Ignition

Devoted to liberating agencies and other professional firms from the tyranny of an outdated revenue model and an unfocused business strategy.

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

What’s the point of preparing a detailed cost estimate if your client doesn’t see the value in the first place? Better to start with the question of perceived value. Price first, cost second. https://t.co/ZJQJOKcvhH

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

Agencies, it’s time to stop remodeling the house and move to a better neighborhood — a community where firms are paid for their heads instead of their hands. More here: https://t.co/6UDWahhUFv

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

Agencies devote too much effort to building the best house in a bad neighborhood. Maybe it’s time to move, not just remodel. More here: https://t.co/6UDWahhUFv

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

Agency leadership often announces a “restructuring” that results in a new website featuring yet more offerings tacked onto an already overly ambitious service set. But instead of just remodeling the house, how about moving to a better neighborhood? https://t.co/6UDWahhUFv

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

The point of progressive pricing strategies isn’t to charge more; it’s to charge differently. https://t.co/HRlkmrHlDC

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

“Value-based” is a suboptimal way to describe a new approach to pricing because it sounds too subjective. Better to use the term “solution-based.” What we’re really referring to is pricing based on the value to the customer — as in customer-based pricing. https://t.co/HRlkmrHlDC

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

State-of-the-art pricing starts with WTP: Willingness to Pay. The answer to that question defines the price. https://t.co/HRlkmrHlDC

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

If you’re in the process of exploring new revenue models, be careful not to confuse “value-based” with “performance-based.” While outcome-based pricing is a form of value-led pricing, it’s not how new pricing strategies should be defined. https://t.co/HRlkmrHlDC

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

The biggest obstacle to developing an effective positioning strategy for your firm comes not from outside market forces, but rather from inside your head.

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

Agencies generally have low multiples in the M&A world because it’s so easy to enter and exit the agency business. But a productized business model changes all that, creating inimitable assets that create exponential value. https://t.co/puQtWwfwRY

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

Because they are tethered to the hourly rate, agencies as businesses lack the ability to scale; increasing revenue means increasing staff—a form of anti-scaling. https://t.co/puQtWwfwRY

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

A productized business model requires agencies to come to grips with the fact that their promise of “full-service, full-funnel, or end-to-end” offerings is untenable and unrealistic. https://t.co/puQtWwfwRY

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

The problem with most business strategies is that they claim too much and sacrifice too little.

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

No firm that plays on a national stage can claim to be a monolithic stand-alone resource for its clients. Rather, the best professional service firms are part of an increasingly complex and interdependent ecosystem of specialized solutions providers. https://t.co/bHgy6z0GyM

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

"Why Time-Based Billing Doesn’t Work for Agencies," Ignition's Tim Williams' recent interview with Jenny Plant on The Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast https://t.co/g6haNE6pTL

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

The real resistance to revenue model transformation isn’t external; it comes from the inside. The resistance is cultural, rooted in an outdated view of what the agency business is supposed to be like. https://t.co/L8uVbW0ILs

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

All good agencies ask the question, “What is the objective of this assignment?” Unfortunately, most clients are surprisingly unprepared with a good answer. https://t.co/MdX9sXNBx4

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

Now that AI is demonstrating its ability to accomplish many of the tasks required to deploy a marketing campaign, migrating to a new revenue model is both a strategic and financial imperative. https://t.co/L8uVbW0ILs

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

Why are so many agencies just heads-down filling scopes of work pre-defined by their clients? Because neither agencies nor their clients have stopped to decide what constitutes a “valuable” relationship in the first place. https://t.co/bSmBfjUAGy

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

Why do so many well-meaning professionals fall into the “full service” trap? Perhaps they’re worried prospective clients will assume their firm offers only “partial service?” It's a nonsensical waste of words. https://t.co/bHgy6z0GyM

[Ignition @IgnitionGroup]

The best way to lower your operating expenses? Focus your business strategy.