Breaking up—it's hard to do. But in the world of business, knowing when to part ways with certain employees, vendors or partners is essential to building a stronger, more sustainable business. The wrong leader can bring your culture and business to a halt, impacting business performance and employee attrition. However, having the right people in place (whether leaders, team members or supplier partners) feeds collaboration, innovation and culture, helping you optimize your business results and retention.
Having the right mutually beneficial relationship also goes for your branding and marketing agency partner. Finding an agency that truly aligns with your business needs and goals can help drive your brand and business results. Having the wrong one will only hurt your momentum.
So, what are the watch outs and must-haves in an agency-client relationship? Interrupt principal and CEO Bill Rossiter learned to spot them when he was on the other side of the relationship. Serving as an executive in the building materials corporate world for 20-plus years, he discovered it was nearly impossible to find an agency partner that checked all the critical boxes.
“I worked with a dozen agencies during my time in corporate America, both large and small,” Bill said. “None of them deeply understood my industry, the value chain or the way my business made money. They didn’t understand what success looked like for my business, my customers or the end user. They focused primarily on cool creative execution but couldn’t connect those ideas to meaningful business results.”
Rossiter has always believed that where there is a gap, there is an opportunity. Bill left the corporate world to build a business-centric branding agency, where great creative is always informed by solid business strategy and success is defined by specific business and engagement KPIs. That expectation to act as (and be treated as) a true business partner, not just a creative resource, is a core ethos at Interrupt.
With his experience on both sides of the agency-client relationship, Bill shares his list of red flags that may signal an agency partnership isn’t a good fit—plus, indicators that you’ve found a truly exceptional agency partner.
This is the most important aspect of a partnership—a great agency deeply understands and aligns to your business goals. Your agency partner should strive to understand your company’s business goals so well, they feel like an extension of your team. If they don’t ask or understand your KPIs, how and where you make a profit, how the value chain works, then why would you ever let them spend your money? Are they credible and knowledgeable enough to present at a PLR to your C-Suite team or at a board meeting?
What to look for instead: Your agency partner should be invested in your outcomes, understand your goals and profit drivers, and align strategies to support your success. They should feel that great creative not only looks good and differentiates you, but most importantly it is aligned to your goals and drives business results. For example, does your agency sit on your quarterly analyst calls? Do they know where you make the most profit and why? Look for an agency that views your dollars as investments into achieving your profit goals and KPIs.
It’s not your team’s job to constantly train your agency. Your agency should know your value chain and audiences as well as (or better) than you. Your agency should be teaching you things you didn’t know about your audience, just as much as you teach them. Don't embark on business partnerships with agencies you have to spend time training. Choose an agency that knows your channels and audiences and how to meaningfully engage them with your brand story.
What to look for instead: A great agency prioritizes their expertise in your industry, understanding your audiences and value chain inside and out, so they’re better positioned to uncover new insights and offer valuable perspectives. They can even help onboard your new employees that aren’t from your industry on the industry nuances.
One of the biggest red flags? When your agency solely focuses on marketing communications without grounding their work in a solid brand strategy. Your brand strategy sets the framework for how your business communicates, positions itself and ultimately succeeds. If your agency only offers tactical marketing solutions, you're limiting your potential. Tactical execution, while necessary, is short-term by nature. It lacks the strategic insight required to consistently outperform your competition or build long-term growth.
What to look for instead: A strong branding agency can help you carve out a distinct position in the market, setting you apart from the "sea of sameness." They will help you define and refine who you are as a brand, reinforcing existing strengths while recognizing opportunities to evolve and grow. And they’ll understand how to use research to make data-backed decisions that translate into tangible results for your business.
Hiring an agency usually means you have a challenge to solve or an opportunity to leverage. But if your agency is waiting to hear what you want done, they’re clearly not helping you solve business problems, they’re creating more work for you. If your agency seems content with taking a passive role and merely maintaining your current approach to market, they are not helping your business move forward.
What to look for instead: The strongest agencies solve your most complex problems, proactively asking thoughtful questions to dig into root causes or nuances of the opportunity. They are an active participant in navigating how you reach your goals. They stretch you and sometimes make you uncomfortable. They offer research capabilities to help define your key audience triggers and pain points – and where you can differentiate your brand value. They offer strategic insights that drive relevant solutions. They act as problem solvers, not task managers.
Long-term contracts and retainers can feel restrictive and become lop-sided. Worse yet, once you are locked in, the agency may give you their B team and become more tactical than strategic. In the ever-evolving world of business your needs may shift and change, so flexibility and access to the agency’s top thinkers is critical.
What to look for instead: The best agencies make you want to stay with them because of their ongoing performance, not pressure. They earn your trust and prove their value with results and transparency. Their top talent is present and providing value in discussions. You keep returning to them because you know they help you deliver the business and marketing goals you promised to senior leadership.
Agencies that say they are experts in all areas of marketing may not give you the most effective solutions. If they do work in several industries, they probably lack the deep industry knowledge needed to truly understand the nuances of your business. And they may take on types of work that place you in the role of their guinea pig.
What to look for instead: The right agency will have a deep wealth of knowledge about the world you operate in. Their specialized expertise is evident in their conversations, work and strategy, demonstrating a genuine grasp of your industry and its unique needs. Look for agencies that know what they’re good at. As a business partner, they should strive to make the most of your budget—not take the most of it. That means identifying when your internal team or other partners might be a better fit and working together as one team. That said, an experienced partner knows their own worth. Rather than looking for the lowest-cost provider, look for who will deliver the most value to your business.
Like all healthy business relationships, the importance of finding the right partner goes both ways. There are also reasons why an experienced agency will decide to part ways with a client, too.
Ultimately, the goal is to develop a mutually beneficial partnership, where both parties are successful. Pretty simple, just treat your agency as a true partner. Look for the qualities that signal an agency with the ability to develop a brand strategy that aligns to your business goals. Doing this, you’re more likely to find the right agency that will help you drive stronger results for your brand and your business.
At Interrupt, a majority of our new business comes from the recognition of our impressive brand strategy work that directly drives business results. Satisfied clients help drive our referrals, as clients who come back to us again and again, as well as recommending us to their peers in the industry. However, every so often we may find that a client’s expectations and partnership approach have transitioned to be very different from ours. If it’s not a good match, that’s okay. It's better for both parties to part ways respectfully rather than force a partnership that isn't working.
When both parties continually demonstrate the same commitment to the relationship, you’re both more likely to find a valuable partnership that will go the distance and deliver extraordinary results for all involved. And it’s a hell of a lot more fun and rewarding to win with people you like being around. Just be a good partner.
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