatives, improving collaboration with others, and more effectively demonstrating the impact of marketing. 

As an agency, you can’t, and shouldn’t, try to tackle every one of these for your clients, because not all are in your control, but you can absolutely help with a good portion of it. 

Take each of these and pinpoint where your agency specifically has an impact and get that in front of your client. 

Lead them. 

And then take those very same points and intertwine them into your prospecting process. 

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Agency Business Development Playbook
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The Agency Business Development Playbook: Navigating a Competitive and Cost-Sensitive Market

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 postulated agencies need to refine their positioning, make a more distinct effort against direct outreach, and prove their value beyond in-house teams, to name a few tactics. 

This agency business development playbook outlines actionable strategies agencies can use to thrive in a cost-conscious market and drive new business in 2025. 

More Money, More Scrutiny: How Marketers Are Spending (and Holding Back) in 2025 

In the U.S., advertising spending is expected to expand by 4.5% in 2025, but the growth is uneven across media platforms.  

Digital advertising continues to grow, with projections indicating a 9.1% increase, driven by investments in connected TV, social media, and retail media networks.  

Conversely, traditional media platforms such as television, radio, and print are witnessing declines, with anticipated reductions of 7.6%, according to S&P Global, due to shrinking audiences and the absence of major events like political campaigns and the Olympics. 

And per Ad Monsters, marketers are also adapting to changing consumer behaviors influenced by economic pressures. Interestingly,  

Approximately 9 in 10 Americans express concern over the rising cost of living, leading to more deliberate purchasing decisions.  

And from the same piece, 44% of Americans feel overlooked by advertisers, while 67% are frustrated by irrelevant targeted ads following them across platforms. 

Yikes.  

So, this heightened consumer scrutiny means brands brands have to demonstrate clear value propositions and ROI in their offerings. 

Bottom Line: 

There looks to be an overall increase in ad spending, with marketers adopting a more strategic and selective approach, focusing on channels and strategies that offer the most efficient and effective engagement with their target audiences. 

And that’s good news for agencies, IF, you take steps to embrace these potential opportunities. 

The Agency Business Development Playbook: In 6 Parts 

1. Refine Your Agency’s Positioning in a Budget-Conscious Market

Marketers Are Spending Selectively—Make Your Agency Essential 

With 75% of marketers expecting growth in 2025, the optimism is there, but budget constraints mean they are more discerning. Agencies must position themselves as indispensable by: 

  • Showcasing expertise in high-value, specialized services rather than trying to be everything to everyone. 
  • Crafting a compelling value proposition that addresses specific pain points marketers face. 
  • Emphasizing efficiency, ROI, and agility in messaging. 

A few ways small and mid-sized agencies are doing this now: 

-Allocating more of their budgets to digital strategies, with SEO investments ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 per month.  

-Increasing their content marketing chops, as companies shift towards creating tailored, strategic content to drive brand engagement.  

Investing in AI-driven solutions and performance marketing tools are seeing higher client retention and business growth, even in a budget-conscious environment. 

🔥Playbook Tip: Make sure your agency’s site and sales materials clearly communicate how you solve marketers’/your prospects’ business challenges—not just a list of services. 

2. Mastering Agency Discovery: Direct Outreach & Multi-Channel Visibility

How Agencies Get Found in 2025 

Our report shows that marketers discover agencies through multiple channels: 

  • 59% via referrals (friends/co-workers) 
  • 56% via networking 
  • 52% via direct agency outreach 
  • 33% through conferences 

While referrals remain king, direct outreach is just as critical.  

To stand out, agencies should: 

  • Personalize outreach with value-driven messaging tailored to that prospect’s vertical. 
  • Optimize websites for SEO and leverage thought leadership (blogging, speaking engagements, LinkedIn). 
  • Use video and short-form content to capture attention quickly—studies show people switch screens every 47 seconds. 

🔥Playbook Tip: Avoid generic email blasts (for many reasons.)  

