Working for an agency isn’t easy. You’ve got to balance multiple clients, multiple deliverables, and in some cases, multiple lines of service. In addition, sales and administrative duties also get in the way of actual work. This tends to be the case regardless of the particular marketing channel in scope (media buying, paid search, email, SEO, social media, dev, creative, etc).
And if you’re an online agency stakeholder, you’re also tasked with constantly demonstrating that the ROI your client is receiving is equal to or greater than the dollars they’re pumping into the program via analytics and reporting regardless of their ability to follow through and facilitate crucial implementation on their end.
Sounds like fun!
Unfortunately, this situation is further complicated by agency folks that either consciously or subconsciously fall into a routine of going through the motions in terms of their client deliverables and consulting. This often leads to mediocre program results, unhappy clients, and ultimately, loss of revenue.
I’ve played on both sides of the fence, both as an in-house marketer managing agency relationships as well as an agency stakeholder working with the very clients that I describe in the preceding paragraphs, and what I’ve found is that there’s really only one way to avoid that trap of going through the agency motions.
You have to put the shoe on the other foot.
It’s really quite simple. Think about the deliverables you’re sending and the strategic recommendations and consulting you’re bringing to the table, and perhaps most importantly, think about the tangible results of your efforts in terms of incremental traffic, conversion, and bottom line revenue for the client’s company.
If you were that client, would you shell out the dollars that are being shelled out for the results that are currently being manifested?
If the answer is no, then it’s time to get more aggressive with your recommendations or to come up with creative ways to add value to the program while still maintaining profitability. In some cases, this might even mean delivering things that aren’t granularly scoped out in the current contract but that will definitely give the client the value they’re looking for.
Granted, uncooperative clients will sometimes make this a tough proposition, but in most cases a bit of extra brainstorming will go a long way. And if not, it might be time to reconsider the true value of a particular troublesome client, because as my twitter friend Sam Daams mentioned, you don’t want all customers.
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“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” I agree with your golden rule philosophy of business. I have that same frame of mind when dealing with my customers. Analytics and reports aren’t as important as relationships and results. Sometimes, like you said, going outside of the scope of the contract is what is necessary.