Revenue Growth: Ask Yourself - “Am I Hunting or Farming?”
3 real ways strategic advisors grow revenue without chasing new clients
Have you noticed that when marketers talk about growing their businesses, the conversation almost always turns to lead generation.
More traffic. More calls. More new clients.
But in the past year, as we’ve been running our own business at Heights and walking alongside other strategic advisors in our masterminds, we’ve noticed a pattern:
Growth didn’t come from hunting. It came from farming.
There’s a reason for this. Think about it.
In uncertain markets, organizations become cautious about hiring new vendors. Budgets tighten. Sales cycles stretch. Decision-making slows.
But something else happens at the same time: existing clients become more valuable than ever.
They already trust you. They already know your work. And if you’re positioned as a strategic advisor—not just a vendor—they’re often open to going deeper.
That’s exactly what we saw in our own business.
Last year, most of our revenue growth didn’t come from net-new clients. It came from helping existing clients tackle more strategic challenges.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the challenges of new client acquisition, consider another approach, based on what’s working for us and many others.
Consider farming instead of hunting.
Here are three real examples of what that looked like.
1. Turning a milestone into a strategic initiative
One of our long-term clients was approaching a major milestone: their 20th and 60th anniversaries across different parts of the business.
At first glance, that sounds like a marketing campaign.
But instead of jumping straight into tactics, we started with strategy.
We facilitated planning sessions to help them answer bigger questions:
What story should this anniversary tell about the company’s evolution?
How can the milestone reinforce their long-term positioning?
What opportunities does it create for customers, partners, and employees?
From there, we mapped a full anniversary strategy that informed messaging, initiatives, and execution across the year.
The result wasn’t just another campaign deliverable. It became a strategic initiative tied to the organization’s brand narrative and future direction.
Where we used to just do quarterly meetings, we increased the scope to a monthly retainer plus project work. The client has the kind of strategic support and accountability in a banner year to increase revenue and maximize the opportunities at hand.
It’s been a win all around.
2. Supporting founder vision and succession planning
Another client engagement started as a strategic advisory retainer and monthly content coaching with their internal team.
But over time, the conversations with the founder naturally shifted upward—from marketing to leadership vision and long-term business plan.
The founder began asking bigger questions:
What does the next chapter of the company look like?
How should leadership evolve over time?
How does the company communicate that future internally and externally?
That opened the door to strategic advisory work around vision, leadership transition, and long-term positioning. We’ve done additional on-site half-day workshop facilitation with this founder to bring fresh perspective, help them organize their thoughts and goals, and map out the plan that goes way beyond today’s realities.
As a trusted advisor, we also helped them think about what needs to stay in the room (because it might overwhelm the team or distract them) and what needs to be communicated about this vision today and next year.
Again, this wasn’t something we hunted for. It emerged because we were already in the room, already trusted, and willing to engage at a deeper strategic level.
Many marketers miss opportunities like this because they stay focused on the tactical scope of their current engagement.
Strategic advisors pay attention to the bigger conversations happening around the work.
3. Turning a “no” into a strategic project
Funny enough, sometimes farming looks like pivoting after a lost opportunity.
One client asked us to propose a fractional CMO engagement. After reviewing the proposal, they decided not to move forward because they just weren’t ready at this stage of their business.
It could’ve been an easy moment to walk away.
But during the conversation, they mentioned something important: they were investing heavily in two industry conferences and had speaking engagements as a part of those events.
Instead of pushing harder on the original proposal, we asked a different question:
“Do you have a strategy in place to maximize those events?”
They didn’t.
So we proposed a smaller engagement: a set of strategy sessions focused on clarifying goals of their investment and identifying a plan for before, during, and after the event, including lead capture tactics.
Those sessions helped them:
Clarify messaging for the event
Design lead capture and follow-up processes
Align their team around clear goals
The results were significant:
One conference generated a new $50K client
Another added 83 new email subscribers—more than 10x their typical list growth
They also received a referral from someone they met at the event for an ideal client
Was it the large engagement we originally proposed?
No.
But it was valuable work, meaningful impact for the client, and a great example of how strategic thinking can unlock new opportunities within existing relationships.
What farming looks like in practice
If you want to grow through existing clients, the shift isn’t just tactical. It’s a mindset.
Strategic advisors constantly ask:
Where else could strategy help here?
Some simple ways this shows up:
1 - Strategy sessions
Add quarterly or project-based strategy sessions to help clients step back and evaluate direction.
2 - Scorecard development
Help clients define how they measure marketing effectiveness and build a reporting framework around it.
3 - Event or campaign strategy
Instead of just executing campaigns, help clients design the strategy behind major initiatives. Find out what’s coming up in their business cycle and suggest how you could help them to be more strategic and maximize growth opportunities.
4 - Vision and positioning work
Many organizations need help clarifying where they’re going and how to communicate it.
5 - Leadership advisory
As trust grows, marketing conversations often lead to broader strategic questions about the business, the leadership, the next phase.
None of these require chasing new leads. They simply require seeing more opportunity within the clients you already serve.
The shift from vendor to advisor
Vendors focus on deliverables.
Strategic advisors focus on outcomes.
When you make that shift, something interesting happens: clients start inviting you into bigger conversations.
And those conversations naturally lead to deeper engagements.
That doesn’t mean you stop hunting for new clients. Lead generation still matters.
But many marketers underestimate the opportunity sitting right in front of them.
Your current clients already trust you.
The real question is:
Are you just delivering the work they asked for…
or
Are you helping them think about what comes next?
