Workshop Experiences for Agencies
Learn, Inspire, Plan, Spark Action
Introduce your agency to ways of thinking and working.
Brian is a sought-after speaker for industry associations and conferences, including the 4As, Mirren, AMIN Worldwide, TAAN Worldwide, Worldcom, Worldwide Partners, MAGNET Global, and the Bureau of Digital. He is also a past Favorite Website Awards (the FWA) judge.
Book a Workshop Experience
AVAILABLE EXPERIENCES INCLUDE:
Get Paid for Your Value Instead of Your Time
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Agencies struggle to extract the value they deserve from client relationships, not because they aren't charging enough but because they're selling the wrong thing to their clients. This economic misalignment is responsible for a decades-long erosion of agency profits and serious erosion in agency-client relationships.
Agencies are on the defense—not the offense—because they are mired in industrial-age pricing practices. Instead of bringing 21st-century pricing methodologies to the table, they are stuck in the bad habit of negotiating their costs instead of selling their value. A decades-long decline in agency profitability has produced a cascading series of challenges, not the least of which is the ability to afford and retain the best talent.
Time to join the pricing revolution
riocing It's not too late to reverse this trend. Many recent studies have shown that the single most powerful way to improve agency profits is not to cut costs, or even increase revenues, but rather to improve pricing. Just a 1% improvement in pricing can produce an 11% improvement in profitability.
During this thought-provoking workshop, we'll explore together:
The many other progressive pricing strategies used by today's businesses and how they can easily be applied to professional services like agencies.
Why the "billable hour" is not a "unit of value" (only a unit of cost) and how to effectively sell the value you create in other more effective forms.
Why your costs are really not any of your client's business, and how to shift dialogue away from transparency of agency costs to what really matters: the value being created for the marketer.
Dramatically different practices
Based on real-life examples from firms around the world, you'll be inspired to develop your competencies as a professional seller better equipped to deal with the professional buyers on the other side of the table, including such concepts as:
How to charge for the value of outputs vs. the cost of inputs.
The importance of separating the value of ideation and implementation.
The power of offering pricing options.
Why and how to put “Scope of Value” ahead of Scope of Work.
How to provide more creative, effective pricing proposals in new business.
How to create new revenue streams and diversify your remuneration portfolio.
Come prepared to roll up your sleeves and apply your brain power to some new, more effective ways of thinking about how your firm creates value and the many different ways you can get paid for it.
Sharpen Your Positioning for Peak Performance and Product-Based Revenue Opportunities
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The most successful agencies have a focused and differentiating positioning strategy, which enables them to thrive in our competitive market and challenging economy. But forward-looking agencies see positioning strategy as the gateway to an even greater benefit. Their focused positioning allows them to easily begin to shift to a product-based business model that doesn’t rely on selling billable hours, putting these agencies a step ahead of where our industry is going. Through these models, they can apply new pricing methods, diversify and scale their revenue, and secure their agency’s longevity.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
In this session, we will explore:
Why agencies should develop a focused and differentiating positioning strategy
An actionable positioning framework you can use to define your own firm’s positioning
Many examples from around the world, including agencies that have already taken the next step of adopting new business models
Why a strong positioning opens the door to a product-based business models and other benefits, such as:
Clear criteria for targeting and qualifying clients who want your agency for what you do best
A stronger win ratio in new business because your agency will know how to play to its strengths
A compelling self-promotion program based on a meaningful, unifying theme
More pricing leverage because you can charge more for differentiated services and expertise
Clear direction for which services you should build up and how to develop or hire talent
How to bring your strategy to life through all areas of your agency’s operating model
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Agency Principals, C-suite, Presidents, Managing Directors, Heads of Marketing, Business Development, and Account Services
Anyone accountable for new business and account growth
Anyone responsible for attracting and retaining talent
Design a High-Performing Team Structure: Smarter, Leaner, “Creative Product Teams”
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The right team structure can produce significant performance gains on many fronts, beyond what most agency leaders think is possible. However, if you’re looking for best practices, you’re missing the opportunity in front of you.
