We're All Hunting for Clients, But Have We Missed the Shift?

Earlier this week at the Umbraco UK Partners Summit in Bristol, I found myself in familiar conversations with fellow agency owners. Everyone's working harder to win new business, refining pitches, improving proposals, and wondering why client acquisition feels tougher than it used to be.

Listening to these discussions, something struck me: we're all hunting in the same territory we've always hunted, using the same tactics that worked a decade ago.

When TSD started in 2003, client acquisition was straightforward. Most businesses didn't have websites, and those that did often had basic brochure sites that barely functioned. We were selling digital transformation to companies that hadn't been transformed yet.

The hunting was easy because the prey was obvious, plentiful, and needed what we offered.

Now? Everyone has a website. The hunting grounds have fundamentally changed, yet most of us continue to use the same approach.

The Sunk Cost Satisfaction Trap

What I'm hearing from partners across the UK (and what we're experiencing ourselves) is that clients are stuck in what I'm going to call

"sunk cost satisfaction"

They've invested significantly in their current platform (Umbraco, Sitefinity, Sitecore, WordPress, Drupal or legacy CMS), and whilst they're not thrilled with it, they're reluctant to discard that investment.

"The platform's not great, but it's okay," they say. "Is it really worth changing?"

From what I'm hearing, we're hunting for clients ready to make major platform decisions, but most potential clients are in maintenance mode. They want incremental improvements, not transformation change or replatforming (changing the underlying technology).

This creates a mismatch between what agencies are selling (major projects, re-platforms, digital transformation) and what most businesses are buying (minor improvements, ongoing maintenance, problem-solving).

We're All Hunting the Same Rare Clients

The result? Every agency is competing for the same small pool of businesses ready to make major digital investments. We're all hunting the same rare clients with increasingly sophisticated pitches, longer proposal processes, and smaller margins.

There's a much larger market of businesses we're largely ignoring: those with functional-but-frustrating digital setups who aren't actively seeking transformation but would benefit enormously from it.

These aren't prospects in the traditional sense. They're not requesting proposals or attending digital conferences. They're getting by with what they have, unaware of what's possible, or assuming the disruption isn't worth the benefit.

The New Forest: Selling Transformation, Not Transactions

The agencies I see succeeding longer term aren't those hunting for clients who want websites. They're hunting for businesses that want better results.

Take one of our recent clients - a manufacturer with a perfectly functional Umbraco e-commerce setup. They weren't looking to replatform. But they were frustrated that processing a bulk order took their team two hours of manual work. We focused on that frustration, not their platform.

The result? We automated their bulk order process, saving 8 hours per week and reducing errors by 90%. That's £5,000-10,000 annual saving in labour costs alone, plus improved customer experience. No platform change required.

Agencies shouldn't be selling platform migrations; we should be selling time savings, revenue increases, and competitive advantages. Not pitching technical features; instead, demonstrating business outcomes.

Instead of "Umbraco has better content management than WordPress," try "we can reduce your content publishing time from three days to thirty minutes, freeing your marketing team to focus on strategy instead of wrestling with technology."

The shift is from transaction-based selling (build this, implement that) to transformation-based selling (achieve this outcome, solve this business problem).

Why Most Agencies Haven't Made This Shift

The honest answer? It's harder work, and it requires admitting our traditional approach needs evolution.

Selling features to clients who want websites is straightforward. You know the conversation pattern, the proposal structure, the project phases. You're selling what you've always sold to people who want to buy it.

Selling business transformation requires understanding clients' operations, not just their websites. It means longer discovery phases, deeper consultancy skills, and the ability to articulate ROI beyond "your website will load faster."

We're all learning this together. At TSD, we've had to develop business analysis skills alongside our technical expertise. We've had to learn to ask different questions: not "what features do you need?" but "what's taking your team too long each week?"

Most of us are still hunting in the old forest because that's where we learned to hunt, even though the game has moved on.

The Risk of Hunting in the Wrong Forest

Here's what worries me: whilst we're perfecting our aim in an increasingly sparse forest, client expectations continue rising. Their competitors are implementing better solutions, their customers expect improved experiences, and their teams are frustrated by outdated workflows.

The agencies that recognise this shift will capture disproportionate market share. They'll build relationships with businesses before those businesses realise they need help. They'll position themselves as strategic partners rather than project vendors.

Those who continue hunting in the traditional territory will find themselves competing primarily on price for an increasingly rare type of project.

The forest has more game than ever before. We're just looking in the wrong places.

Learning to Hunt Differently

What if we approached client conversations completely differently?

Instead of: "Are you looking to upgrade your website?" Try: "How much time does your team spend each week on manual processes that could be automated?"

Instead of: "Our platform offers better content management" Try: "We recently helped a similar company reduce their product update time from 3 days to 3 hours - what would that time saving be worth to your business?"

Instead of: "You should re-platform for better performance" Try: "Your current site speed is probably costing you conversions - shall we run a quick audit to quantify the impact?"

The conversation shifts from what we can build to what they can achieve. From technical capabilities to business outcomes.

This isn't theoretical - we've seen this approach transform client relationships. Instead of being the agency they call when something breaks, we become the partner they call when they want to grow.

The Skills Gap We Need to Bridge

This different approach requires different capabilities. We need business consultancy skills alongside technical expertise. We need to understand client operations, not just their digital infrastructure. We need to demonstrate ROI, not just showcase portfolio pieces.

At TSD, this has meant investing in business analysis training, developing ROI calculators, and spending more time in client discovery phases, understanding their actual workflows - not just their website requirements.

It means longer relationships but more valuable ones. It means fewer projects but higher margins. It means positioning as strategic partners rather than technical vendors.

Most agencies (ourselves included) are still developing these capabilities. The ones who master this transition first will have a significant competitive advantage - and more importantly, will deliver better outcomes for their clients.

The Opportunity Window

Most agencies haven't recognised this shift yet. They're still hunting in the traditional forest, competing for increasingly rare clients with increasingly sophisticated proposals.

The new forest is full of opportunity.

Businesses with Umbraco, DynamicWeb, Sitefinity or Sitecore setups that work adequately but could work brilliantly with the right optimisations. Companies whose teams are spending hours on tasks that could be streamlined or automated. Organisations are missing revenue opportunities because their current setup makes certain improvements seem impossible.

These businesses aren't actively seeking agencies because they don't realise how much better their operations could be. They're the hidden market - and the agencies that learn to identify and approach them will build sustainable competitive advantages.

The conversation at the summit confirmed what many of us have been sensing:

We're working harder for the same results because we haven't adapted our approach to match how the market has evolved.

The clients are out there. We're just looking in the wrong forest.

Are you seeing this shift in your own client conversations? How has your approach to business development evolved over the past few years? I'd be interested to hear whether other agencies are experiencing this same tension between traditional sales approaches and market reality.