By Ray Brown, CBC
Senior Partner, CEO

Unless your agency is really just a glorified service bureau, i.e. the output is only a reflection of the input, building a great relationship with your agency is essential to getting the best work. We named our firm as a metaphor for how we do business—we “partner” with our clients to deliver great work and help them grow their businesses. But the key point is it’s a partnership, not just a vendor relationship, and the client is the other half of the partnership.

What do I mean by getting the “best work”? It’s about passion. It’s more than adhering to best practices. Great work comes from the thrill of rising to a challenge, solving a problem, “nailing it” with killer concepts and creative, and providing the client with work that makes a difference.

Here are some fundamental guidelines, learned over the years, for companies looking to build a good relationship and get the best work from their agency.

1. Understand it is a two-way relationship
As in any mutually satisfying relationship, mutual respect and trust are vital to success. That means accepting and discussing a perspective that may not be what you expected, and being open to discussing new ideas. Take the agency’s advice into consideration. By definition they are going to have a more objective viewpoint. Test it against your market knowledge and company goals, and refine their recommendations together.

When marketing communications issues arise, work with the agency to resolve them together. Sometimes this means being transparent about your company’s business challenges, internal issues, politics, budget limitations, etc. In a word, genuine communication builds trust. The more you include the agency in your world, the better equipped and more willing the agency will be to work hard to provide a solution and meet tight deadlines.

2. Be realistic about your budget
Let’s be honest, you know your budget limits! If you have a good ongoing relationship with your agency, just be upfront about your budget. More than likely they will do their very best and stay within your budget if they know you’re being straight-forward. If they can’t, they will say so. If it is a new relationship get quotes in advance, but also be realistic about the work involved—they’re in business to make a profit too.

3. It’s about the work, not the budget
Budgets have always been tight—I’ve never had a client say “money is no object”—but budgets are always relative to perceived value. The key is to be honest with your agency about the working budget for a project or program, don’t make it a guessing game. Letting them know the budget up front is respectful and will save them time by focusing on developing ideas and concepts that you can afford.

4. Provide meaningful and useful input
Whether the project is large or small, taking time up front to provide a project brief is the key to getting creative solutions that meet your goals. It is essential that the decision makers are part of the input session and that everyone is onboard with the project goals. The input should include background detail, bigger picture information and the scope of the project along with timelines and the budget.

5. Feedback
In the rush to get things done, it’s easy to move from project to project and not take time to reflect on the work just completed. Taking a moment to meet on a project and provide positive feedback is to effectively invest in the relationship to ensure it grows stronger. It also builds trust and opens the door to discuss improvements, if needed, for the next project.

The way to get the best work from your agency is to adopt a partnership philosophy where both sides care about the other’s success. That’s a “win-win” approach that allows a lot of comfort, trust and loyalty to develop, which in turn motivates both the client and the agency to do their best.