It’s been a while since we were unkind to agencies in this space and frankly, I miss it. So let’s talk about what you can do if, despite your very best efforts, you find yourself stuck with a Sucky B2B Agency.
Maybe you work in the forgotten B2B corner of a mighty consumer brand, perhaps you’ve inherited an AOR mid-contract or maybe one of your Corporate Overlords has simply exercised their right to keep distant cousins employed. The point is, there are things you can do if your agency sucks and you need to get decent work out of them.
- Escalate, escalate, escalate:
There are a number of fairly strong indications that you have a Sucky B2B Agency. Too often, I think marketers suffer at the hands of intimidating, obnoxious agency people. It’s important to remember, even if they don’t, that you’re the one supporting their iPad habit, not the other way around. So ask for an organization chart and find out who at the agency owns your revenue stream. That is, whose bonus suffers if revenue from your company declines?It’s probably some group account director’s boss. When things start sliding sideways, you start escalating. Go one above your account manager, then to their boss and so on up the chain until they acknowledge your pain. A couple of well-played escalations should bring lazy creatives and smirking account managers into line.
- Ask for resumes:
I don’t know why this scares people but it does. And it’s fun to scare your Sucky B2B Agency. I usually ask for one every three weeks or so, starting with the art director. In my experience, it’s always better to be indirect. So call your account manager on some matter and, as an afterthought, add “by the way, could I please get a copy of Phil’s resume?”. If they ask why, try this line: “I just like to know the background of the people we entrust with our brand.”You probably won’t get the resume on first request but keep asking and don’t let them string you along with Phil’s-out-of-the-office excuses. They have resumes for everyone they use for pitching new business, so it’s there somewhere. If you don’t have it in your hands in two or three days, escalate it. When you get the resume, take a look and note any gaps or strengths around B2B. File it safely for agency review time or to help with Number 3.
- Ask for team changes:
If you don’t like someone on your account you are entitled to ask for a change. The resumes are a very good way to document your assertion that your Sucky B2B Agency is, well, sucky and that people with some actual B2B experience might help get things into a healthier place. With small agencies, you may not get the changes but you will certainly get someone’s attention about your unhappiness. In big agencies, the people you get kicked off your account will probably send you flowers since the B2B beat is a CPG agency’s equivalent of waterboarding. - Set up weekly meetings:
Even if you have nothing to say. Even if you are between campaigns. Even (and especially) if the agency is across town. Make them talk to you every single week, ideally in person. This has three benefits.- It sends a very clear message that you are taking a personal interest in the relationship and doing your best to keep the lines of communication open etcetera, etcetera.
- It might actually improve things by letting you deal with minor billing issues, missing purchase orders and other things that may end up in the scrap heap of resentment. It may also help you build a nice rapport (Stockholm Syndrome Alert) which can come in handy when things slide off the rails later.
- It forces someone at the agency to carve out time in their calendar to pay attention to your business. Fun fact: You’re probably paying for a weekly meeting in your retainer. Take a look at the contract. I’ll bet it’s in there.
- Make your account manager attend your team meetings:
Condescending agency people are often that way because they haven’t got the slightest idea what you do. They signed on to sell fun stuff like toothpaste or cruises, not server farms or industrial chemicals. By making them an honourary part of your team, there is a good chance they will start understanding a thing or two about your business and, I know this is a little starry-eyed, they might even come up with some solutions to your marketing problems. - Make the account manager and creative team come to your team planning sessions:
Seriously. I’ve done it. And they hate it. And they try to get around you by sending interns, exchange students and anyone too junior to get away from it (escalate until someone old enough to rent a car is dispatched). But if you stick them in the middle of the agenda and ask them to do a creative review of, get this, the competition’s recent campaigns, they not only show up but they stay and they may just surprise you with some ideas not stolen from General Electric (which is the only B2B company most agency folks can name).If you do a brainstorming thing as part of your planning, ask your agency folks to lead it. They’ll be tickled pink and so busy scribbling on flip charts they won’t keep interrupting with stories from their P&G days.
- Make them come to marketing conferences with you:
This is so mean, you’d think it was reserved for punishing teenagers, but it’s effective with agency people too. I learned this trick from my buddy at one of the banks. He attends two business marketing events each year and requires either the account manager or group manager from his agency to attend also.The first year, they whined and complained but showed up. Then had the nerve to bill for 96 hours of work. But a funny thing happened: they actually picked up a little business at the conference so the next year they brought two people and didn’t charge my friend. The third year they pulled a Grinch-in-Whoville move and presented at the conference with my friend (who had the grace not to charge the agency for the 97 hours he spent prepping). If an out-of-town conference with your agency is right up there with chewing tin foil, then drag them along to one of those local one-day seminars.
- Start seeing other people:
So let’s say all that togetherness just isn’t creating the synergistic cheese-moving win-win perfect storm of innovation. But you still need to get stuff done and your agency is still sucking at B2B. Let’s remember, the Internet is for more than finding a new life partner; it’s for sneaking out the bathroom window at the Sucky B2B Agency Buffet.Go find one of those hungry little local shops and give them some of the stuff your agency sniffs at like it’s aerosol cheese: sell sheets, short videos, online quiz things, white papers, e-vites. They’ll gobble up the work and turn it faster and for far less money than your Sucky Agency.
If it sucks too, well move on. Remember, we’re just dating here so our strategy is catch-and-release until we get a good one. If your P-Cube is playing the “preferred vendor” card on you, take a look at their list. Chances are there’s an agency or two hiding in there. They may sell database scrubbing or pre-press services or pool cleaning to the Mother Ship but if they’re on the list, you can issue a purchase order and the Keebler Elves have to pay.
- Bonus Desperate Move – Don’t Pay Them:
I’m a realist and I know that sometimes all our well-meaning positive juju just doesn’t fix Sucky B2B Agencies. If you really want to get their attention but can’t cut through the noise on Award-Polishing Day, just stop paying them.Pile their invoices neatly and put a sticky note on each with the offence that is preventing you from approving the charge. Be petty, folks. Account manager didn’t return your call? No money. Last round of changes never got made? No money. They did an end run to your boss on an approval? No money. They forgot to take the other customer’s product name off the proposal before they sent it to you? No money.
It’s easy and I promise they’ll call you. And when the agency Accounts Payables people threaten to huff and puff and blow your house down, you say this: “Our corporate values prohibit me from authorizing payment for work that was not done in accordance with the AOR agreement.” You’ll be on a patio sucking back sweet potato frites with a managing director within the week.
Related Posts
Preventing Agency Suckiness
Why the Shoemaker’s Children Should Run Away from Home
BizMarketer is written by Elizabeth Williams
I help companies have better conversations
Drop me a line at ewilliams@candlerchase.com
Or follow me @bizmkter
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