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Details matter
We usually cover the big items, but we don't take the time to think about the tiny details that will surprise and delight our clients or our team. So, as you prepare to make a new business pitch, welcome a new employee to the team, or plan your agency get-together or retreat, I want you to think about the big things. But I also want you to give a lot of time and attention to the tiny details you could add, probably at minimal cost or extra effort. It's just – it's not that we don't want to do them, it's that we don't think about them. I want you to stop and ask yourself, where are some little things I could do to surprise and delight -- could be a meeting. It could be an event like an agency retreat. Again, it could be onboarding a new client, they’re coming into your office for the first time, or you're going to their office for the first time. It could be a conference. But take time to think about the tiny little details and what you could do to make that moment memorable and special, and something that people will take pictures of, brag about, or talk about those brag-worthy moments that we can create with a little extra effort. Watch »
Annual contracts?
One of the conversations we've been having with agency owners is the pros and cons of annual contracts, especially for ongoing offerings like web maintenance, SEO packages, or any other product or service. The conversations have circled around the idea that annual contracts invite clients to reconsider the purchase. Do they really want to renew for another year? A couple of agencies have talked about the success they've had with evergreen contracts, which have the annual increase built in, and there's a 30-, 60-, or 90-day out, but they are perpetual contracts that just keep going. So the question is -- are annual contracts really your smartest option? Watch »
Values guide decision making
As agency owners and leaders, we have to help our employees participate in decisions every day. Do your time sheets. Treat clients a certain way. Show up on time. How you dress for a Zoom call—these are just a few of the millions of decisions that impact our business. But if we don't come at those decisions, many of which are made independently of us, we can talk about how we want them to behave or the decisions we want them to make. But at the moment, our employees are making hundreds of decisions a day that impact the way the world sees our business. And I believe that one of the foundational tools that we should and could use to help our employees make better decisions is for them to understand the core values, foundational elements, and beliefs that our business is built on and that we really want to be defined by. We want to be graded on that. Watch »
Three kinds of growth goals
In our business, being irrelevant happens quickly. If we are not constantly learning, constantly stretching ourselves, exploring, and experimenting, it's easy to lose our edge and the ability to lead clients. This is why we are such big proponents of a) one-on-one meetings with your employees and b) inside those one-on-one meetings, making sure that the very first topic of conversation every time you meet with them is their quarterly growth goals. And they should have 3 different types of growth goals per quarter. Watch »
It starts with being known
For many of our agencies, we're hearing that the flourishing new business conversations they were enjoying in the spring and even early summer have dried up. Their pipeline is dry. They are having a hard time getting a hold of anybody and having meaningful conversations. They're not writing proposals, they're not participating in pitches, and they are not winning new business. When you think about it, for our prospects, it is the dog days of summer. They have probably planned out the rest of the summer, and they have sort of put it on, set it, and forget it because they, too, are going on vacation and doing all the things that we like to do in the summer. So, most of them are not thinking right now about hiring an agency, and they probably won't be available until Labor Day unless they have a need. The problem is the way most agencies prospect; the way most agencies sort of hang up their shingle and announce that they are open for business is very random, right? We're out there. We hang up our shingle, we're knocking on doors, but we have no idea if the people that we're approaching have any interest in talking to us right now. Good news -- there's a better way. Watch »
Doing hard things
The work you do as an agency owner is hard. One of the prices we pay for the opportunity to own the agency is that we have to do hard things. For many of you, you know what you need to do, yet somehow you convince yourself to delay it. You delay it because you don't want to have a difficult conversation. You delay it because you know it's going to impact some of your team members or be unpopular. Or you delay it because you hope that some magic is going to change the circumstance. Owning a business is about managing and understanding the risks and making good choices. And I will tell you, in the almost two decades of consulting with agency owners, I can't recall one time when an agency owner said to me, “You know what? I am delighted. I am grateful that I delayed that difficult decision.” Watch »
10% growth
An account person's job is to get the work done. But another part of that job is to focus on the client's goals and what else the client can be doing to achieve those goals. Sometimes, those ideas that we take our clients don't have anything to do with the agency. It might be about distribution or pricing or something else. That's us being a good partner, but a subset of the ideas that we should regularly take to our clients to help them accomplish their goals would also generate additional revenue for the agency. It might be putting more gasoline on a fire or something we already do. It might be trying something different. It might be beta testing something with AI. Doesn’t really matter what it is. But your account person's job is to know the client well enough that they can prescribe other marketing activities or other business activities that will help the client accomplish their goals. Watch »
Do what you love!
I think we are the privileged few. We all got into this business – nobody got into owning an agency or working at an agency to be wealthy. So we got into this because there was something about the work we loved. And I want to remind you to make sure that whatever it is that drew you to this work—for me, it was the writing; for you, it might have been something different—you bake some of that into your day and your work. We are privileged. We get to control how we spend our days. Yes, there are things we have to do. We have to do team meetings. We have to look at the books. We have to pursue new business. And for some of you, that may be precisely what you love. But for others, there's some other element of the work that really fuels your passion. And I want to remind you that you don't let the burden of owning or helping run an agency keep you from doing the parts of the work that fill your heart, give you passion, fire you up, and inspire you and your team. Make sure you bake that into your day because we're the lucky few who get to do that. Watch »
Faster! Faster!
A couple of the key takeaways from some of the research we've recently done, where we talked to people who hire agencies: CMOs, directors of marketing, and other similar folks, is that when they are unhappy with us, they are often unhappy with us for one of two reasons. Number one is that things take too long. Our systems and processes are bloated, and we can't be as agile as they need us to be. And the second thing is that – of the research- from the time that they get aggravated with us until the time they decide to find another agency, it is less than a month. So, let's talk a little about this irritation we create when our systems and processes are too complicated, and we can't turn on a dime like they need us to. This is a great time of year for you to look at inside your project management system. Pull together your team. Talk to your project managers. Depending on how you're structured as an agency. The question is, are we being as efficient and effective as possible to get work in and out of the agency in as timely a fashion as we can at the quality level and the accuracy level that we need? The second part of that question is: what's in the way of us being more efficient, more effective, quicker to turn things around, and how do we solve those problems? So nobody wants to put out work, and that's not good. That's not well thought out. That's not accurate. That is, you know, void of mistakes or errors. Of course, we're not saying that. But sometimes, our systems and processes actually slow things down. Or it might be that a person is a bottleneck and has a role inside the agency that everything has to flow through. Oftentimes, an owner slows the process down. So, take a little time to look at both the actual process of your work and the roles inside the process, and figure out if there are ways you could be even more effective and more efficient in turning things around quickly. Watch »
How inclusive is your agency?
How can you continue to create a welcoming environment for all kinds of diversity, not just – not just sexual orientation or race or gender or faith, but also the way people think. There's a lot of talk today about neurodivergence and how different people's brains are wired and how they work. And I think there's a huge opportunity for us to think about that and create pathways inside our organization where we can tap into everybody's experiences, strengths, and uniqueness and make those part of what we offer our clients. So as always, I, I hope that we all believe this as people, but certainly as business owners, the more unique and diverse our ecosystem is inside our agency, the more we can connect with and be of service to clients and their audiences, who are also very diverse. Watch »
