Why Distrust is Rising and What Agencies Can Do About It, with Hannah Roth

Today’s episode of Sell With Authority tackles a question that comes up almost every time I sit down with an agency owner:

Why does biz dev feel harder than it used to?

If your sales pipeline feels heavier, slower, or tougher to move than it did even a year ago — you’re not imagining things.

Agency optimism has dropped from nearly three-quarters of leaders feeling confident about growth…to less than half. Two-thirds of agencies lost clients last year. And only 7% say they’re effective at expanding with current clients.

Biz dev feels like a grind.

But here’s the flip side: the agencies that are niching down, planting their flag of authority, and making data-fueled decisions — they’re the ones finding traction and weathering the storm.

And that’s where we focus our time and attention today.

My guest is Hannah Roth, our Director of Strategy here at Predictive ROI — and my soon-to-be business partner as she officially joins our ownership team this February. We call Hannah our “Mad Scientist” — because she spends days deep in tens of thousands of data points, analyzing sales pipelines, uncovering leaks, and spotting where the highest-probability opportunities are hiding.

Hannah is a data scientist — which means her insights aren’t theory. They’re backed by research, data, and real-world client work.

In this episode, she walks us through what she calls The State of Agency Biz Dev.

We cover:

-Why optimism has cratered and pipelines feel stalled
– The unseen mistakes draining money from agency biz dev
– Patterns that separate struggling generalists from thriving niche leaders
– Shifting from chasing leads to attracting right-fit clients

If you apply what Hannah shares, you’ll see where the market really is — and where your next opportunities are waiting.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why agency optimism about growth has cratered — and what the data actually says about why
• Money-draining mistakes to root out now before they cost you next quarter’s revenue
• How “trust” has become as valuable as your service — and 66% of you don’t have a strategy for it — yikes!
• Habits that separate agencies thriving in a storm from those that get “stuck”
• How leveraging first-party data creates your very own lab
• Why “failed” experiments can build trust and authority
• How your sales process might be secretly sabotaging your biz dev efforts

Resources:

• THE STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENT INDEX: https://theexpressory.com/engagementindex
• The 2025 State of Marketing Report: https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing
• Agency Core: https://audienceaudit.com/agency-core/
• Website: www.predictiveroi.com
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Hannah’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-roth-387a6b223/