Most agency growth problems aren’t sales problems

Every agency I speak to at the moment is chasing growth.

Pipelines feel tighter, and the conversation quickly turns to where the next piece of revenue will come from. When that pressure builds, the instinct is usually the same: hire a New Business Director and push harder on outreach.

But it feels to me like many agency growth problems aren’t really about sales. They’re structural.

Take referrals. Agencies wear them like a badge of honour, and rightly so. They’re a strong signal that clients trust you.

But when referrals become the primary growth strategy, two things happen. Pricing softens because agency leaders are often people pleasers. And growth becomes dependent on a small number of individuals, usually the leadership team, who are trying to step back from the day-to-day rather than double down on it. The relationships of a few primary individuals in the business are not scalable.

Another area that’s often overlooked is share of wallet. Most agencies know their revenue per client, but far fewer have a clear view of what proportion of the client’s total marketing spend they actually hold.

Without that, it’s difficult to understand the true potential of an account. As generative AI starts to reshape how agency work gets done, the overall “wallet” available to agencies is shrinking. This likely means fewer agencies will be sharing the work. In that context, understanding your share of the wallet (and earning a greater one) becomes more important.

There’s also a more cultural issue. In many agencies, “sales” still feels like a dirty word, particularly on the Client Services side. And that’s often where growth either starts or stalls. So many great Account Directors shy away from growth conversations for fear of being seen as too pushy or “salesy,” so growth gets pushed towards New Business teams or specialist hires. Sometimes that works. But in my experience, the real step change happens when the people closest to the client become more comfortable being commercial.

Not pushy. Not transactional. Just clearer about where the agency can create more value, and more confident in having that conversation.

Because more often than not, growth is already within the client base. It just isn’t always being recognised or acted on.