Agency Services

AGENCY CONSULTING SERVICES

Ark Advisors offers a range of customized Agency Consulting Services to help educate, empower and enrich agency business outcomes, including:

A. Talent Recruitment

Having managed volumes of reviews and attended hundreds of agency presentations, Ark Advisors has a unique insight and familiarity with a cross section of the nation’s talent base. We are often engaged by agencies for help in filling critical positions.  We know the talent and skills sets needed to help drive an agency’s growth. And we know where to find it. Together with our specialist executive recruitment partners, we work with you throughout the entire process – from needs assessment and candidate screening to final negotiations and contracting.

B. Business Development Counsel

It is often hard for agencies to focus on their own brand and go-to-market strategy because they don’t have the time, the objective perspective or the marketplace insight into what constitutes best practice. Having managed volumes of agency reviews (and thus attended hundreds of hours of new business presentations) Ark Advisors is uniquely qualified to benchmark business development best practice and to evaluate an agency’s overall ability to conduct a consistent, compelling and differentiating go-to-market offering.

  • We offer New Business Program Development as well as full Pitch Consulting – from prospecting guidance and RFP Critique to Presentation Coaching and ongoing counsel throughout an entire pitch.

C. Agency Positioning and Marketing Programs

Agencies work so hard on positioning their clients’ brands that they often neglect their own. Or they develop a positioning that they think is unique and differentiating, without realizing that they might be offering a carbon copy of other agencies’ approaches. Because we have seen so many agency credentials presentations, we know what the buzzwords of the moment are – and we know when clients figuratively ‘roll their eyes’ because they’ve either heard it all before, don’t understand the meaning, or simply don’t care.

  • We can help an agency develop a positioning that is true to that agency’s DNA – the best and most unique positioning they can honestly claim – and then to help develop programs dimensionalize/socialize that positioning both internally and externally.
  • We also help agencies to develop strategic marketing plans – including multi-media outreach and PR strategies. We help agencies to maximize the effectiveness of their agency teams and create an ongoing review and feedback system — so that the agency’s marketing programs are monitored in the same ways that clients’ businesses are monitored.

D. Compensation Counsel

Corporate clients have internal resources (Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, etc.) and/or outside consultants assisting them in negotiating agency compensation and contracts. All too often, however, agencies enter into these negotiations without similar support.

Having managed hundreds of agency compensation agreements, Ark Advisors is in a unique position to act as a financial intermediary – either working behind the scenes or directly with your client – to help develop, defend and negotiate mutually equitable terms, based upon prevailing industry fees, that provide both fair compensation/profit to your agency and offer fair value to your client.

E. Business Profitability Counsel

Both start-ups and well-established agencies alike can benefit from the expert counsel of a seasoned Chief Financial Officer. Unfortunately, a full-time CFO is a luxury many agencies cannot afford. Now Ark Advisors can help.

We have assembled a core team of experienced CFOs, available on a part-time contract basis, offering valuable strategic counsel. These ‘CFOs for Hire’ have both small agency and network CFO experience, and offer best practice counsel and remediation to help assure that your financial and operational systems are in excellent working order and fully optimized.

F. Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory

Ark Advisors, the top-rated Management Consultancy to Corporate Marketers and Marketing Services providers, serves in an advisory capacity to agencies and other companies seeking to invest, sell, merge or acquire marketing services businesses.

We help clients obtain the best deal – operationally, financially and culturally – by combining our unparalleled industry insight with state-of-the-market operational and organizational due diligence.

Click here for a more detailed description of our M&A service offering

Please contact us in complete confidence to learn more about these and other customized Agency Consulting Services.

 


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