From Agency to Ecosystem: Navigating the New Growth Model

Driven by developments in technology, the relationship between businesses and customers is reforming. That means the way B2B organisations must devise and deliver marketing strategies is also in flux. 

Agency dominance - characterised by decision-makers who outsource strategy and execution, often alongside the majority of their marketing budget - has begun to morph into another model. 

Traditional agency dependency is under pressure in many B2B environments. Even the most diligent and agile agency partners can’t always justify big teams and fees - especially when they seem to value output over outcomes. 

Strong agencies remain critical partners but increasingly as components of a broader growth system, not the system itself. 

If you’re a business owner, founder, CEO or other senior leader and the marketing buck stops with you, you’ll know that pressure on your time, budget and resource has never been greater. A different approach to marketing is now needed to navigate change and grasp chances to grow. 

Into this space comes a new partner model: formations founded on the expertise of experienced practitioners who understand the new business landscape and know how to secure growth. 

A new way to kick-start growth 

Growth has stalled at many B2B organisations. Economic headwinds aren’t the only factor. 

Without the luxury of a dedicated marketing lead founders and CEOs add it as a task on their own to-do list. When that list is already the length of a best-selling fiction blockbuster, marketing takes a back seat - and growth suffers. 

Handing the marketing strategy brief to an external agency was deemed the next best option for decades, if not the only one. Yet too many agency partners deliver campaigns, and devise dashboards to monitor them, but can’t connect marketing output to commercial outcomes. 

This does nothing to support the goal of achieving predictable revenue acceleration, transparent accountability, or the overall quest for growth. 

Instead, today’s entrepreneurs succeed when they assemble a growth ecosystem. Marketing, sales and RevOps are all treated as parts of the same model, not disparate functions. They possess a common definition of success and an equal share of the spotlight, illuminating their role transparently and setting clear objectives that push for growth. 

No longer is the marketing operation structured around what can be achieved in a specific timeframe, or the strategy sustained by tweaks to comms through certain channels.  

With the growth ecosystem approach, the tendency to use campaign performance as the answer to all marketing problems is cast aside - and there’s a shift away from time-based effort as the primary measure of value. 

The new model is focussed, transparent and rigorous, with a laser focus on growth. It’s underpinned by specialists with outstanding track-records, and the ability to stay the course and succeed in the face of tough targets. 

How the growth ecosystem works 

Formation’s model feeds off a major shift in the freelance economy. 

The market is now dominated by freelancers who are ex-agency leaders. They deeply understand the B2B landscape. They know how to harness technology to collaborate without friction. Most importantly, they act as close business partners to devise strategies which work, see strategy through to execution, and turn execution into revenue. 

Crucially, we choose best-fit talent and align each specialist with a revenue objective that reflects commercial goals agreed by leadership, marketing, sales and RevOps. In this way the entire growth ecosystem uses a shared commercial scorecard. Every deliverable - from channel-based marketing comms to developing content for sales enablement - has a clear owner and measurable impact. 

Strategy isn’t a deck - it’s a team formed of value-adding experts, a delivery roadmap and a commercial scorecard. By organising the team around the pace of revenue and quality of deals all tactics are tied to commercial impact. It’s a world away from the traditional agency focus on selling services instead of solving growth problems. 

The shift toward this model is already happening across industries. But to take full advantage B2B organisations must understand how to professionalise the process, creating from its components an unstoppable engine of growth and a predictable view of your financial future. 

Getting started with a growth strategy 

Building a growth ecosystem in-flight while your business carries on day-to-day operations is no mean feat - but it can be done if you have the right team in place and follow a repeatable process we’ve implemented successfully for many businesses. 

The journey to sustainable growth starts with our Growth Diagnosis: understanding your current ecosystem and designing a new version which is tailored to your goals. 

This vital first phase considers market position, revenue model, sales motion, existing tech/data stack, and identifies capability gaps. Bottlenecks in the structure of your business are exposed and the design of your growth ecosystem begins. 

The growth plan focuses on the 12 to 24 months ahead. But detailed planning takes place quarterly to ensure high-impact opportunities are prioritised and achievable targets put in place. This means your business leaders can easily monitor and measure progress. 

Speak to us about running your Growth Diagnosis - as a workshop, audit or consultation to suit your initial needs. 

Switch from agency dependency to specialist-led growth outcomes and unlock