• “It’s extremely important to understand the scope of what you’re giving and what you’re pricing,” says agency veteran Michael Murphy.
• “If you price too cheaply, clients will think you’re not very good at what you do.”
• In this session, Michael will be drawing on his 35 years of agency experience to show you how to make your agency more profitable with just a few changes and a bit of planning.

“What agencies do for other businesses is extremely important. We help clients become more successful and more profitable,” says agency veteran Michael Murphy. “The idea that we should not have a fair share of that success is bizarre, really.”

Michael Murphy has spent the good part of 40 years working in global communications, as both an agency leader himself and a non-executive advisor.

He says that increasing your agency’s profitability is less about specific adjustments and more about a change in mindset.

“There’s a traditional lack of confidence in this sector, because creative people are not necessarily the most commercial-minded people,” he says. “So, it’s extremely important to understand the scope of what you’re giving and what you’re pricing. If you price too cheaply, clients will think you’re not very good at what you do.”

Michael says most agency problems occur due to bad budgeting and poor pricing of services, which can often lead to overservicing clients.

“If you went into Tesco and saw a gin you liked, you wouldn’t then ask the sales assistant for two bottles for the price as one – they’d probably laugh at you and send you packing. But we as an industry allow that to happen to us all the time – we allow scopes to creep.”

So, the first thing is charging what you’re worth. The next is to produce some sort of future business plan.

 “Most agencies lurch from year to year. They have financial metrics, but they don’t necessarily have a business plan which articulates how they’re going to grow their business.”

Michael says that knowing what actions you’re going to take in each area of your agency – from people and client services to marketing and finance – is imperative. It needs to be clear who is responsible for those actions and hold people accountable, to make sure the required results are delivered.

“Having a financial budget sitting alongside your business plan puts you in a really good place because it lets you monitor your progress and build year on year,” he says.

In this session, Michael will be drawing on his 35 years of agency experience to show you how to make your agency more profitable with just a few changes and a bit of planning.