Fear of Focus is Limiting Your Potential
the pattern:
“We’re afraid our creatives will get bored and leave us.”
The pivot:
This is one comment I hear from agencies when I talk about focusing their business on just a few service areas, or a specific market segment, or even types of brands or audiences. I also hear things like, “We’re afraid of a diet of just one thing” and “We’re afraid that focus means we’ll be passing up new business and we never want to turn down business.”
These are all normal thoughts and common first reactions. However, these reactions are based on a faulty mental map because what succeeds in business is “focus.”
The benefits of focus are:
Having clear criteria for identifying the types of clients who want you for what you do best.
A stronger win ratio in new business because you’re playing to your strengths.
Clearer hiring standards for the people you need to deliver on your strategy.
A self-promotion program based on a meaningful, unifying theme.
More pricing leverage because you’re offering differentiated services.
Clearer direction for how you should spend your limited time and resources.
A more efficient and effective operating model that enables you to produce better work faster and at a lower cost.
The takeaway is that agencies that develop a focused business strategy find it easier to run their business and become more profitable. And the focus helps them produce better work, which also helps with recruitment, employee morale, and retention.
