Closing out your year well and planning for the next, all at the same time – an impossible task?
Year end is often that crazy time where stress and speed is the name of the game. A borderline myopic focus on the final weeks overshadows everything else.
Planning for growth next year? Pah! Who has time for that?
Don’t worry, we’re not about to sit in our pious glass house here at 4twenty2 and throw rocks at everyone. We’re stating the above scenario because we’re the same. It appears to be impossible to close everything that’s needed today and also plan well for tomorrow.
But we know in our hearts that it needs to be done, so this year we’ve tried to do it differently, and we’re excited to see how it pans out.
Want to know how? Read on, plus find out how you can obtain your own copy of the planning tool we mention…
It started a few months ago, about two months before our own year-end. It had been a challenging year with wars, cost of living crises, general uncertainty about government elections etc. affecting the ease with which clients made decisions to spend budgets.
We managed to eek out a small amount of growth, but resolved to put in place a plan that meant we focused this year on the areas that would have the biggest impacts early on.
And we’re seeing some early results coming in:
A more diverse client base that is far less reliant on a handful of big spenders. No longer the 80/20 split; moving more towards a 50/50 split
A significant focus on developing our training ‘product’ is enabling more conversations with both longer-term clients and clients who we haven’t worked with before or who are lapsed
A commitment to do things differently is leading to us to specialize in areas so we can provide a better, more informed and effective level of support to clients
Some good impacts being made already by doing our utmost to stick to the plan we put together.
This is what we want to share with you. It’s our latest thought piece, a plan template we put together that is client- and therefore growth-focused.
Note that you already need to have in place your strategy – your target market identified both retained and new, and your positioning. From there you should be able to complete the first step relatively painlessly.
There are five steps in total that we used to come up with our priorities. You can go through the same five steps in a relatively straightforward manner, and if you want it in pdf format, just get in touch and we will be happy to send it over to you.
We call it The Making Growth Accessible Guide for 2025.
Step 1: Confirm Your Commercial Goals
Ask yourself: What are your ambitions for client retention? How much growth do you want from existing accounts? And what percentage of revenue do you aim to derive from new clients? Setting such targeted goals will guide you in prioritizing resources and efforts effectively.
**Pro Tip: ** Communicate these goals clearly across your organization to ensure alignment. By that we mean showing how they connect with your positioning, and therefore how each person’s work contributes to success. It will help get everyone behind you.
Step 2: Assess Market Headwinds and Tailwinds
With your goals in place, it’s time to understand the market forces that either propel or impede progress. Identifying both headwinds (challenges) and tailwinds (opportunities) allows you to adjust your approach accordingly.
Identifying Headwinds
Nobody can predict the future, and certainly many have looked back on their predictions and cringed (including us!).
Nevertheless, there appears to be a number of factors that are getting more entrenched as time goes on.
One of the big ones is the number of stakeholders involved in B2B buying has increased. Probably not a massive surprise for people but, as reported by many trustworthy sources, it looks set to continue to grow.
This lengthens the sales cycle and complicates the path to securing buy-in.
Of more interest we think is that the make-up of these ‘buying groups’ is also changing. There appears to be more involvement from senior executives, with more use of veto power when it comes to the final decision (and even reversing decisions that were made further down the chain of command).
Definitely something to think carefully about when you are putting together your communications right across the funnel.
Additionally, a skills gap is becoming a critical issue, with 74% of CEOs voicing concern about their workforce’s future-readiness. A lot of our clients are challenged with finding that perfect blend of a superb researcher combined with commercial nous. It’s no secret this is where we help our clients, but it’s fundamentally true of the majority of agencies and it’s a trend that isn’t going away.
As a growth-focused leader therefore, factor in these challenges early in your planning. Recognize that closing deals may take longer and may require aligning with more stakeholders, especially at the C-suite level. Adapt by ensuring your teams are equipped to communicate value at every stage and are prepared for extended timelines and additional stakeholders.
Seizing Tailwinds
Let’s get on to some better news shall we? Tailwinds, or growth enablers, provide valuable leverage. Here are three to get started with
According to the latest research, incumbents are losing out more with their clients. Now this is obviously a double-edged sword, but if you’re actively targeting a prospect that’s working with a competitor, know that it’s a little easier to win against the competition.
Secondly, it wouldn’t be a piece of B2B content without mentioned AI. But we’re not talking about that specifically. We’re focused on the benefits reaped in using it. In particular, if you are using AI already to automate processes, then that frees up team time. Time as you know is mega precious, so how will you use this in the best possible way to find growth?
Wonderfully, there are now more face-to-face opportunities to speak with your clients and develop closer relationships, so grasping this opportunity and being prepared to be, whisper it, LESS efficient on the surface at least, will mean more secure relationships in the long run.
List your known headwinds and tailwinds if you know of others that will impact you more. Develop specific responses to each challenge and decide how to leverage each opportunity in your growth strategy.
Step 3: Identify Priorities from the Buyer’s Perspective
It’s super-important to prioritize growth goals with the client’s needs in mind.
However, it can be difficult to break these down and tackle step-by-step. To do this, we used our own version of the buyer funnel, something we recommend to all our clients to bring into the mix.
It’s broken down into distinct phases: Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, Activation, Loyalty & Renewal, and Advocacy & Expansion.
For instance:
Awareness: Focus on creating mental availability and being top-of-mind when prospects consider your service.
Consideration: Demonstrate genuine value by addressing their “jobs to be done” and making it easy for them to choose your service.
Conversion: One of the big things agencies don’t do is to make themselves really easy to buy. How can you remove the hurdles and create a simple pathway to purchase?
Activation: What’s the experience you would LOVE your clients to have when the project or contract kicks off? Focus on delivering this and you’ll be in a great place.
Loyalty & Renewal: This one is increasingly under pressure. Make sure you have a plan to win the client back at the end of the project or contract. If they’re long-term clients, how are you keeping it fresh and exciting?
The killer question to answer, and help you prioritize these stages by is this: If you took your budget for growth, where would you place most of it to realize the lowest hanging fruit? Rank each stage from 1 to 6, then move on to Step 4…
Step 4: Benchmark Where You Are Today
Benchmarking is the fourth step in our guide, where you evaluate your performance across key areas to identify both strengths and gaps.
Simply put, how well are you currently positioned to engage clients at every stage of the funnel we’ve just been talking about?
Are there areas where client experiences of you fall short?
Score yourself out of 10 to measure your current status in each area. For example, rate your client onboarding process, customer support, and account expansion strategies on a scale of 1 to 10. This creates a great overview of your strengths and the areas that require improvement. A perfect base, combined with your priorities, from which to plan!
Step 5: Close the Gap
Finally it’s time to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be. This requires a tactical approach—identifying high-impact actions that address specific needs revealed during benchmarking.
Only you and your colleagues will know all the areas you need to tackle. From our perspective in the planning guide, we’ve shown what the best training topics are that will deliver growth for that particular priority.
Got a need to build loyalty? Develop account plans that live and breathe, and have a plan to deliver a fantastic experience
Need to convert more? Write fantastic proposals and follow up with purpose
Knowing the tactical things to support your teams in is the critical step to activating your plan, and making 2025 the success it should be.
Final Thought: Embrace the journey. Growth planning is not a one-time task but an ongoing process. Use our guide as a reference point throughout 2025, periodically revisiting each step to ensure you remain on track.