Your agency’s structure should be specific to your firm, and purposefully designed to support your unique business strategy. That won’t come from copying what others have done.
It’s time to break from legacy thinking and push toward new ways of reconfiguring your agency.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Join Brian Kessman, Principal Consultant of Lodestar Agency Consulting, for a new perspective and straightforward guidance on how to redesign your team structure. Learn practical examples and the next steps to begin evolving your agency as soon as tomorrow to begin unleashing your agency’s full potential.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
How structure can lift (or limit) creative services
How to tell “good structure” from “bad structure”
Why and how to shift from assigning “people to projects” and begin assigning “teams to value” to form "Creative-Product Teams"
How to uncover your agency's "Value Architecture" as the foundation for optimal structure
How to create outcome-driven roles for accountability and entrepreneurial thinking
How to distribute authority for smarter, faster decision-making and action
How to assess your current structure and uncover new opportunities to improve performance
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
CEOs, COOs, CFOs, other C-suite Executives, Presidents, Directors
Anyone invested in your agency’s performance, culture, and client relationships
Eight Guiding Principles for Creating High-Performing Agency Teams
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Leading CMOs and brand marketers have been evaluating agencies based on a set of criteria that goes beyond creativity – your speed, agility, and value. They’ve reported that:
Speed of delivery is a factor in whether agencies win new projects
A nimble working model is a top area of improvement they’d like from agencies
They want better value from their agency relationships
They’ve also reported that they feel the agencies they work with are weakest at providing integrated solutions and a focus on efficiency. However, many marketing and creative firms are struggling to achieve stronger integrated thinking, quicker delivery, and lower costs. Their margins, quality of work, client satisfaction, and employee morale suffer as a result. If this touches a nerve, it’s time to rethink how your agency works.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Join Brian Kessman, Principal Consultant of Lodestar Agency Consulting, for practical guidance on leveraging eight operating principles inspired by Agile, Lean, and other management innovations. You’ll learn how your agency and teams can begin working faster, smarter, and with greater agility across all levels of your business.
Gain perspective and insight into how your agency can achieve the following:
Improved quality of creative ideas and deliverables
More productive teams and faster turnaround times
Adaptability to manage frequently changing client priorities
Stronger cross-discipline collaboration and digital-first thinking
Greater on-time and in-budget work
Fewer meetings and less communication overhead
Greater team autonomy, accountability, and adaptability
Improved client collaboration and satisfaction and employee morale
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
C-suite members invested in stronger agency performance through organizational-wide agility
Directors of agency disciplines that want better cross-functional collaboration
Account managers who want to be more strategic for their clients
HR and Talent Directors who want to help lead organizational change
Project managers who wish to lead high-performing teams
Producers who want to produce a higher quality of work
Manage Engagements Without Timesheets in a Modern Revenue Model
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Have you finally buried the billable hour? If you’ve joined the pricing revolution, your firm is enjoying the benefits of a modern revenue model that generates profits in ways that have nothing to do with hours logged on timesheets. But you and your operations and finance teams may still have questions about how to effectively manage internal resources and engagements without the use of time-tracking data. A value-led pricing model opens up so many great opportunities for agencies, but you need to know how to change your ways of working to take full advantage.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
In this mindset-changing workshop, Brian Kessman, Principal Consultant of Lodestar Agency Consulting, jumps right into the many opportunities that a modern revenue model offers for improving how you manage your agency and engagements, without the use of timesheets.
