I know from experience that you’ll walk away happier if you avoid making these four common mistakes when selling your business. In this piece I recently contributed to Forbes.com I discuss how by avoiding these mistakes when executing a deal, you can be confident that everyone involved is headed in the right direction.

Agencies have one of the hardest jobs in business today. There’s the obvious of managing client accounts, but also uniquely building your own brand, not to mention pipeline, quick-turning proposals, staying on top of ever-expanding technology, and even your own employee experience and agency culture. But while the list keeps growing, budgets and resources keep shrinking.  We’re at a tipping point, where the skills of an agency owner and your staff are more about the ability to find opportunities, solve problems, drive change, and deliver growth than just tactical execution. Clients expect agencies to become more strategic in their partnerships. Unless you’re perfectly fine always competing on fees, it’s time to look at the bigger ecosystem of how to collaborate and introduce ideas that help your clients’ (and your own) business succeed, while expanding our influence. The Innovation Crisis According to McKinsey, 84% of executives say innovation is critical for their business, yet only 6% are satisfied with their company’s innovation performance. While the past decade has brought an undeniable focus on technology and processes when it comes to innovation, conversations grossly lack the third element that the savvy 6% of executives understand—people.  The demand on marketers for critical thinking and more creative work has spiked, but most are at a loss at what to do. So where do they turn? Their agency.  Corporate leaders often look at creativity and innovative thinking as a value to post on a wall, flexible ways to work, or a physical attribute of office space. A key indicator of the likelihood of organizational success is effective collaboration. It’s a skill that can and should be taught, yet few internal to a brand are capable of doing it.  Again, where [...]

It might feel like a daunting task to step back and evaluate what needs work in your marketing agency or organization. The good news is that there are resources that can help you break down your goal into easier steps. In this piece I recently contributed to MarketingProfs.com I discuss how moving to a more inclusive workplace is not only good for company culture but also beneficial to the bottom line. Take these 3 steps to get started.

There are three main options for agencies looking to add programmatic advertising to their list of client services: in-housing, outsourcing to an ad tech vendor, or partnering with an agency that specializes in programmatic. Each has its own unique benefits and drawbacks for agencies to consider. Below, we compare all three options before sharing our recommendation of the single most important factor to keep in mind when making your decision on how best to implement programmatic for your agency. Pros & Cons of Programmatic In-Housing Programmatic in-housing is trending up as programmatic itself continues to grow by leaps and bounds. According to the IAB, less than 20% of brands have brought programmatic advertising fully in-house as of 2021, but many have tested bringing a few programmatic capabilities under their own roof while partnering with another agency on the more robust elements of programmatic campaign management. “Given the complexity of programmatic, there is one issue that brands, agencies, and tech providers share concern over, and that is the recruiting, training and retention of talent,” the IAB’s 2020 U.S. Report on Programmatic In-Housing explains. “Programmatic talent will remain in high demand for the foreseeable future.” For large brands with the financial means to compete for that talent and license, learn, and integrate the programmatic ad tech that goes with it, the benefits of programmatic in-housing include:  Complete control over your digital ad supply chain. Fewer touchpoints between the client and the team running their ad campaign. A dependable long-term solution for all future programmatic campaigns. That said, the primary drawback of in-housing (and the most relevant aspect for most small-to-mid-sized agencies to consider) is the expense, particularly with talent in such high demand already. The complexity of [...]

Let's face it––you are going to employ a lot of creatives over the lifetime of your  agency. Gone are the days of designers and writers settling into the same role until they finally receive the gold watch and pat on the back, while Midge and the girls in the secretarial pool tow their retirement cake around the office.   The benefits of having to hire new talent include opportunities to gain new insights and  ideas, freshen creative perspectives, and broaden internal skillset capabilities. But  losing creative talent means potential work delays, the risky loss of historical agency or client brand knowledge, and the nagging need to constantly employ third-party talent staffing firms for a hefty price.  All in all, it’s pretty darn expensive.   According to a study by the U.S. Census, the average employee tenure at a single  company is now 2.8 years, as compared to 13.5 years just a few decades ago. Add a global pandemic and ‘great resignation’ into the mix, and this continual migration of  today's creative workforce requires a more strategic approach to retention.  I’ve spent the last two decades building and managing creative teams in a range of organizations. During that time, I closely studied the behaviors of creatives, clients, and  stakeholders to figure out exactly what makes a creative successful in different environments and roles. I’ve discovered that the key to keeping great creative talent is finding out exactly HOW they work.   Knowing how your creatives work allows you to challenge them in ways they will be excited about, and allows them to contribute at the level that satisfies everyone’s expectations, keeping them highly engaged. When you have this critical insight, you (and your managers) will know how to effectively [...]

