Why Your Agency Is Worth Choosing and How to Prove It

Confidence and vulnerability—two very different states of being and yet both play a role in positioning your agency as a great partner. 

I’ve been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks, ever since we hosted the Messaging Advantage, a free mini-intensive workshop for small agencies that addressed a palpable and immediate situation a lot of agencies are facing—weak pipelines.

Nearly 60 agencies signed up and that number alone told me something. When I asked what brought people there, the chat filled up fast:

"It's hard to break through." "It feels like a slog." "We're getting ghosted." "We can't communicate what makes us a great partner."

These aren't new complaints, but the volume was different. The reality is the market is more competitive, clients are more discerning, and the window to make an impression is narrower than it used to be. But what’s interesting to note is not all agencies are struggling equally.

The Confident Differentiators

According to this year's Agency Core study, a survey of almost 600 independent agencies, there's a segment that's notably less anxious about new business. They're called the Confident Differentiators, and agency leaders in this group were more likely to report success in building trust with new prospects because they clearly communicate what makes them different.

I want to focus on the "confident" part of that label. And to be clear, I’m not talking about bravado or boasting. Those raise a prospect's guard rather than lower it.

I’m talking about the kind of confidence that is exuded when you trust your expertise enough to truly understand what your prospects are going through. 

It shows up when you push back on a pitch brief and say, "Here's why we'd recommend a different direction" and you offer an informed explanation why. It shows up when you take a stand for what you know a client should do rather than angling to please them in the room. It signals to a prospect that you're not going to tell them what they want to hear when what they really need is a fresh approach.

To understand why this matters, you have to understand what's happening on the other side of the table.

Hiring a new agency is not a low-stakes decision for the person making it. It's expensive to find the right partner. It takes time to vet, onboard, and get them up to speed. And if it doesn't work out? Their professional reputation is on the line (especially if they’re the one who championed the choice). Their team gets disrupted. There may be political fallout. Opportunities may be missed. The costs, in time and trust, can be unrecoverable.

This is why prospects sometimes behave in ways that seem confounding like going quiet after a meeting that felt so right. 

I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt (note: this is different from excusing bad behavior, which I definitely don’t suggest.) It’s more likely they’re protecting themselves, their time and their team than being purposefully difficult.

It’s the situation that’s difficult. And that’s actually good news, because you can influence a situation far more than you can control another person.

The Role Vulnerability Plays

Most agency owners know they need to project confidence in a pitch. Fewer think about the role vulnerability plays.

Admitting failure, or even difficulty, puts us in awkward, uncomfortable situations. And yet, our failures produce our deepest learning. How we bounce back from hard moments is what actually shapes us as professionals and as agencies.

Being open about the tough spots you've navigated and what you did to get out of them tells a prospect something your highlight reel never could: what kind of partner you'll actually be when the going gets tough.

But how does an agency pull this off without sounding like a mistake-prone bunch of clowns?

You master your storytelling skills.

Think about the times you presented a bold idea the client couldn't resist — and then had to figure out how to actually make it real.

Or when forces beyond your control required a U-turn, and you had to come up with a better solution on the fly.

Or when someone on your team, maybe outside their lane entirely, came up with the idea that changed everything.

Those are your stories. They demonstrate how you think, adapt and deliver. They have contrast and conflict, not because nothing ever goes wrong, but because sometimes it does and you have the skill and commitment to figure it out. 

You probably have more of these stories than you realize. 

Take a look at your sales and marketing messaging. Where are the opportunities to go beyond just telling your prospects about your strengths and achievements? Where might a little vulnerability inject some contrast — something that leads your prospect to conclude, on their own, that you and your team are problem-solvers, strategic thinkers, and relentlessly dedicated to results?

Without you having to beat them over the head with all those worn-out phrases.

That's the difference between an agency that looks good on paper and one that a prospect actually chooses. Confidence gets you in the room. Vulnerability (the right kind, well told) is what builds trust.