Building Strategic Services: Turning Insight into a Funded Division

In 2024, I pitched Liaison Creative + Marketing on a new division that could drive revenue by solving a different kind of client problem—how to help marketing leaders prove business impact, not just produce creative output. Buyer behavior had changed, and agencies that kept selling “more assets” were missing where growth really happened: in the buyer’s decision process.

The idea wasn’t a content play. It was a business development play. If we could help clients measure and remove friction from their buyer experience, we could open new doors for Liaison while earning advisory-level trust before creative ever started.

To test the concept, I built a business plan, a go-to-market model, and a prototype diagnostic. The first pitch fell flat. The second landed after I used the framework to analyze our owner’s own vendor experience and benchmarked it against a competitor. The clarity of that comparison got the project funded.

From there, we built what became Liaison’s Strategic Services System—a four-part framework based on real client needs and our agency strengths:

• Targeting: Identify who truly deserves attention and prove it with data.

• Signals: Detect where buyers show readiness and measure decision velocity.

• Content: Diagnose and design assets that build buyer confidence, not just awareness.

• Orchestration: Connect data, timing, and creative into a measurable growth rhythm.

Each service stands alone but links naturally to the next. A client might start with a Buyer Impact Analysis and expand into signal mapping or content orchestration. Every engagement produces new insight, builds trust, and creates downstream work for Liaison’s creative teams.

In the first year, the division guided more than thirty clients through buyer-journey diagnostics and confidence audits. Early results showed faster deal velocity, higher lead quality, and a measurable lift in pipeline clarity. More important, it proved that a mid-sized agency could compete with larger consultancies—not by adding headcount, but by adding systemized insight.

Building this division has been both a business experiment and a leadership lesson. I proposed it, funded it through proof, and led its development—but the success has been shared. Each project sharpened our process and strengthened the collaboration between strategy, content, and creative teams.