Here’s a familiar scene:
An agency owner hops on a call with me, a little anxious.
“Our pipeline is looking thin. I’m kind of freaking out. How do I land some deals fast before this turns into a bigger problem?”
I get it. I’ve been in that spot too.
The mistake most people make here is jumping to the wrong kind of sales activity. They’ll say: “Let’s get a new post up, and get more active on social media!” Or, “Maybe we should sponsor that conference in six months.”
That’s not what you do when your workload is drying up in 30 days.
The truth is, not all sales opportunities live on the same timeline. Some are quick wins. Some take a couple months. Some are slow burns that compound over years.
You need to know which sales strategy to follow depending on how urgent your workload problem is. And, more importantly, you need to build winning sales habits in all three so you’re not constantly living in panic mode.
Here’s how to break it down.
Short-Term Sales Strategies
When you’re staring at expenses and need revenue very soon, the fastest path is through your existing clients.
They trust you. They’ve paid you before. You’re already a vetted vendor. And that, my agency-owning friends, is gold.
The question to ask yourself is: What could I do for them that’s both genuinely helpful and easy to say yes to?
A few ways I’ve seen this work:
- Offer an audit (brand, digital, ad, tech). Something scoped, maybe at a few different price points, that highlights strengths and weaknesses. Then provide an implementation plan that’s easy to buy.
- Do the audit pro bono, but package up solutions to the problems you uncover. Roll the “audit cost” into the price of implementation to recoup it.
- Dig through your backlog of requests – all those “nice to have” projects, features, and improvements clients asked about but never pulled the trigger on. Package them up, add a discount, and make it a clean, easy offer.
If you’ve already tapped your existing client list, the next source are your past clients. With these clients, the projects ended, but there was no falling out. Circle back. Remember: don’t walk in proposing marriage. Date first. Check in, share something useful, rekindle the relationship. Grab lunch.
Lastly, you can try high-intent social. Not blasting strangers with DMs – do you really want to be that kind of person? – but instead, tactically showing up where your prospects are talking.
- Find posts from prospects in your niche.
- Add thoughtful comments (“We solved this for X nonprofit last year by…”).
- Offer small bits of help (“Have 15 minutes? Happy to hop on a quick call to see if I can help.”).
The key element of short-term sales is coming in with a lower-priced offer ideally to people who already know / have bought from your firm. Smaller, well-scoped “wedge” offerings are easier to buy, don’t require RFPs, and should still be appropriately priced for their value. A six-figure proposal will usually trigger purchasing involvement, and thus extend the sales cycle from weeks to months.
Medium-Term Sales Strategies
If you’ve got a couple of months of runway, you can breathe a bit. This is when you broaden your sources in addition to the short term strategies:
- RFPs. Yes, they can be painful. But if you qualify/disqualify properly and have a fast response process, they can fill gaps. My (long) post on my former firm’s sales process touches on this.
- Prospects gone cold. Sort your CRM by old opportunities that fizzled. Send a short, personal note: “Hey, we chatted last year about X. Curious if that’s still on your radar?” Better yet, add value with something useful: an article, a grant they could apply for, etc.
- Grant winners. Grants are often announced publicly, with amounts and recipients. These organizations suddenly have budget and objectives. Many will have vendors lined up, but some won’t.
- Old clients. Projects ended, but there was no falling out. Circle back. Don’t come in selling hard—check in, share something useful, and rebuild the relationship.
Lastly, don’t forget proactive referrals. Instead of “know anyone?”, be specific:
- Make a list of happy clients.
- See who they’re connected to on LinkedIn in the same industry.
- When the timing’s right, ask for an intro to that specific person.
Long-Term Sales Strategies
When your pipeline looks healthy and you’re not desperate, this is where you should be spending a good chunk of your time.
These efforts won’t put money in your pocket tomorrow, but they’ll make sure future-you isn’t panicking six months from now.
- Get your positioning straight. Clarity here is everything. What do you do? For whom? What’s the result? And what happens if they don’t hire you? (If your answer is “we’re creative problem solvers,” you’re in trouble and please book a call with me.)
- Build and share expertise. Share insightful, high-value content in the places your audience frequents: LinkedIn, industry podcasts, guest panels, maybe your own blog. Don’t spam; contribute.
- Brand building. All of this is brand-building, I suppose, but show up consistently in your niche – conferences, sponsorships, retargeting ads, social engagement. Over time, people start to think of your firm first.
A real sales funnel is also fundamental to sales and marketing, but most firms don’t actually have one. They have a website with a “let’s talk” hook and they hope someone clicks, and maybe a CRM with stages. A real funnel looks different:
- A lead magnet or sign-up incentive that gives value right away (you know what these look like: a guide, checklist, webinar, etc). The key is it has to be high enough value for people to actually hand over their email.
- A nurture sequence: emails or touchpoints that keep prospects warm by offering solutions and proving you understand their problems. B2B relationships often take upwards of 6-8 touchpoints. Note: provide actual value, solve their problems. Make them the hero; don’t talk about yourself so much. You are dating; don’t be the person who leaps to marriage.
- A conversion step: a low-friction offer to talk (like a discovery call, audit, or workshop) that makes it easy for a warm lead to raise their hand.
- A clear handoff from marketing to sales: so leads don’t just sit in your net forever, but move into conversations and proposals.
- And, critically, a method and budget to attract those bigger deals to that gated entrance to the funnel.
Yes, all of this still works. If it doesn’t work, the content isn’t good enough (high-enough value), and/or your positioning and messaging isn’t.
When your real sales funnel runs consistently, you’re not relying on random referrals or bursts of activity. You’re building a pipeline that grows while you sleep.
The reactive method most agencies follow looks like this: realize you’re close to running out of work, then frantically start writing posts or engaging on social media. Results are minimal.
Instead, I’d encourage you to be proactive. Build a balanced rhythm of short, medium, and long-term sales habits. Assign them across your team. Measure them. Adjust them. Stick with them.
With the latter method, sales stops being a panic button and becomes a well-considered mix of strategies that yields smaller, quick wins as well as bigger, long-term projects.