Marketing Staffing Agencies and Companies
How to Choose the Best Marketing Staffing/Placement Agencies and Companies
Relationships. They permeate every aspect of our lives – both personal and business. There are good ones and poor ones. Some we look forward to and others we tolerate.Business partnerships assume a prominent role in the strategy of leading firms, large and small. Successful business partnerships are built on trust, confidence, understanding, and mutual success. These relationships require a pro-active effort to sustain and are critical to future growth.
Client-agency relationships are one of the most complex in the business environment, requiring a substantial level of collaboration to be effective.
While top agencies in the U.S. admit they are not doing their best work for many of their clients, "creative genius" is not always the key component of the success or failure of the client-agency relationship.
Despite their promise, many partnerships fail to meet their expectations. Numerous studies confirm the sensitive nature of partner relationships: 30% Fail; 17% Eventually wind down as priorities and people change; 39% Achieve/exceed initial expectations; 9% Bought out by a partner; 5% Spun off as independent; 20-25% of all outsourcing relationships (marketing, finance, IT, manufacturing, etc) fail within 2 years and 50% fail within 5 years; 31% of alliances are seen as limping along in some suspended state of under-performance. The trend in client-agency relationships is to terminate those that under-perform. In 1984, the average client-agency relationship tenure was 7.2 years. By 1997 (13 years later), that number declined 25% to 5.3 years.
If the trend continues, by 2010 clients will search for a new agency every 4 years.
Select an ad agency search consultant.
A successful client-agency relationship is essential to a firm's success. High financial, emotional, and strategic costs are associated with frequent partnering shifts. Clients must promote open communication and seek feedback to ensure the relationship continues to meet the expectations of all involved and endures over the long-term.
Try: The Bedford Group Agency Consultants. The Bedford Group focuses on marketing strategy, organization design, communications strategy, and agency search/negotiation. Specialized area of practice involves high-value client relationship research.
Evaluate and repair client-agency relationships.
Relationships can encounter rough terrain due to poor leadership & strategic advice, diminished creative quality, missteps, bottlenecks, organizational restructuring, and more.
Try: The Wall Street Journal, "Now, Often, the Agency Is the One Walking Away." On Madison Avenue, breakups between agency and client are usually made to look amicable, but of course they seldom are. Behind such splits is almost always a souring relationship -- and the industry seems to be seeing more of them.
Agency compensation, review, and negotiation.
It is important to settle cost and payment disputes with marketing partners.
Try: Seven steps toward better negotiation. Negotiating pay at the time of hiring is a crucial process. The candidate has to seize the initiative right from the start and be on the offensive for succeeding in the compensation negotiations.
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