Instead, focus on hyper-targeted, value-first outreach that shows you understand the prospect’s business. 

Agency Business Development Playbook

3. Attention Economy Realities

Adapting Messaging for Ultra-Brief Attention Spans 

Speaking of that 47 second stat above, capturing and holding attention has become one of the biggest challenges for agencies.  

Short-form video platforms are dominating content consumption, with 44% of users engaging with YouTube Shorts and 41% with Instagram Reels . 

To remain competitive in this fragmented attention economy hellscape (just kidding, it’s barely a hellscape), agencies need to: 

  • Craft succinct, high-impact messaging that conveys value quickly. 
  • Prioritize visual storytelling through short-form content that engages immediately. 
  • Experiment with interactive formats, such as polls and live Q&A, to sustain engagement. 
  • Optimize ad creative for mobile-first experiences, ensuring content is digestible within seconds. 

🔥Playbook Tip: Agencies that refine their storytelling for rapid consumption—without losing depth—will outperform competitors in 2025. 

4, Breaking Through the In-House Plateau

Marketers Continue To Keep Certain Types of Work In-House—How Do Agencies Compete? 

Per our report, 54% of marketers hand over half of their work to an internal team.  

However, the opportunities lie in areas where agencies bring unique expertise, including: 

  • Complex, high-impact creative work 
  • Data-driven marketing strategies that go beyond in-house capabilities 
  • AI-powered personalization (cited as the top trend for 2025 by 73% of agencies) 

Many small and mid-sized agencies are differentiating themselves by investing in AI-driven analytics and performance measurement tools to provide insights that in-house teams may lack.  

By focusing on efficiency and specialization, these agencies position themselves as essential partners rather than competitors to in-house teams. 

To break through, agencies must clearly articulate their differentiation and demonstrate how their capabilities complement internal teams rather than compete with them. 

🔥Playbook Tip: Case studies showcasing success in collaborating with in-house teams can be a powerful proof point in agency pitches. 

5. Winning in the RFP Game—Or, Ideally, Avoiding It Altogether

Agencies Are Getting More Selective About RFPs 

Our report reveals a subtle, but continuing shift: 10% of agencies opted out of RFPs entirely in 2024, and those that did participate were highly selective.  

Instead of chasing RFPs, agencies should: 

  • Evaluate RFP opportunities strategically to focus on those with the highest win potential. 
  • Invest in relationship-building and direct outreach to bypass the traditional RFP process. 
  • Develop strong referral networks, as marketers are increasingly relying on trusted industry connections. 

🔥Playbook Tip: If your agency still participates in RFPs (and why are you?), ensure that they’re tailored and emphasize specific results rather than just capabilities. 

 6. Preparing for the Future: AI, Personalization & Agency Innovation

Marketers Are Losing Confidence in Agencies’ Ability to Stay Ahead 

Only 62% of marketers believe their agencies are ahead of the curve when it comes to trends and technology—down from previous years.  

In order to combat this, Agencies can prove their value by proactively educating clients on emerging technologies and/or trends before they ask. 

Per S&P Global, small and mid-sized agencies are investing in AI tools to enhance efficiency and remain competitive, for example.  

For all the talk about AI, how it can effectively enhance personalization, streamline workflows, and prove value to clients looking for cost-efficient yet effective solutions, remains to be seen in 2025 

🔥Playbook Tip: IF you do experiment with AI, in biz dev, or client work (and you should), show how AI enhances efficiency, not replaces creativity, and you’ll have an edge over competitors. 

Agency Growth in 2025 

The 2025 agency business landscape is ever-evolving: in-housing has stabilized, marketers are scrutinizing agency value more than ever, and direct outreach is now as important as referrals.  

The agencies that win in 2025 will be those that adapt, prove their worth beyond internal teams, and innovate in AI and technology. 

By refining positioning, enhancing outreach, and investing in the right growth areas, agencies can navigate these shifts successfully and emerge as essential strategic partners for marketers. 