I know some of your are still hustling to make 2021 as profitable as possible, but it’s time for you to begin thinking about 2022 and your plan of attack once the holidays are past.   As I always do this time of year, I’d like to suggest that you complete the AMI One Page Business Plan.  It’s a straightforward document that forces you to really narrow your focus and just identify the biggest barriers (or opportunities) to an incredible year ahead.  Most of you won’t take up the challenge but for those of you who will — you can have a shared clarity and get everyone on your team ready to pull in the same direction. Agencies that use the one page business plan as their roadmap for the year report better numbers, stronger teams and resilient client relationships.   But before you do that, I want you to complete the Agency Owner Life Plan.  This one looks simple, but honestly, it’s not.  It asks some tough questions but it supports my strong belief that the agency should serve your life’s goals and purpose.  Otherwise, why take the risk?  Yes, I want your agency to be more profitable in 2022.  Yes, I want you to be innovative and score some amazing new clients.  But more than that — I want you to feel like your work is supporting your life and life goals.  I want you to feel like you are contributing.  I want you to be happy and fulfilled. These tools will help you take a big step in that direction.  I hope you’ll make the time. Grab both plans and the link to the podcast that will walk you through them both here.   [...]

Brand is often first to blame when marketing tactics aren’t converting, customer churn and employee attrition rates are increasing, the team is not performing, or financial performance is declining. How many times have you said or heard the phrase, “We have a brand problem”? And sure, the brand could very well use some love, but this is merely a symptom of a bigger underlying issue. In fact, the real source of the problem isn’t brand. It’s culture. And, as it turns out, these two things cannot be inextricably decoupled. Culture is hungry (and it never gets full) Thanks to Peter Drucker, one of the forefathers of modern management, we know “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The problem is, once it does, it’s still hungry for more. After strategy, it then turns to the rest of the brand for lunch, dinner, and every snack in between. When culture, which we simply define as your organization’s internal environment, erodes, it tends to leave a trail of devastation in its wake. Adding to the challenge is the fact that the elements of this environment––your culture––are invisible. Yet, when there are issues, they manifest in very real ways. They might manifest in a broken customer experience, poor converting websites, declining employee performance, and the list goes on. Culture impacts how employees behave and the decisions they make. How your team acts internally then impacts how consumers experience your brand, and that ultimately determines whether your customers convert and if they’ll become brand champions. In other words, your brand is only as successful and profitable as your culture allows. It’s never about the logo. Culture is the glass ceiling, and it is an aspect of the brand that cannot be [...]

On the agency side of my world, we do a lot of work with a strategic partner who is smart as a whip, responsive, and very invested in our success.  What’s not to love about that?  They’re premium priced but their knowledge and skills have earned them the right to charge that kind of money.  (Might this be how you describe or think of yourself?)   I’m happy to pay them because of their depth of expertise and how valuable their work is to my company. We should be absolutely in love with them, right? Sadly, it’s getting more and more challenging to stay in love with them.  It’s not about the big things like their skills, passion, or commitment to our success.  It’s about the little things. I’m tired of having to be their safety net for silly mistakes.  I’m weary of the sloppy work.  I’m frustrated that I don’t expect them to get it right anymore.  How awful is that — I expect them to screw up because that is what experience has taught me. Here’s the worst part of this — they go above and beyond for us every single day.  They don’t nickel and dime us when we need something extra.  They do so many things well and right. But there’s enough wrong that our focus is diverted from all they do right.  They don’t get the credit for all that they provide us, because we are constantly in fix it mode. How about your shop?  Are you making it hard for your clients to love you by eroding their trust, drip by drip? Missed deadlines Typos in your work Scheduling snafus Transactional, unenthusiastic relationships Lags in responsiveness None of these are [...]