By Travis Stratford
Do you have great relationships with your agency partners? Are you getting what you want from every engagement? If the answer is yes – congratulations!
If there’s room for improvement, check out our top tips. Over the last two decades, our most successful engagements and deepest, longest-lasting client-agency partnerships have shared these five key themes.
Clarity
Be clear on what you’re looking for and why. Are you seeking an experienced, strategic partner to help you achieve a specific goal? Do you value a set of fresh eyes, industry-specific knowledge and deep expertise? Or do you just need to get more hands on-deck to execute a one-off project? Engaging an expert agency partner is very different from hiring executors – and there is a time and place for each.
We always ask new clients the same question:
“What will success look like to you?”
It’s critical to have a clear vision of your ideal outcome, both in terms of partnership and deliverables. By defining your goals and objectives before diving into work, you’re helping ensure that everyone is on the same page.
Commitment
Make sure that your key stakeholders are willing, able and excited to be involved and present throughout the agency partnership. Are the sponsors and key decision-makers aligned? Are they truly passionate about the desired outcome? Will they be available to join key meetings and weigh in at key milestones? Equally important, do those who are responsible for doing the work – managing the project, providing inputs, etc. – have time allocated to do so?
We encourage our clients to create a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RACI) — or similar — to determine who on their team will be responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed at each stage of the engagement.
Trust
You are an expert on your brand, industry and discipline. You’re engaging an agency for the unique expertise, knowledge, skills and experience that they bring to the table. When we each leverage strengths, the combination can create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
One of our core tenets at CASE is to do amazing work with people we like, trust and respect (who feel the same way about us) and together develop deep, collaborative relationships that last. As a creative agency, we’re able to do our best work with clients who trust us, and let us…. be creative!
Communication
Be open and honest. What’s working? What could use improvement? True collaboration means opening up discussion. Good agency partners appreciate courteous directness. With feedback, be specific on why you like or don’t like something. Providing context and explaining your feedback will help you and your agency partner reach the results you want and deserve.
Each project at CASE has a designated account lead who is the main point of contact throughout the project. We love weekly status check-ins (even quick ones!) with clients to ensure that communication is frequent and open.
Excitement
This may be the icing on the cake, but it makes a huge difference. Strategic engagements can be long and arduous, with unexpected twists, turns and roadblocks. Keep your eye on the prize. Celebrate the wins together along the way — not just when an engagement comes to an end!
At CASE, we are passionate about collaborating with amazing clients. Our team is dedicated to bringing our expertise, creativity, and personalized attention to every project. If you're looking for a new partner to get things started, reach out to us.
