In my role as advisor to both brands on how to find agencies and agencies on how to find new clients, one thing has been nagging at me for a while now. Why is it that so many agencies spend so long trying to make themselves appear unique?
Think about it for a minute. If you’re a marketing director with £5m to spend are you really looking for a totally unique ageny to give it too? I doubt it very much.
Clients are not looking for an agency that is completely different from the one they already have – they just want one that is BETTER than the one they already have.
So, when sitting down to write your agency proposition, stop trying so hard to make it different and concentrate on what it is about you that by its very nature proovesw that you are BETTER than the competition, not simply different from them.
Definition: Sun clients are essential to the agency. Without these clients, the agency might cease to exist. Sun clients provide warmth, nourishment and energy to the agency. Sun clients allow the agency to do good work and take chances. Organic growth oportunities exist, staff relationships are good, and projects more often end up on time and on budget. Sun clients are to be retained and protected.
Definition: Planet clients should be very profitable to the agency. These clients should operate with very little support from agency senior management and should sustain life pretty much on their own. Planet clients should be protected but may not be essential to the agency’s existence. Planets by definition have little opportunity for real growth and cannot ever be Suns in the opinion of agency management. Planet clients should be worked with minimal agency investment in resources and must have limited impact on senior management time.
Definition: Black Hole clients suck up a lot of agency energy and give little in return. These types of clients often overuse creative services and account management time without fair compensation. Management often thinks they help cover operational cost, keeping the lights on so to speak. They miss the impact on staff morale. Black Hole clients should be dropped by the agency at the first opportunity. Black Hole clients often represent lost causes. Their impact on the agency should be minimized.
Definition: Shooting Stars are unknowns to the agency. Their path is not clear. Shooting Star clients could be Suns, Planets or Black Holes. It is the responsibility of the agency to ensure a Shooting Star client is transformed into either a Planet or a Sun. If this client cannot be transformed into a Sun or Planet, then that client is a Black Hole the agency should plan to eventually drop. Shooting Stars are most often new clients moving through the agency. Their long-term trajectory has not been established. Shooting Stars need more management time and require more agency resources if they are going to become Suns and Planets. Shooting Stars take up a lot of agency effort and must be watched closely.
One of the issues many clients have had historically with new business agencies is staff turnover – we hear it all the time, “my account manager seemed to change by the month”, “it was OK to start but then Jon left and the next three people over the year were awful” …
I am often asked how long clients stay with us. I have never really understood how to answer that question because the only way to do so is to take the average of those clients who have stopped using us and that seems mad because how can I ignore a client who has been using us for 15 years?
