Rescoping Your Client Relationships Has Never Been More Essential

Rescoping clients is a highly underrated and undervalued resource in the toolbox of every agency owner and creative. Fluidity and change are the nature of the game in the marketing world, so it only makes sense that scopes of work would need to be fairly fluid as well. Whether the agency has shifted services, clients’ businesses have pivoted, or some other change has come up in the relationship, there are many many reasons to make rescoping a regular habit.?

Regardless of whether you’ve been working with your current clients for years or you are brand new to one another, it’s best practice to do regular check-ins with yourself, your team, and your clients to evaluate the size and fit of your scope.?

Here are just 5 reasons why we recommend that creatives, freelancers, and agency owners conduct a project rescope with clients every 6 months to a year:?

1. You may not be fairly compensated under your current scope. Often, agency owners undervalue themselves in a major way. You and/or your team may get a project done in two hours where someone else would take ten but you are able to get that project executed quicker not only due to your sheer mobility but because of your expertise. You bring a wealth of industry expertise and knowledge to the table that quickens your pace. You shouldn’t be paid less just because it takes you less time to get the job done. It’s extremely important and a show of self-respect to ensure that your client invoices account for your ongoing education and ability to execute with excellence.
2. You may be spending more time on projects than you originally scoped for.?This can lead to burnout for your team and can also cause a strain on your other clients. Make sure and listen to your employees and team members when they express concerns about hours spent on any one client. Note instances where these over expenditures are becoming more regular and consider bringing those notes with you as fuel for a rescope conversation. By reassessing the scope regularly, you can make sure that you are spending your team’s time and resources effectively.
3. Your service offerings may have changed since your initial scope.?Your team's expertise will change over time, you will lose in-house subject matter experts throughout the years, and you always want to make sure you are offering services that you know your team can execute with excellence. This will not only benefit the client, but it will also benefit your agency as a whole. It is okay to come back to the table with clients and let them know it’s time to hand them over to another professional who enjoys delivering the services that the client needs.??
4. You and your client may have outgrown each other. There are a million reasons this may be the case. For example, your client’s business may have made a major pivot, changed industries, or moved in a new direction that doesn’t require the support (or the same level of support) your agency has been providing. Perhaps the client’s budget is no longer a good fit or match for your baseline fees and packages. Whatever the reason, it’s important to have those honest conversations and ensure you respect your agency’s time/capabilities and your client’s needs/goals.?
5. The current scope may not be as effective/productive as you initially thought. Learning and adapting will always be a part of agency/creative work. Whether you can tie inefficiency to a data set or the measurement of success is a little more abstract—it’s always healthy to leave room for you and/or your clients to come back to the table when it feels like your current scope might not be hitting the mark. This is one of the cases where a rescope is most beneficial to both the agency and the client. An honest conversation about what could be changed and improved is a much quicker route to success for all!?

Depending on the relationship you have with clients and how much visibility you have into your client’s business, these rescope conversations can be tough to navigate! If you’re curious to learn more about how to open up a dialogue, how to format your rescope meetings, what questions to ask during those meetings, what to bring to those conversations, and how to make them go as smoothly as possible, be sure to check out the latest episodes of the Creative Friction podcast on all of your favorite streaming platforms. In each episode, my co-host Jeff Meade and I dive deep into the topics that agency owners and creatives need to hear the most - and share our own stories about how we are navigating and learning inside our own businesses as well as highlighting the expertise of others. Rescoping is an art as much as it is a science, so it'll be something we'll continue to unpack over time here on LinkedIn and as new episodes unfold.