Is there an agency worth its salt that doesn’t want to be a strategic partner to their clients?
To be in the room (or on the zoom) when the decision is made
To have “a seat at the table”.
(We have to presume the table is in the room.)
We’re told this is where we should be. And I agree, but…
I ran an agency for 15 years and worked with clients spending next to nothing to clients spending £250k a year on design.
And we had the goal of becoming more strategically important to our clients, because doing that made us more valuable, and got us more impactful work, which was great for growth.
It’s not quite as straightforward as the books, blogs and newsletters 🧐 would have you believe.
Here’s some things I learned.
It’s not up to you
Firstly, how valuable you are is your client’s decision, not yours.
We believe every business should invest in our services. This is our specialism. It’s the thing we’ve dedicated our careers to. So of course, we hold the belief that it’s a really important thing, be it design, marketing, brand, or SEO.
Every business that invests in our thing will grow, and all who ignore it, well, good luck, as they say, with that.
However, if your client just isn’t buying into that ongoing retainer or letting you into the strategic decisions around their own growth it may be that they don’t hold that belief.
They, like plenty of other businesses, are going to grow with less of a focus on your set of skills.
To them, the services you provide might just be table stakes, not a multiplier.
The services that you provide might just be a requirement rather than something they believe is going to provide them with huge results.
I know, the nerve of these people!
But that’s how beliefs work
The lesson is not to spend time trying to change the mind of people who don’t see things like you do. Instead, spend that time trying to find the clients who do.
There’s some clients you have to grow past till you find the ones that are going to retain you, value you, and keep working with you.
The non believers can be important, as we’ll get to next.
You’ll always be just a cog to some of your clients
Second thing to know is that even when you do become that consultative strategic agency, it’s still only a percentage of your clients that will treat you like that.
On some of our largest accounts, we were still just order takers.
And from there, you’ve got two choices. You either do what the advisors say and sack them to focus on clients that truly treat you as a strategic advisor, or you accept that that’s not going to be true for every engagement.
We did the latter. There was plenty of money on the table to be had just for doing execution. And there aren’t many agencies that don’t say yes to some of that work, because it’s profit and helps them grow in other ways.
It can’t be just positioning
Finally, if you want to become a strategic advisor to clients, you need to make sure you can actually deliver.
Is your team experienced and able to be consultative?
Because actual strategy is way more than just the best practices and thought pieces written by people in your industry, for people in your industry. Saying that you can help with design strategy and then going in and parroting things you’ve read in books isn’t going to get very far.
They don’t want an info product, they want something they can take action on.
If you’re going to actually be invited to the decision-making table (in the room or on the zoom we presume), you need to understand the client’s entire business, where your services fit within that, and provide advice within context.
You can position yourself and pitch it but it can take time.
During the sales process everyone is excited and big impact is discussed because you are trying to impress and they are giddy with the potential of the whole thing.
The project starts and you get the feeling that they just want you to get on with it. Where’s the room gone? And the table?
But that’s pretty normal, you are there to deliver and until you’re proven they don’t want the distraction.
When it does happen it’s often bit by bit.
It’s organic because we encouraged our team to ask questions about the client’s business, to be consultative, to look at what was happening in the market, and bring those bits of advice into their projects.
We actively trained people on the how to be a strategic advisor alongside their actual role and incentivised those conversations.
The result was that it slowly moved the needle.
Rather than clients coming to me and saying, “Please help with strategy,” it was actually trust built via our team that led them to say, “What should we do next?”
And we could then say, “Let’s run a workshop and help you decide.”
We’ll book a room.