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Agencies: Hate Project Work? Act More Like an AOR.

Most agencies hate project work because it’s less predictable and harder to manage and staff. What’s more, agencies believe project work negatively impacts the agency-client dynamic, with agencies treated more like vendors than partners, and their contributions focused on tactics rather than strategy. The relationship can feel transactional and shorter-term.

Will COVID-19 Destroy Your Agency Culture or Reinvent It?

Culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage that agencies have. After all, most agencies produce the same types of work the same way—and often with the same people (we all know it is a small industry). That is why an account, strategy, or creative person can move from one agency to another and immediately contribute. Culture is one of the most important differentiators—it makes one agency succeed and another fail.

Zurprise and Zelight: Surprising and Delighting Clients in a Zoom World

In the old days (about 12 weeks ago), agencies focused on surprising and delighting clients. They understood (the good ones, at least) that delivering work on time and on budget was the price of entry. Client retention and growth required a higher level of thinking, service, creativity, and connection.

Agencies Are Great at Creating Narratives. Now They Must Write Their Own. Carefully.

Agencies sometimes create aspirational ads and press releases as a tool to help clients envision a successful, alternate future. Now we can imagine headlines like, “M&M’s redefines retail in Times Square,” or “CVS takes a stand on health by eliminating cigarette sales.” But before these were realities, they were possibilities—and research suggests that seeing a possibility makes it easier to achieve.

To Have A Big Impact, Agencies Must Sweat the Small Stuff

Self-help experts have long instructed people not to sweat the small stuff. The basic philosophy is that by not focusing on life’s little annoyances, we can reduce stress and improve our lives. This might be true for individuals but not for agencies. For agencies to succeed, they must do the opposite: they must sweat the small stuff. Every client interaction—every phone call, email, invite, estimate, and meeting— must be as error-free and on point as possible. Why? Because the small stuff has a big impact on clients’ perceptions of the agency.

Let's Make Agency Meetings Great Again!

In the last few years, there has been a movement to reduce the number of agency meetings. Many internal meetings are considered a waste of time, energy, and money. The trend has also extended to client meetings, aided by the ability to meet online rather than in person.

I agree with the need to eliminate bad meetings—whether they are live or online, internal, or with the client. However, I think agencies are missing an opportunity—that is, to encourage great meetings.

Client Feedback: When No Response Is a Response

There is a saying that “no news is good news.” When it comes to client feedback, this is not true.

Many agencies send surveys regularly to get client input. Done right, these surveys can generate critical insights about the agency’s work and relationships. Done wrong, it is easy for the agency to misinterpret the data and focus its efforts in the wrong places.

Clients Are from Mars. Agencies Are from Venus

I am often asked to act as an intermediary between clients and agencies. It is the advertising equivalent of the old Ladies Home Journal column, “Can This Marriage be Saved?” I am usually called upon when the relationship is near its breaking point in a last-ditch effort to salvage it. Much like “Can This Marriage,” I start by speaking to the agency and the client separately to try to understand each one’s point of view and then bring them together to find common ground and a way forward.

What Your Email Style Communicates About Your Agency

I work with agencies to help them keep and grow business. My work requires a deep understanding of an agency's culture. I rely on all sorts of data to get to know an agency, including employee and client interviews, satisfaction studies, HR and financial data, and believe it or not, emails. Granted, email practices and patterns can be a bit more subjective, but I find them highly indicative of how an agency works.

Goldilocks and the Secret to Breakthrough Advertising

In psychology, the inverted U theory is used to explain achieving optimal performance. The theory states that there is a relationship between performance and pressure, and the ideal performance occurs when there is just the right amount of pressure—too much or too little can reduce performance. A similar theory is used in economics and sports. The axes are different, but the “just right” Goldilocks’ principle is the same. To create breakthrough work, agencies should consider the inverted U.

"Yes, and" or How to Say No and Make it Sound Like a Yes

An irate client called me from the floor of a convention. He hated the convention panel we had produced and said, “it looks like an impossible-to-read eye chart full of small type.” I promised to investigate and get back to him. I told him we would try to redo the panel, and also identify what went wrong so we would not do it again.

