The Replacement Treadmill
Two agencies that win new clients at the same pace end up in completely different places, because the one that keeps its clients grows while the one that loses them shrinks.
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The mechanism
The chart draws two lines that both start at 100 in Year 0. The dark green line, marked 85% kept, drifts up to about 113 by Year 3. The red dashed line, marked 65% kept, slides down to about 69. Both agencies bring in the same number of new clients each year and started the same size, so the only difference is how many clients stay. When you keep more of the clients you already have, new work adds to a bigger base; when you keep fewer, new work only refills the hole the leavers left.
Part of Persistence. Infrastructure that keeps growth compounding past founder heroics.