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Roadmap
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The 1st Step in Your New Business Roadmap

Let’s get back to basics for a moment on the subject of new business.

We consistently preach our philosophy and mantra when speaking with prospects: we maintain a relationship-building approach that doesn’t shove the company down the prospect’s throat, but instead shows them, through respectful, yet consistent and useful contact, that the company understands their challenges. (Now we didn’t invent the concept, mind you, as its called lead nurturing, amongst other labels, but it’s one we’ve fully made our own.)

So it’s always heartening to see it touted by others, and specifically in this case, at the site marketo.com. Marketo, if you’re not familiar, is “the fastest growing provider of marketing automation and revenue-building best practices.”

Roadmap

While their focus is on B2B, they have a great (and free) guide called The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing. It’s a bit lengthy, but their tips can be very easily adapted to your own new business and it’s well worth a look. A couple of points to take away, the first slightly modified by me:

Up to 95 percent of qualified prospects on your Web site are there to research and are not yet ready to talk . . . but as many as 70 percent of them will eventually engage you.

Think about this in terms of your own new business efforts. Quite often, a visit to your site or a show of initial interest from a mail or email campaign doesn’t translate to immediate work-in-hand. And this is where companies so often fall short-they stop too early, sometimes after only one follow up email or phone call!

I altered the following chart to read “new business”, and I love these tips:

That last bit, “How can you tell” should be at the top of your new business road map. Per the report:

Most non-sales-ready leads will eventually be ready — and it is up to you to both provide them with relevant information and to be there when they are ready to make a buying decision.

Take this advice to heart-it will serve you well.

Download The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing here.

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Two Prospecting Objections That Stifle Agencies—And How to Overcome Them
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Two Prospecting Objections That Stifle Agencies—And How to Overcome Them

There are two prospecting objections that stifle agencies , and they get hung up, or worse, give up when faced with them: 

  1. We already work with an agency 
  2. 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 encounter this objection. 

If your prospects don’t typically work with agencies, you could be in for trouble. 

Unless you’re intentionally targeting small/mom & pop prospects, odds are: 

  • They won’t understand the monetary value of your services 
  • How to work with you 
  • Or appreciate “why they can’t just do it themselves.” 

With that out of the way, this one is straightforward. 

Your reply to this objection is: 

“That makes sense—we often collaborate with other agencies to bring additional expertise or bandwidth where needed. Many of our clients have strong agency partners, and we step in to support specific areas like [X services].

We may actually be a solid compliment to your current agency, are they handling your [X] work?

While it will depend on the size of the company/prospect, as you know, this industry is cyclical, and companies will either look for multiple agencies with key specialties or look to that firm who has all the capabilities they need in one shop. 

Ideally, you’ll hit the “multiple” phase of that cycle. 

A brief interlude here on in-house agencies from our 2025 New Year Outlook Report: 

54% of Marketers Handle Over Half of Their Work Internally 

Two Prospecting Objections That Stifle Agencies—And How to Overcome Them

Marketers’ reliance on in-house teams has leveled off at high levels—no longer a trend, but the new norm. 

For agencies, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. Routine work is staying in-house, but high-value, specialized projects remain wide open. The key? Differentiate where in-house teams can’t compete. 

For agencies, the path forward is expertise, leadership, and strategic innovation—areas where in-house teams fall short. To stand out, agencies must cut through the noise with a sharp, value-driven proposition that directly aligns with client needs and business challenges. 

How To Handle The “We do that in-house” Objection 

This objection is similar to “We already work with an agency,” but with a key difference: the prospect sees their internal team as possibly the best (or only) solution.  

Your goal is to position your agency as a strategic complement rather than a replacement. 

Your response: 

“That makes complete sense—we often collaborate with internal teams to bring specialized expertise or additional bandwidth when needed. We specialize in X – could your team use support there? 

Remember, many in-house teams are stretched thin, lack deep expertise, or need outside perspective to push creative and strategic thinking forward.  

Your job is to help them see where an external partner could make them even stronger. 

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