How your agency is going to win bigger clients

Do you run a marketing, branding, or creative agency? This one's for you.

There comes a certain point in every agency’s life that feels like an opportunity to move to a new phase of growth.

Here’s a snapshot of a great agency:

✅ Your specialism is nailed

✅ Your processes are slick

✅ Your internal team are productive and get on well together and with clients

✅ Your workload is manageable

✅ You have a healthy pipeline

Hopefully, you’re scoring (or getting close to) 5 out of 5.

If so, no doubt you’ll agree; it’s a good feeling. The moment of opportunity is here.

It’s time to use the solid foundation you’ve built to push on, attracting bigger* clients and contracts. With that comes more growth, more big** projects and you’re edging ever closer to the next stage of your business lifecycle. It’s a bit like a child maturing through from toddler to teen - and finally adulthood.

However, the truth is - successfully winning, and then delivering, bigger projects requires more than just your solid foundation.

What if scaling your agency means clients who need skill sets you just don’t have in-house?

This is when you may need to consider external collaborators who can offer their specialist knowledge that, paired with your own, makes your agency an option “next level” clients feel confident to trust with ever more complex needs.

Here’s how working with the right provider like Pivale can attract and retain the “next level” clients you’re dreaming of.

*This could be existing customers who have grown with you and whose needs are changing as they scale. Or it could also mean those “pie-in-the-sky/golden goose” clients you once only dreamed of working with.

**For “big” read the kind of projects that signify your agency is moving to a new level in its delivery.

If the opportunity arises to pitch for a new project, you’ll need to take stock of your internal capabilities and whether you need to engage a specialist. You’re preparing a pitch, with designers, marketers and writers all ready to show what they can do. But when you discover your client’s project needs a team that understands Drupal, rather than WordPress (or other CMS) you may feel a cold sweat come on. Don’t panic.

Not having a particular specialist skill set in-house is common. The real problem is that without understanding what you need, you may not know who you need. And this can make recruiting hard - especially if you’re hiring for highly technical roles.

So-called big projects may seem scary because they often need lots of things your team can provide, plus one or two that they can’t. Whilst this skills gap may put off many agencies, we believe developing supportive partnerships is the key to gaining the confidence to pitch, win and grow.

It’s obvious - a web solution for a local business with five team members is not going to be the same as a bespoke platform built for an international company with thousands of staff, multiple stakeholders, regions, languages, systems to integrate with, etc.

A shift in mindset is required

Think big, find an expert to help you deliver what your client needs and that’ll open the door to more new projects of a similar size.

With our knowledge and expertise in large technology projects, we can craft and support impactful solutions that many others can’t. These are bespoke solutions that are secure, reliable and future-proof without losing the flexibility to upgrade and update when needed.

Launching a new web solution is just the start. It’s important to ensure that your clients are looked after for the long term. Our comprehensive support packages and development programmes ensure clients have everything they need to continue to innovate into the future.

Bigger projects often demand lengthier post-launch commitments. Maybe it’ll be a 2-year support package rather than an ad-hoc rolling contract. Have you done the maths in your head?

Keeping a client happy means their retained post-launch support work can allow you to hire another team member, gaining more capacity to grow your business even further.

To make that a reality, you must be able to deliver what the client demands each month, quarter and year. Without the in-house specialist knowledge, that may feel daunting. But, at Pivale we prove that external knowledge brings more benefits than “just” account management. Long-term engagement with reliable specialists helps take the extra work off of your plate, safe in the comfort that your client is dealing with experts in their field. Our team go above and beyond to achieve results, respect your client and deliver value, all whilst working within pre-agreed engagement mechanisms that you’re comfortable with.

No. We never have and never will do anything to detriment our agency partners. It would be a sure fire way to destroy our reputation and severely jeopardise our standing as a trusted partner. You’re in safe hands. If you need, we’re happy to put it in writing.

Winning a big project is just the first step. If you engage with an unreliable partner, that’s going to cost you time, money and reputation.

That’s why whenever we engage with agency partners, we explain in clear terms what we can do, how we do it and why we’re the right choice. Jargon-free, honest and always ready to help.

Pivale has close relationships with several agencies that make use of our specialist knowledge and skillset to understand complex briefs and give them the confidence to pitch for bigger projects and longer term engagements with our support.

Every organisation has different challenges, and we understand the work required to create a plan to fix them. Instead of simply building a platform or website, we help you wow clients, provide a better service and (together) win more work.

Our team solves problems, finds and explores new digital opportunities and delivers a greater level of technical expertise for your clients.

Some questions for you:

• Do you need help with pitching a large or complex project?
• Is your client/prospect mandating Drupal and their chosen platform?
• Are you faced with some technical challenges and aren’t clear how you’d solve them?
• Does your client need strategic advice and help planning and executing a Digital/Business Transformation initiative?

If any of the above are true, then get in touch to start a conversation with our experts and take the first step on our journey together.