The five doors to new revenue growth for PR agencies

The public relations industry is under serious pressure. So is the entire marketing communications sector.

I know. I am a shareholder and chairman of three public relations agencies, and a growth advisor to 15 agencies across all swim lanes within our industry. Additionally, my role as chairman of the PR agency special interest group within the Australian PR industry association, CPRA, for the past four years has enabled me to get under the hood of literally hundreds of PR agencies.

I don’t need to burden you by adding to the tsunami of commentary and points of view of how we need to evolve and keep ahead of the change exploding around us. I’ll leave that to others better qualified.

What I do want to share with you is what I am most passionate about - and that’s driving revenues into the agencies I have owned or led over the past 40 years, and absolutely still to this day.

I’m a great believer that ‘revenue solves most problems’ - which is not that easy to do these days. Why? Because you’re so busy reinventing and recalibrating, evolving services, and bringing AI into your efficiencies internally and the power of what you deliver to clients. Clients are wanting more for less. Decision making is painfully slow. Procurement a major pain in the nether regions. And staff? Leadership is not for the faint-hearted, that’s for sure.

Keeping an eye firmly set on new revenues flowing into the business though is mission critical, and I am going to share here my model for driving revenue growth.

I call it ‘The Five Doors to Growth’.

Today, I’ll summarise each of the Five Doors. In my next five columns, I’ll go deep into the tips, tools and tactics to drive momentum through each of these doors. And in future columns I’ll share other powerful IP and stories, all designed to explode revenue growth.

Door One: Positioning

This is the most critical first step to driving revenue. If your business is positioned properly, you literally win the battle before the fight begins. I’m going to share easy-to-use methodologies on how to sharpen your positioning.

Remember, in selling, the most critical element is the 'WIIFY’- What’s In It For You.

Make sure your positioning is all about meeting your prospects’ most urgent, most material business issues. It’s not about us - it’s about what we will deliver to them.

I am also a major fan of revisiting agency positioning every nine months. The market is moving so quickly that this is no longer a ‘set and forget’ proposition.

Door Two: Pleasing

We have to get better at ‘loving the one we’re with.’

We have a one in two chance of selling something to an existing client.

Super-pleasing our clients, being strategic in the way we ‘growth plan’ for our business with clients, brilliant client service excellence, deepening skills in the subtle art of ‘farming’ (upselling), and constant feedback are all ingredients here.

I’ll be sharing what works best, and how to do it.

Door Three: Marketing and profile

This shocked me during Covid, when I encouraged my agencies and the industry to work harder than ever before on marketing their businesses.

Here’s the surprise to me: Marketing works!

Agencies generally do a shite job at their own PR and marketing. That has to change.

Positioning needs to show your business as DIFFERENTIATED. Marketing needs to ensure it is known, and DISTINCTIVE.

I have a proven recipe for building robust and super relevant profiles for PR agencies. All will be revealed in that column. But don’t wait- make a commitment to lift your marketing effort and results by 20 per cent over the next 90 days. Whether it be trade media, social media, awards, EDMs, judging at events, speaker platforms, or networking. Get out there and get live as much as possible.

Door Four: Proactive new business pipeline

Now- this is hard. Few agencies do it well, or consistently. There is no magic solution here. It’s all about discipline, focus, rituals, consistency, and persistence. I’ll be showing you how to qualify a ‘cold call’ target list, and then how to effectively engage. The best way is to get introduced. But if you need to reach out ‘cold’, then I’ll give you this tip right now to use.

Here’s the story. When I was a young man, and I asked a girl out on a date, they never wanted to say ‘yes’. But if I said: “Hey, I’ve got Taylor Swift tickets for Thursday night- would you like to come along with me?” KABOOOM! YES, YES, YES. They could put up with me for a few hours to see Taylor.

Same for us PR agencies wanting a meeting. Offer them ‘Taylor Swift tickets’. By this I mean an insight of real value to them “we have the latest insights on how Gen Z are making decisions to buy mobile phones. If you give us 20 minutes, we can share this super vital sales information with you.”

Door Five: Pitching and converting

I have so much juicy stuff to share with you on pitching and converting.

Once we have prospects in the warm / hot list, make damned sure you convert four out of five. It starts though, with incoming opportunity, by vigorously qualifying the opportunity. Is it real? Is it winnable? Is it worth it?

Unless you can unlevel the playing field, or have an unfair advantage, don’t pitch! It’s a mug’s game. Focus instead on existing clients, or dormant and ex clients (you have a one in four chance of selling something to a dormant or ex client).

But sometimes we DO need to pitch, and I’ll share proven pitching methodologies that will help increase your hit rate - promise.

In conclusion, there’s an old joke about the definition of a consultant: someone who sits on the side of the bed and tells you for hours how great it’s going to be.

I’ve just spent this column telling you how great the next ones are going to be! Please - have faith and tune in for my next one!

Remember - we’re all in sales. Driving new revenues into our businesses is literally the oxygen they need right now while we reset and reinvent for a sustainable, brilliant future.

Chris Savage is one of Asia Pacific’s pre-eminent creative communications industry leaders. Following a highly successful 25-year career in public relations, Chris launched The Savage Company in 2015, focused on helping business leaders energise growth. He has built and led some of the region’s biggest PR companies and groups, including as Australia CEO and Vice Chairman Asia Pacific of Burson-Marsteller, CEO of Ogilvy PR Australia, and COO of marketing content and communications group, STW Group (now WPP ANZ). Chris is also a shareholder and chairman of eight communications agencies.