ADOTAS – Picture for a moment the glory days of advertising. Usually this conjures images of men with skinny ties and women with beehive hairdos, three martini lunches and unlimited expense accounts. Imagine a time when David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett and J. Walter Thompson were people, not just agencies, and clients and agencies lived in harmony, creating impactful, memorable campaigns. Some would say, “the good old days.”

Now look around and let’s compare what we see today — a pace of change faster than any other time in human history. A wild, evolving frontier called “new media.” Strained relationships. Agencies viewed with skepticism. Cynicism reigns.

So why is this true? Is it because of procurement-lead selection processes, reduced marketing budgets, evolving agency pricing models, client line-item project approvals or demands for unpaid spec work in RFPs? Actually, for many reasons — economic, societal, corporate — life is fundamentally different than in decades past, particularly in our industry. More serious. More complicated. Less fun.

Today’s realities manifest themselves in the pressure-filled business marketplace. Despite weathering economic booms and busts, wars and recessions, we find ourselves in a place where our industry betrays an evolutionary souring of client-agency relationships. So given that many can relate to the picture painted above, I’d like to share a few tips for agencies to mend troubled client relationships, and ensure that good relationships don’t go bad.

Most managers understand that good relationships don’t just happen. Without hard work, any relationship will grow stale, ultimately crumbling beyond repair. And, as with any interaction, each participant enters the engagement with different expectations, and those biases influence the effectiveness of the union. Let’s walk a mile in the other party’s shoes so we can align our actions with their expectations.

What do marketers want in an agency relationship?

When it comes to agencies, today’s marketers see right through smoke and mirrors – they’re looking for a few basic things like brand consistency, awareness and, ultimately, sales results. But they also have expectations around the quality of their agency relationship. Specifically, they’re looking for:

• A strong team that understands their business and takes pride in the work
• Proactive leadership and insight
• A steady stream of great ideas, followed by outstanding execution
• Team stability and low staff churn
• Responsiveness
• Predictability in deliverables

Are these unreasonable expectations? They shouldn’t be.

Now let’s take a look at the other side of the fence.

What do agencies want in a client relationship?

First and foremost, agencies want to deliver everything listed above. And despite the misrepresentation that agencies only pursue creative that either makes them rich, famous or wins awards, reputable agencies seek meaningful business results. But, in addition to those items, agencies have other unique expectations from their clients:

• Collaboration — they want to contribute as a partner rather than a vendor
• Good briefs, followed by honest, actionable feedback
• Campaigns that are built on a “Test, Learn and Optimize” philosophy
• Internal buy-in across all stakeholders
• Visibility into business results of campaigns
• Account growth, both intellectually and monetarily

Unreasonable?  I don’t think so, but how many of you have ever explained this to your clients? I expect it’s a shockingly low number.

So how do we engage with one another now that we have an appreciation for our counterpart’s expectations? And how do we apply this knowledge to improve our behavior – and ultimately the quality of our relationships? Here are six tips for creating a collaborative relationship:

1. Provide an honest assessment: Take a step back and assess any source of discontent. Is it due to untimely deliverables? A disconnect between the client’s vision and the resulting creative? Or perhaps the behavior or temperament of an individual?
2. Earn respect with real answers: It’s not always easy, but the ability to acknowledge problems is the first step towards resolving them. Show your clients that you’re committed to making things work, and likely they’ll respond in kind. Establish trust.
3. Demonstrate flexibility: We all know you can’t fit a round peg in a square hole. Show your client you’re willing to consider different approaches to achieving the same goal, and wow them with your unique, fresh approach when challenged. Harkening back to the good old days, recall President Eisenhower’s wonderful statement, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything” when you deviate from what had, at one point, been a great plan.
4. Stay true to your core expertise (or know when to say “no”): You know what your agency does best, so enter into relationships that allow you to showcase your strengths. If your client needs services that are outside the scope of your agency’s talents, resist the “we do it all” conversation. Having spent many years on the front lines of client engagements, I’m skeptical of colleagues who say their agencies can do everything well. It’s not a sign of weakness to rely on strategic partnerships to round out your agency capabilities.
5. Over-communicate, even when you think you already are: Not unique to the agency environment, this guidance is appropriate for every service industry. Today, with the tools and channels at our disposal, there simply is no excuse to be out of touch. Your clients want to hear from you, and, what’s more, they want to know what makes you tick. I fall back on an old U.S. Navy saying that says, “tell ‘em what you’re going to do, tell ‘em what you’re doing and tell ‘em what you did”.  Finally, demonstrate what makes your agency special, always sharing your culture with pride.
6. Honor your commitments: Above all, you must – unequivocally and without exception -deliver what you say you’re going to do. If you guarantee unaided awareness, click-throughs, engagement or leads – ensure your proposed campaign, tactic or asset can deliver. And if you can’t, be honest (see #1) about it. In short, don’t make promises you can’t keep.

So what happens if all else fails and you can’t get past the “us vs. them” syndrome? Don’t throw in the towel – it’s not necessarily over. Like a marriage, there are some “unspoken” items that can grow to significance if not voiced. Finding those items can be challenging, and, in fact, may be awkward. So, you may want to bring in an outsider to mediate.

A few years ago, one of my clients and I agreed to jointly sponsor a relationship review by an unbiased professional whose singular goal was to help us operate more effectively. We called on industry veteran Joanne Davis, who explored the relationship in a non-threatening way, seeking to unearth those unspoken nuggets that kept our joint team from performing optimally.

During an incredibly comprehensive and methodical process, she masterfully aggregated feedback from virtually every party even peripherally involved in the relationship, then presented a balanced set of findings and recommendations that both parties agreed to. With these tangible areas for our collective improvement on the table, we were able to commit to improving without pointing fingers or assigning blame for prior shortcomings.

She concluded that it was in our collective best interest to resolve difficulties rather than to dissolve the relationship and seek new partners. We all know the steep price associated with changing partners, e.g., agency acquisition costs  and lost productivity  among others.

So what’s your takeaway? Relationships take work. Collaborative relationships take even more work. Approach the relationship from your partner’s perspective to understand their expectations and commit to establishing trust by your actions more than your words. And by following these six tips you’ll change that cynicism to collaboration.

Reader Comments.

No comments yet