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