Psst! There Are No Client Secrets

Unhappily married couples often try to hide their marital issues from their children. They believe that if they spend lots of time together, or don’t argue in front of the kids, they will never know the marriage is troubled. If you talk to their children, most will say the secret was out. Some heard their parents fighting behind closed doors. Others noticed their parents only spoke to and through the kids and not each other.

Client Satisfaction Surveys: 5 Ways to Blow Them. And How to Ace Them

Client satisfaction surveys have become SOP for many businesses. Every call to my bank or stop at my Starbucks is followed up by an automated survey. (By the way - if a visit to Starbucks is the “best part of my day,” I consider it a pretty bad day).

Dear Client: I Am Not Your Partner

I have been in advertising for a long time. Somewhere along the way, clients and agencies started referring to each other as partners. I don’t remember the month or year, but I feel like the use of the phrase increased as the business became more transactional. I assume this was supposed to make the agency feel better about our changing relationship with clients—the equivalent of renaming second mortgages home equity loans to reduce the stigma of borrowing.

What the Bachelor Can Teach Us About Client-Agency Relationships

I admit it. I watch a lot of Reality TV. I cry at Say Yes to the Dress and restage half my house after each episode of The Property Brothers. However, I draw the line at The Bachelor. I am clearly in the minority, as the show has run for 23 top-rated seasons.

Let's Make Agency Meetings Great Again!

Great meetings have many benefits:

1. Connection: My most meaningful client relationships are the result of spending lots of time together discussing the brand’s challenges and opportunities. Our interactions resulted in a deeper understanding of each other, lots of adventures, and inside jokes. Conference calls rarely create this type of bond. Agencies often lament the decline of client-agency relationships. I suspect the deterioration reflects the decline in spending time together.

2. Concentration: Participants on conference calls often multi-task. It is difficult to get their full attention (or avoid the sound of typing). This lack of focus is unfortunate for the agency that prepared the work and the client who paid for it. If a meeting is live, clients are more likely to focus—and the agency has more recourse. I remember one client who kept checking his phone and texting during a meeting. I stopped the presentation and told him we understood if he needed a few minutes’ to take care of other work. It let him know that our team deserved his full attention. This exchange wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t been together in a room.

3. Context: It is very challenging to gauge a client’s response to an idea or recommendation on a conference call. A video conference is a bit better, but still less than ideal for detecting micro signals like a furrowed brow. In a live setting, the agency can read body language and redirect the meeting. A comment such as, “I sense you disagree, tell me why” can change the course of the discussion and the outcome.

4. Chance: When I am on-site with a client, I often learn new information, which makes the agency and me a better partner. In person, clients are likely to share more information, ask me to sit in on other meetings, and introduce me to new people. All of these lead to better work and more opportunities.

5. Comic relief: Great meetings should have an element of fun. Clients have very stressful jobs, and agency meetings have the potential to break the script. I am not suggesting that a budget session should be a laugh riot, but agencies are unique in their ability to create an engaging meeting.

Great client meetings should incorporate many of the best practices used for pitches:

Have clear objectives and an agenda. Every agency attendee must understand the purpose of the meeting and their role in attending.

Include the smallest number of attendees to accomplish the goal. If the meeting has too many people, often, no one decides or is accountable. Include too few people, and critical expertise could be missing.

Practice meeting hygiene. Start and end on time. Book the right size room. Make sure all equipment is there and working. Assign someone to take notes. If food is served, consider everyone’s dietary requirements.

Smooth out any wrinkles. Rehearse the presentation. Have all research available. Send pre-reads in enough time to be read. Scenario plan the agency’s response to the clients’ comments and Q&A.

Recap and follow-up. Meeting notes should be sent within 24 hours, with a clear summary, action items, owners, and timing. Make sure all items are completed.

You’ll learn the only thing better than having a great meeting is enjoying the great results.

Stacey Singer is a client retention and growth specialist. She can be reached at stacey@staceysinger.com.

Stacey SingerJanuary 29, 2020