Know Your Clients: Key to Relationship Growth
Something’s up at the advertising agencies we work with. We can see that clearly in the data we collect.
The best agencies continue to tactically deliver and strategically lead.
Yet, the number one complaint among their senior clients — the ones who control budgets and hire and fire agencies — is around a lack of vision and strategy.
The agencies’ response to that? “But clients won’t pay for this higher lever, longer term type of work.”
We hear that often.
Ever since Covid flung us deep into the tactical pit of crisis management, it feels like the previous balance hasn’t quite been restored. That’s understandable. It can be difficult to see beyond the task in hand and have a long-term vision when there’s:
- Short-termism
- Huge growth in project work
- Constant client reorganisation
But here’s the problem.
These developments appear to be leading a general narrowing of agencies’ peripheral vision.
Often, when we ask teams how well they understand a client’s business, they plunge into a description of the project brief. A sound understanding of the project is good — but that’s not enough for a lasting agency-client relationship.
Agencies need to go beyond that.
A vital business investment
Over twenty years’ worth of data has taught us that the agency-client relationship needs to feel like a partnership in order to succeed.
One of the key foundation stones for that is a strong understanding of the client’s business because it:
- Highlights what matters most to the client
- Identifies how the work fits into the bigger whole
- Increases alignment around a shared agenda
- Gives agencies’ efforts a better chance of landing
- Minimises friction and wasted effort
- Allows agencies to spot the next opportunity
A genuine understanding of the broader business, culture, protocols and ways of working, is more than time well spent. We’d argue it’s business critical.
Oiling the wheels
So how do agencies get there?
By looking at the client work from two perspectives — business and human.
From a business standpoint, agencies should consider:
- What’s the ultimate goal that the work is helping to achieve?
- Is what the client hired them for still what they need?
- Do their agenda and priorities remain the same?
- Do they know precisely where their work sits in the client’s business strategy?
- What are the implications for how they approach the work?
- What other business problems might they be well-positioned to support with?
At the end of the day, business-to-business comes down to person-to-person. That means agencies also need to understand:
- What’s driving their client at an individual level
- The client’s personal motivation, agenda, objectives and how they are bonused
- How that might affect their response to the agency and its work
This level of insight oils the wheels of the working experience. It reveals what’s important to the client — and what matters most of all — allowing agencies to:
- Connect the dots
- Identify more opportunities
- Increase productivity and efficiency
- Hit targets first time
While investing the time required to build this knowledge may feel hard amidst shrinking scopes and tightening budgets, the truth is — this is one investment that will generate high ROI.
It means a greater chance of being a key part of the client’s long-term vision, rather than just the one brief.