KEY TOPICS:
The “old way” vs the “right way” to think about “time” in a value-driven resourcing model
Answers to common concerns about how to manage projects without timesheets
Why you should stop assigning “people to projects” and begin assigning “teams to value”
Tools and practices to inform staffing levels, hiring decisions, and protect profitability
The KPIs to help teams track progress and remain within budget, scope, and schedule
The tech stack you’ll need to optimize your delivery in a value-driven pricing model
A roadmap to evolve your agency beyond a “culture of utilization” to a “culture of accountability”
All participants will receive a companion PDF workbook with summaries of key principles, tools, and exercises from our workshop that will help you evolve how your agency operates to maximize the advantages of a value-driven pricing model.
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE
Agency principals, finance and operations executives, account and engagement leaders, and key delivery team members.
Tools and Techniques for Emerging Leaders to Improve Organizational and Team Performance
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New and emerging leaders need a toolkit that can help them maximize agency performance and organizational health. One that improves agency and team alignment, capacity, communication, relationships, and execution. And they need to be prepared to drive change throughout their teams as they adopt new and better ways of leading and collaborating.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Join Brian Kessman, Principal Consultant of Lodestar Agency Consulting, for a practical talk about how to build a healthy and high-performing agency.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
The most common problems new leaders and managers experience and how to address them
Why and how your role changes as a new leader or manager, and a blueprint to guide your development as you fill that role
How and why leaders and teams need to collaborate in improving agency performance and organizational health, and how to start
Behavioral tools that leaders, managers, and teams can use together to boost performance
How to lead change and measure and improve your agency’s performance and organizational health
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
New and emerging agency leaders and managers and their agency teams and/or departments
Anyone invested in improving your agency’s performance and organizational health
Adopt a Product-Based or AI-Enabled Service Model to Scale Your Revenue and Profitability
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The business model of selling time is not sustainable. Many agencies have already shifted their thinking to repackage their intellectual capital as “solutions,” “programs,” and “products” designed to address high-value problems for prospects and clients. Their positioning, pricing strategies, and new business conversations now focus on the value of their offerings, not the hours that go into them. In doing so, they’ve realigned their business model with their clients’ needs for stronger, reliable relationships. They’ve created working environments free from the pressures of billable utilization and timesheets, enabling their people to do their best work. And they’ve begun to leverage the benefits of AI to scale their effectiveness and impact and transform their business model.
Key takeaways will be:
Why the current dominant agency model is unsustainable
New “value-led” revenue models and their benefits and drawbacks
How agencies are shifting their thinking, strategies, and operations to a product-based model
Many examples of agencies already using a productized and tech/AI-enabled service model
Which is right for you: ‘evolutionary’ AI augmentation or ‘revolutionary’ transformation
How to think about packaging your intellectual capital as solutions, programs, and products
The steps to begin moving from time to a productized value model
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Agency Principals, C-suite, Presidents, Managing Directors, Heads of Marketing, Business Development and Account Services
Brian’s featured appearances include …
“Brian’s workshop spurred great conversation and pushed our people to think outside of their discipline. Not just about what they need from others, but what they can do for others.”
— ADVERTISING AGENCY CONTROLLER
“We learned so much that will help us turn into rockstar leaders.
One of the big aha’s for me were the patterns that emerged from our leadership styles. I can map out the different styles across my teams so that we can begin to help develop their skills. But this also really crystallized what has been behind some of the reactions and feedback we’ve heard internally and how we should respond -- it’s all very actionable stuff we can move forward on.”
- Chris Geiser, Chief Technology Officer | The Garrigan lyman group
“This training will be impactful for years and years to come.
Lodestar found a way to share all the fundamental necessities required to become a great team leader. They covered the most important and relevant topics for today’s environment and provided our future team leaders with a set of tools that will serve them for the rest of their careers.”
- Steve Moran, Account Management Consultant | Moran Consulting
“Fresh ideas in bite-size pieces
Lodestar’s training program forced me to really think about my current leadership style, with fresh ideas in bite-size pieces to help me improve. The training made me want to be a better leader so my employees will work more independently and become great leaders too.”
- Lisa King, EVP, Chief Financial Officer | Spawn Ideas