How to get more out of your agency

It’s no secret that marketers are under increasing pressure to deliver real, honest-to-God, dollar and cents ROI on their budgets.

This invariably means clients pushing their agencies to deliver more ‘value’ in terms of faster turnaround, reduced costs and greater productivity.

Agencies themselves are under extreme duress from their holding company masters to deliver profit margins in the 20% range. And they’re expected to grow their revenues year on year.

All this seems to be mutually contradictory and in practice it usually is. And it always results in lower quality work, distrust and dissatisfaction for both parties.

Is it possible to establish a healthier, more productive way for both sides to work together?

As someone who has spent more than 20 years on the agency side but who is now in a role that gives me a very good view of the other side of the fence, I think there is.

And I’d like to suggest a few approaches that marketers might want to consider here.

Before you think about finding the right agency, think about finding the right people

I can’t emphasise this enough: the people you work with every day on your business are the most important factor in any agency consideration.

A pitch is just that: pitching ideas that, even with the finest, most detailed of briefings, are at best very surface solutions arrived at in a short time period and backed by few if any genuine insights.

On the other hand, if you focus on selecting the right people to work on your business, then you can arrive at the solution that’s best for you together.

Choose the agency that’s right for you

Agencies come in all shapes, sizes and skill sets. So you have to select an agency that has resources appropriate to your needs.

If you need your agency to develop campaigns that have to be brought to market regionally and globally, then that boutique five-person agency might not be right for you, regardless of their creative ability and ‘strategic partnerships’ with other independent agencies in your target markets.

On the other hand, if you want to ensure that the people who so impressed you during the pitch really will be the people working on your business, then you might want to consider going with a smaller shop where the name on the door is the name of the person you’ll be dealing with every day.

Make sure your agency profits from your business

I am by no means advocating spending irresponsibly. It’s fair and reasonable to expect your agency to be able to justify the fees they are charging you. But at the same time you need to recognise that they are in business to make a profit too.

It’s a very simple equation. The more money an agency can make from your business, the more resources they can, should and must devote to your account.

If you want to have the best people working with you, they usually come with a price tag to match. Squeezing your agency on fees will always, always lead to fewer, less experienced (and less talented) staff being put on your business. And they’ll be spending more time working on other clients which means less time spent on you.

Make sure the people you work with want to work with you

Naturally if your agency is making a reasonable profit from your business, they’ll be very happy to work with you. Well, the CFO and the CEO will anyway.

But of course they’re not the people you’ll be working with every day. (I mean, do you really want a CFO writing your ads?)

If you want to get the best work and the most value out of your agency, you need to make sure that the people you deal with every day – the guys who really do the work – really want to work with you.

And it’s not that difficult.

Be clear about your budget.

I’ve lost count of how many times clients have told me to not worry about budgets.

“If the idea is good enough,” they tell me, “we’ll find the money.”

But this never, ever happens.

At best, the agency has to go back to the drawing board.

At worst, the agency is forced to execute an idea that the client has fallen in love with to a budget that simply doesn’t allow it to be done properly. And this always leads to significant unhappiness for everybody.

Straight talk goes a long way.

If, due to your corporate structure, you are unable to give final approval or your boss has given you only the vaguest indications what they want, tell your agency team.

Experienced agency people are usually very good at reading between the lines and making educated guesses about what clients really want as opposed to what they say they want. Work on the problem together and your success rate will increase remarkably.

When your agency presents a solution that doesn’t work for you, tell them so outright. They’re big boys (and girls) and are very used to rejection. In fact, before the work has been presented to you, it’s probably gone through several rounds of rejection and amendments within the agency itself. They can take it, believe me.

 (And, to be perfectly honest, if you don’t really know what’s wrong, the chances are the problem with the work doesn’t lie with the agency.)

Yes. You can get a lot of work done through intimidation and threats, subtle or otherwise. Most agencies are so desperate for your business they will do whatever you want and burn as many late nights as you could possibly desire. But I promise you, the work won’t be any good. And you’ll have a rapid turnover of people working on your account. So there goes any real hope of consistency.

As in any kind of relationship, business or personal, mutual respect is essential to achieve a successful outcome.

As the client, you are in control. Choose your agency carefully, treat it properly and communicate with it clearly and you’ll get the value you truly need. And build a partnership that is truly rewarding for all parties.