Where's the beef?

I’m a big believer that no matter how great something is, there’s always room for improvement. No where is that more true than the relationship you have with your business partners and suppliers – particularly your PR and marketing firms.

I’m told I’m an expert on PR agencies, as I’ve worked for a number of agencies in Toronto including Group Multimedia Network, Weber Shandwick, GCI Group, GPC and Fleishman-Hillard before starting my firm, Cowan & Company Communications. In that time I’ve worked with more than 65 clients – of all shapes, sizes and industries – ranging from small dot-coms and software companies to leading global brands like L’Oréal Paris, Cisco Systems and Nintendo. With these experiences in mind, I’m going to share with you some of the best practices in agency management.

That’s the focus of this column: improving and maximizing the value you receive from your agency. Because, just to reiterate, no matter how good something is, it can always be better. My hope for this column is that it will give you time to take a step back from your agency relationship and assess what’s working, what’s not and how it can be improved to generate maximum results for your dollar.

In developing these recommendations, I’ve spoken with a number of client-side communicators - from large Fortune 100 companies to small firms - to get their tips and best learnings to augment my own recommendations. I received a lot of really interesting insights which I’ll share with you over the next few months. But I also identified a number of common complaints – of course not from any of my clients! One person actually called them “beefs.” And there were some common themes throughout – which make for interesting learning for communications professionals both on the client and agency side:

Key Agency Beefs from Clients:

Lack of proactive ideas or feedback – In a lot of cases, clients expect their agencies to be an ongoing source of proactive ideas – even if they haven’t overtly asked for them.

Lack of responsiveness – Clients want an agency that is responsive and picks up the phone immediately – or at least responds back in a timely fashion.

Poor industry/client knowledge – Many clients expect their agency to proactively build knowledge of their company and industry in order to provide sound counsel.

Staff turnover – This is one of the biggest, most frequent frustrations for clients – when their key account team members leave just when they developed a strong working relationship and in-depth understanding of their business.

Invoice/billing surprises – Even if everything else in the relationship is wonderful, if there are issues with the invoices the partnership can be seriously damaged.

Of course, there are two sides to every story – and throughout this column we’ll hear from client and agency-side communicators on their recommendations for resolving these, and other, potential issues. We’ll provide guidelines and tips to improve your relationship with your agency – decreasing the “beefs” and increasing your results.

What we’re specifically going to look at in this column is getting a better return on your agency investment. How do we overcome any “beefs” so we can get the most out of our agency relationships? Your company may be spending a little or a lot on PR – but how do you maximize every dollar you spend with your PR partners to get maximum results?

That’s what we’re talking about. Return on Investment equals results. It’s about getting better return and more results on each dollar spent – not about spending more money to get more results. Agency ROI is all about value.

So how do you get better value and better results from your agency? Future columns will focus on the following key steps:

Understanding the agency model – In order to effectively manage an agency, it’s crucial to understand their business model. We’ll provide a brief overview of the agency model, including hourly rates and account team structures, as it relates to your communications requirements and budgets.

Choosing a PR partner – The most important step in choosing a PR partner is first establishing what your needs are. We’ll provide a list of questions and resources to help you find the right agency or freelancer to meet your needs.

Creating a measurement framework – In order to effectively measure your return on investment you must first create a measurement framework. To get you started, we’ll provide potential qualitative and quantitative targets – as well as a list of regular temperature checks to implement.

Managing agency projects – Tips for day-to-day agency management will include pointers for integrating your agency into your team and creating good project briefs.

Managing agency budgets – For many clients, managing the agency budget is one of the least favourite aspects of their jobs. We’ll provide insights into budgeting and billing practices, maximizing value from administrative activities, and invoice management.

The goal for this column over the next few months is to provide you with a Value Checklist in line with these key steps - and an opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and give you a few minutes to think about how you can improve the results you’re getting from your agency – so you can get better value and better results.

Published in PR Canada in 2005