Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

Winning pitches is tough. Ghosting has become a common challenge, and even when you win, clients may be commissioning smaller pieces of the project rather than the full program. But that’s only part of the struggle - crafting pitch decks takes a lot of time and energy. Surely there’s a better way than packing slides with your best creative ideas. In this episode we tackle these challenges and introduce a strategic approach to pitching. The focus shifts from pitching tactics to showcasing value and ROI.

Part of the remit of an ops leader is to ensure they’ve got the right people, in the right place. In many agencies, account managers handle sales, client relationships, AND project management. However, this hybrid role often leads to trade-offs. Everyone’s got their own strengths and preferences – and these responsibilities seemingly require very different personality types.

We’re in the age of remote and hybrid working, and our physical distance from one another is having a huge impact on company culture. Previously, grabbing lunch or a drink after work was easy. But now, even small talk needs to be consciously brought into our scheduled Slack calls to avoid things becoming too transactional. This new way of working can lead to serious challenges like feeling disconnected from colleagues and the company mission, lacking motivation, and experiencing loneliness.

Without financial results, we can’t see the impact of the decisions we make on our agency’s profit. In this episode we’re joined by Alfie Wenegieme, a seasoned chartered accountant with over 17 years of commercial finance experience. Alfie shares important metrics for us to understand, report, and improve on. We explore the fundamentals of agency finances, common issues agencies face, and tips for improving your team’s understanding of key financial metrics.

Some platforms for niche use cases don’t require much consideration – you can try, and if it doesn’t work as intended, you can move onto something else. Other platforms, particularly those that are linked to your client services and business finances, require careful consideration. How do you ensure you’re making the right decision? In this episode, we discuss why growing and maturing agencies looking to scale make the transition from disjointed tools to professional services automation (PSA) platforms.

Operations is a critical role within agencies today. But beyond the day-to-day, there’s a big opportunity to leverage this role as strategic driver of growth and efficiency. How can you develop both yourself as a leader and your agency to deliver better results? In this episode, Ryan McNamara, Head of Operations for Rise at Seven, highlights 3 key areas that every ops director should focus on: Financial rigor - what metrics you should be looking at and how often, to help you make strategic decisions.

Until now, booking resources in Scoro depended on specific tasks. With the May 2024 release, we’ve introduced a new concept called bookings. Bookings allow you to set aside team members’ time for a project before deciding on specific tasks. This unlocks a less admin-heavy high-level approach to resource planning in Scoro. The webinar covers: Scoro’s vision for high-level resource planning How bookings help you plan resources and forecast utilization with greater ease and accuracy.

New tools and processes can transform your workflow. Especially when they’re well communicated, properly tested and correctly implemented. Successful change management motivates your team to adopt new practices. And makes them productive and happier - now and into the future. In this episode, we’re joined by Claire Quansah, an ops expert in the agency space with nearly two decades of experience. Claire shares the steps to consider when implementing change within your agency. She gives advice on how to promote continuous improvement and set your team up for success.

Easy access to reports and dashboards is a game changer. But if your data is siloed in different systems, replicating data can be a daunting task, let alone accurate reporting. And with manual data entry, there’s the risk of human error. Imagine if you could consolidate tools to improve automation - gaining visibility, accuracy, and efficiency within your team. In this episode we’ll hear from Tyler Caskey, a chartered accountant and founder of TheBeanCounters. You’ll learn what to look for in a new tool to centralize more of the workflow and how to introduce this change to the business.

Forget about revenue for a moment. Consider how much more profitable your agency would be if you optimized your team’s time and improved utilization. If you could reduce hiring costs by keeping staff for longer. If you understood the leaky buckets in your outgoings and reduced losses like over-servicing through improved best practice. Manish Kapur, who has over 25 years of experience in creative ops, explains how he streamlines agency operations and boost profit within agencies of all sizes.