Thriving in a Chaotic Market

How Agencies Can Thrive in Tight Markets by Building Two Critical Growth Muscles By Miranda Anderson

Markets are down. Budgets are tightening. The economic headwinds we’re facing in 2025 aren’t just creating pressure—they’re exposing the fragility of traditional growth models in professional services. For agencies and consultancies the message is clear: riding momentum isn’t enough anymore. You need to manufacture it.

To break this cycle, agencies need to think like operators, not just marketers. In my work with agencies navigating tight revenue cycles, two critical levers consistently separate the resilient from the reactive:

1. Client Partners Must Drive Organic Growth Like Business Advisors

Organic growth is a deliberate outcome of operationalizing strategic client leadership. Today’s CMOs and business leaders expect more than execution—they demand strategic foresight and revenue impact. A 2024 Forrester report found that 62% of marketing decision-makers now view agencies as long-term business partners rather than executional vendors1. To succeed, client partners / account directors must go beyond the scope of today's work, or the surface of their clients' problems, and intentionally dig in to clients' business challenges and proactively co-create solutions. Bain & Company’s findings show that companies with strong account management structures outperform peers in client expansion by up to 25%2.

To institutionalize this:

• Invest in consultative selling and business acumen training for client teams. This includes account planning, revenue forecasting, selling, pitching and negotiating.

• Tie variable compensation to expansion, not just retention.

2. Operationalize & Sell Innovation: From Ideas to Saleable Accelerators

In tight markets, clients want fast, visible impact. Innovation isn't just a creative exercise—it's a business continuity strategy.

Agencies must operationalize their internal IP creation. Leading firms are running internal innovation sprints—short, high-intensity engagements that rapidly prototype saleable solutions based on emerging client needs or market whitespace. They could come to life as:

• Accelerators – repeatable, customizable frameworks or toolkits.

• Proofs of Concept – lightweight demonstrations that shorten the sales cycle.

• Revenue-generating IP – proprietary tools, data products, or workshops.
  

Gartner data shows that B2B firms that operationalize agile innovation outperform in both client satisfaction and EBITDA growth during volatile periods4.

Final Thought: Build the Muscles Before You Need Them

The challenge is, you can’t build a growth engine mid-crisis. You build it when things are good—when you can test, refine, and scale without the added pressure of survival.

If you’re a leader in an agency or consultancy, ask yourself:

• Are our client partners capable of uncovering and activating organic growth?

• Can our internal teams spin up solutions that clients will pay for in under 30 days?

If the answer is no, now’s the time to build those muscles. Because the firms that thrive aren’t the ones that wait for momentum. They make it.

Footnotes

1. Forrester Research, The Global Marketing Services Forecast, 2024–2027, April 2024 ↩

2. Bain & Company, How Leading Firms Drive Growth from Existing Clients, Q3 2023 ↩

3. McKinsey & Company, Resource Reallocation During a Downturn, 2023 ↩

4. Gartner, Agile Marketing Practices and Profitability in B2B Services, 2024 ↩