Creating Lasting, Productive Partnerships Between Agencies & Marketers
Advice for Agencies to Make Relationships Last a Lifetime
Outsourced Lead Generation/Business Development for Marketing Agencies
Why Do Marketers Look for New Agencies?
What Do Marketers Look For?
What Do Marketers Get?
Not Much!
The Gaps Between What Agencies Think and What
Marketers Expect is Often Wide…
% of Agencies and Marketers That Expect Marketing Spending To Increase "Somewhat" or
"Significantly" In Upcoming Year*
Agencies Marketers 2014: 60% 50% 2013: 53% 38% 2012: 55% 41% 2011: 60% 44%
* 2011-2014 New Year Outlook Surveys (RSW/US and RSW/AgencySearch)
This Mis-Matching, Under-Delivering,
And Non-Alignment is the Root of What Stirs up Trouble In a
Relationship.
There’s a Psychological Theory that Describes Why People Fail at
Relationships…
Which I Believe is the Foundational Underpinning
as to Why Agency-Client Relationships Fail.
And There’s Something You, the Agency, Can Do About It.
Self-Determination Theory
• Theory of motivation
Self-Determination Theory
•Helps explain active engagement and psychological growth
Self-Determination Theory
• There is a fundamental need that is basic to human motivation to engage in actions with a full sense of choice
Self-Determination Theory
• And to feel a sense of competence
Self-Determination Theory
• The more competent you feel, the less likely procrastination will set in
Self-Determination Theory
• And the less likely you’ll feel a fear of failure
The Agency-Client Relationship is Dependent on Creating a Sense of Competence which is Driven by the Ability to Choose – which
in the End, Eliminates Fear.
The Challenge in an Agency-Client Relationship when Trying to Fulfill this Theory is that the
Starting Lines are Often So Different for Both Parties.
Alignment Begins with the Marketer Carefully
Finding the Right Mate…
And You Making the Right Choices.
I Tell Marketers that it All Starts with Asking the
Right Questions…
Don’t Just Dig for the Functional.
Dive for the Bridge.
Look for the Apples.
And It Also Means You Picking the Right Mate…
Which Starts with Finding the Right Person to Find
that Right Mate
Short-timers
And for You, It Should Also All Be About Right
FIT
The Work
The People
Your Equity
At the End of the Day, the Process is Really No Different
than a “Real” Marriage…
There’s a Courtship, an Engagement, and a Need to Sustain it so it Stays Fresh.
The Challenges of Sustaining a Great Marriage are the Most
Difficult…
They are Rooted in Fundamental Differences in
What Motivates Each “Spouse” which can get in the
way of Self Determination Fulfillment.
While This May Have Worked for the Ad Guy
Decades Ago
The Ad Guy
Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art. William Bernbach
The Ad Guy
Not so Much Today.
And While What the Client Wanted Seemed
Demanding Then…
It is Only More Sophisticated and
More Complex Today.
The Client
"The sole purpose of marketing is to sell more to more people, more often and at higher prices. There is no other reason to do it.“ Sergio Zyman
Which is Limiting the Number of New Business Opportunities Available
to Agencies
And Shifting More Work to Project vs. Retainer
Which is Causing More Agencies to Get More
Aggressive in their Outreach Efforts
86%
So All This…Combined with the Speed with which Technology is
Changing is Putting a Tremendous Amount of Pressure on Agencies
And on the Client Side they were (and continue to be) Faced with Corporate Consolidations and Simply
doing more with Fewer People
Also….the Ability to Measure Performance made the Word “ROI”
part of Everyone’s Vernacular – all the way
up to the Boardroom
All of this Puts Pressure on the Relationship
Goals aren’t Aligned
The End Game IS Different
The Relationship is Strained
So these Pressures Lead to Bad Decisions on both
Sides of the Fence.
Self Determination and Competence are put in Question.
Choices are Limited.
Fear sets in.
All of which Leads to Failed Agency-Client
Relationships.
So let’s Talk about 10 Specific Reasons Why
Agency-Client Relationships Fail…
…And What You as a an Agency
Can Do About it.
1. Unclear Goal Setting
• Establish clear goals and objectives up front.
•Align advertiser and agency interests and priorities.
• Establish agreement on key compensation definitions and terms.
•Match compensation with the resources required to do the work.
•Make them simple to understand and administer.
•Make them fair and equitable for both advertiser and agency.
ANA/4A’s
2. Unreasonable Expectations
3. Letting Clients Get Away with Murder
4. Lack of Information Sharing
5. Thinking that Marketing People Don’t Understand the Science
of Advertising
6. Not seeing the Marketer as a True Partner
7. Measuring Wrong Things
8. Letting Yourself be “Arms & Legs”
9. Agency Staff who don’t CHALLENGE
10. A Breakdown in Trust
So…what Can you do to make the Relationship
Work?
Create Value!
Communicate!
Collaborate!
Ask For Some Rope!
Make Every Day Feel Like the First Day
Because at the End of the Day, Marketers (should) want an Agency that can
Bring Value to their Business, not just make
Great Ads.
And While some of the Onus is on the Agency to Show you
they can Deliver on this Level…
the Tone of the Relationship Starts with the Marketer.
But You As the Agency can Affect the Tone.
Set Yourself up with a Mutually Agreed to Set of
Expectations…
Respect Your Client
Deliver Real Value
Every Single Day
Every Single Way
When They Least Expect the Play
Because if You Do, You’re More Likely to Gain the Trust of the Marketer.
Then You’re More Likely to Be Given Choices…which Will Make You Feel More
Competent in Moving the Business Forward…which
will Remove Fear from the Relationship…
Which in the end will create better
partnerships, better agency and marketer
friendships, and a more productive, long-term
relationships.
Thank You!Outsourced Lead Generation/Business Development for Marketing Agencies
rswus.com