Part Three – The Agency Gap
As we’ll see in Part Three, a good agency can bring external knowledge and experience to bear in your decision-making. They can broker relationships with stakeholders and act as a buffer between you and corporate leadership when needed (especially in situations where you are the bearer of bad news).
The truth is, however, that the relationship between most marketers and their agencies is broken. A true partnership needs to be built on trust (which is often lacking) and respect (which is hard when the agency is treated like a vendor rather than a collaborator).
And to make things worse, how most companies engage with and compensate an agency sets both sides up to fail from the start.
Closing the Agency Gap
Closing the Agency Gap is your secret weapon. Marketing isn’t a fight you want to wade into alone. Having a food agency partner in your corner can be the difference between success and failure. Think about the suggestions below as a blueprint for a good partnership, and let’s find some time to connect.
- Be prepared for the hard questions
- Say ‘yes’ to ‘no’
- Accept the decisions you make
- Get close to data and analytics
- Say ‘NO’ to RFPs
- Take the time to draft an SOW
- Invest the time in the brief
- Tell the agency what your budget is
- Pay for performance, not hours
