Agency Blockers: Part 1 - People

This is the first part of a longer series dedicated to exploring why some agencies seem to ‘bounce’ up against an invisible ceiling - whether that be a revenue ceiling, profit, headcount, etc.

It can be frustrating when you feel as though the inflection point is juuuust around the corner, only to find yourself back where you started.

Hopefully this series of articles sparks some thoughts as to how to break through whatever ceiling you might be bouncing up against. Let me know if you think I've missed one and I can include it in a future article.

If you see yourself in these articles and are ready to stop bouncing, get in touch. Guiding agencies to their version of success is what we do at OTTESU.

Article structure:

Blocker: A short summary of an identified blocker to agency success.

Symptoms: Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. The symptoms are the trees – see enough of the same sorts of trees and you’re probably in a forest.

Next Steps: Obviously every business is different and the details of these challenges are unique. Broadly though, I’ve outlined some next steps to explore to help you get out of that forest.

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Part 1: People

Despite the current focus of many in our industry being on AI (and all of LinkedIn and the email lists I subscribe to), most agencies still remain people businesses. We sell ideas, knowledge, skills, and effort – mostly generated by humans.

People are also the largest expense to any agency.

For many, managing people is one of the most difficult, and most rewarding, parts of the job. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some incredible people over the years, but I’ve also had plenty of sleepless nights thinking about people-problems.

The challenges that come along with running a people business are as diverse as the people in them. It’s no wonder then that one of the identified groupings of blockers to agency success come from ‘People’ broadly (and not just your team – perhaps you too).

There are 4 blockers covered in this article:

1. There's a Handbrake
2. 'Founders Syndrome'
3. The Replication Problem
4. Senior Team Misalignment

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1: There's a Handbrake

Blocker:

A key team member (e.g. a ‘head of’ or GM) is a 'handbrake' on the business. They may have been perfectly suitable for where you were, but might not be the right person to take you where you want to go.

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Symptoms:

Bottlenecks, talented people leaving the business, their peers getting frustrated, difficulty in keeping maturing clients with (reasonable) changing capability requirements, a higher than normal churn/loss rate.

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Next Steps:

Ensure there are systemised ways to collect feedback from staff and clients, both current and outgoing.

Once you’ve collected this data, be prepared to have difficult conversations with employees who you may like personally and may have been with the agency for a long time. Ensure expectations for their role are aligned between you and them, and if they’re simply not meeting them it may be time for coaching, performance management, or a transition.

If they’re acting as a blocker in the agency, it’s pretty likely that they’re feeling uncomfortable in their role at the moment as well, so it’s best for everyone to get on the same page.

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2: 'Founders Syndrome'

Blocker:

The person at the top is unsuitable (or doesn’t want) to take the business to the next stage - often referred to as 'Founders Syndrome'.

It's common for someone starting an agency to be a fantastic marketer or a great commercial/sales mind. Either way - they've got the vision. It's rare though that an individual is both, and on top of that has a desire to spend their time running a business rather than doing their thing.

Symptoms:

Depending on the preferences of the person at the top, the symptoms will be different.

An org led by a great salesperson might have strong new business growth but be struggling with long-term client retention due to quality of work. Likely to go through rapid cycles of growth and contraction.

An org led by a great marketer might deliver really strong work, have a happy and stable roster of clients, but struggle to grow through new business acquisition. Likely to be fairly steady.

In either scenario, the trend-line is flat. If there’s no desire to do the ‘running a business’ side of it, you’re also likely to see many of the other challenges listed in these articles as well.

Next Steps:

This is a higher level problem and will require genuine reflection on the part of the owner/leader of the agency. Gathering of feedback from your team/clients could help you get a better idea of what your perceived strengths/weaknesses are.

Next, it’d be worth defining the role that you want and what you want from the agency. The help of a Board, Advisory Board, advisors, mentors etc could be helpful in this initial phase, but will be incredibly valuable to help you put that plan in place and then stick to it.

3: The 'Replication Problem'

Blocker:

The founder doesn't want to let go. Similar to the founder problem, but it plays out differently throughout the organisation.

Symptoms:

The founder feels as though they need to do everything themselves or check everything that the agency produces.

This is totally understandable - the business is built on THEIR reputation and they are intrinsically tied to the business.

Often this will be evidenced by a “Juniors will take too long so I'll just do it” sort of attitude, or “I don’t have the time to train that person.” As such, there will often be no real investment into training and developing through a junior > mid > senior pathway, resulting in an over-reliance on recruitment to bring in senior talent.

The likely result is a very busy/stressed founder, project budgets/timelines blowing out (with a flow on impact to profit), and talented staff feeling unfulfilled and leaving.

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Next Steps:

Similar to the last Blocker, this will require reflection and the gathering of feedback. Again, a Board, Advisory Board, advisors, mentors will be helpful.

4: Senior Team Misalignment

Blocker:

Unable to execute on strategic plans due to lack of accountability and/or alignment amongst senior team.

Symptoms:

This will show up as a, what feels like, continued inability to hit agreed targets/strategic milestones agreed with leadership team.

There may be complaints by rest of agency of confusion/conflicting messages coming from founder/CEO and leadership team, and difficulty in holding individuals accountable due to unclear or misaligned KPIs.

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Next steps:

Review how you manage performance of the senior team, and whether their KPIs are aligned to your vision for the business. What are the clear and measurable KPIs you're using? Do they align with where you want you agency to go? Are they actually being actively measured?

If not, re-write and spend time explaining why they’ve changed. Systemise check-ins to ensure they’re on track.

That's it for the first article on common agency blockers and why agencies 'bounce'. Let me know if you have any feedback or if theres another blocker you think it would be worth discussing.

Sam is the Founder of OTTESU, a growth acceleration partner for ambitious agencies. OTTESU helps its clients achieve their strategic goals by ensuring they have the right systems, processes, and people in place.

He is a CEO and company director with extensive experience leading growing agencies in rapidly changing environments. Skilled communicator and problem solver, having had 12 years in the marketing/digital industries and formal qualifications in Law and Business, and from the AICD.