Chip and Gini talked about how things won’t magically change once the calendar flips over to January 2021.

Then Brad Farris jumped in with a great post making the same point, albeit more eloquently.

So Chip and Gini decided to pick up the ball and run with it in this episode. 

Resources

* What’s Going to Make Next Year Different from this Year (Anchor Advisors)

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich 

And I’m Gini Dietrich,

Chip Griffin 

not Jenny, Juju this week, you’re back to be

Gini Dietrich 

going. And I decided that I decided I really didn’t want to create that trends.

Chip Griffin 

I could hear the hamster wheel spinning in your head. Or maybe it was next to you. I still not really sure.

Gini Dietrich 

I mean, it’s also next to me. But yeah,

Chip Griffin 

yeah. So, speaking of hamsters, makes me think of groundhogs. Groundhog Day, we’re doing the same thing over and over and over again, right, which is 2020 2020, which is the lead in to our topic today. Because our topic today comes to us from our friend Brad Ferris. Another, another, another Chicago in

Gini Dietrich 

his and Brad Ferris, by the way, has the best laugh on Earth. The best. If you get him laughing, you it will be

a very good laugh.

Gini Dietrich 

You all you just start laughing. And then 20 minutes goes by accomplish nothing. But you have laughed until your episode. He’s amazing.

Chip Griffin 

He is a lot of fun to talk with. So

Gini Dietrich 

it was very fun. Yeah. But very smart.

Chip Griffin 

Very smart, too. But yeah, I mean, come on Fun. Fun is more important than smart these days, right?

I mean, I feel like it is but yeah.

Chip Griffin 

In any case, so So why don’t you kick it off? Because this was this was your suggestion. We’ve we’ve, we both I think engaged with him on this topic. Because he wrote a blog post about it, but go ahead and kick it off.

Gini Dietrich 

So I think maybe two or three weeks ago, you and I were joking about what happens on January 1, do we like 2020s? Over are we everything’s fine. Everything? Oh, yeah. Um, and so he not in response to that. That was just you and I haven’t conversation, but clearly,

Chip Griffin 

because he probably probably doesn’t even listen to us. I mean, you know, I’m probably going to tag him so that he knows that we actually posted the

podcast episode yet. Wow. Wow. No, that’s,

Chip Griffin 

Sometimes you may come across a client who wants more services than your agency provides. Or maybe it happens quite often.

How do you know when it is a good idea to pitch for business in partnership with another agency? What should you be looking for in that collaboration? What are the red flags you need to look out for?

That’s what Chip and Gini talk about in this episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast, leaning on their own experiences to help you avoid the pitfalls and reap the rewards.

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich 

And I’m Jenny Juju. Oh,

Chip Griffin 

I forgot that you were gonna do that. Yes. The, the automated transcripts system that we used, decided last week that it was going to transcribe your name as Jenny Juju.

Gini Dietrich 

I like it. That is what I will be known as from now on. Maybe that’s, I don’t know, maybe, maybe, or maybe it’s just silly.

Chip Griffin 

It’s, you know, it is what it is. It’s 2020 and so what it is, you know, the the system likes to call you Jenny anyway. But ever since I was able to put vocabulary into the the AI, it generally has improved, but not last time. But in fairness, that was when you tried to race through saying your name to so the name Yeah, even close a new It was a name.

Gini Dietrich 

No

Chip Griffin 

kudos to otter for for being able to to handle totally fair, craziness.

Gini Dietrich 

My craziness, just reacting to what’s going on in the world right now.

Chip Griffin 

There is nothing going on in the world. As we record this, we are, we are definitely not in a limbo period, where we do not know who the next President will be even though voting is. Anyway,

Gini Dietrich 

it is what it is,

Chip Griffin 

you know, and, and so, today, we are going to be talking about when two agencies partner together to serve a client and in particular, the whole business of agencies joining together to pitch business together and harass because sometimes people need a helping hand kind of like your daughter does with her current class. Yeah,

Gini Dietrich 

she’s, she’s asking me for help, which I’m trying to do at the same time as talk here. But you know, sometimes

Chip Griffin 

it’s not so easy. We’re just we’re just keeping it real here, folks, this is there’s, there’s there’s no magic about this podcast, there’s no, there’s no serious level of professionalism. It’s how we show up in front of the camera and the microphone, and we record a video and a podcast, and maybe it’s useful to hear

Gini Dietrich 

maybe it’s not, and I often I often, she’s often in class when we are recording, so it’s not that big of a deal. But right now she’s asking for a username and password for he...

Lots of us are working from home these days. Many agencies have transitioned to having their teams work full- or part-time remotely.

This creates new challenges for agency leaders as they try to figure out how to support and get the most from their employees.

Chip and Gini discuss some things that work — and some that don’t — when it comes to leading distributed teams.

But the focus of this episode is on some of the important things that you might overlook, especially if you are new to having employees who don’t work in the office — including some who may now be thinking about moving somewhere else to be closer to family or simply take advantage of the fact that they no longer need to come into the office every day.

Resources

* WFH and remote employees bring new administrative issues for agencies

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich 

And I’m Gini Dietrich,

Chip Griffin 

and we’re here today to talk about working from home because that’s what we’re all doing right now. Well, Jenny is and I am, I don’t know about you, a lot of you are, well, some of you, I

Gini Dietrich 

think most people are,

Chip Griffin 

most most people aren’t. And, and many of you have newly work from home team members, and some of those team members are even moving to other locations. I know a number of folks who have decided to pick up their their luggage and their belongings and move to a whole other parts of the country either because they can or because they need to be close to family for childcare reasons or all sorts of other things. So this is a topic that I know is on your mind.

Gini Dietrich 

Yes. And not only are we working from home, but we have other experiences while we do that.

Chip Griffin 

What do you mean exactly?

Gini Dietrich 

You know, like interns who are also remote learning, and yes, hamsters who write on their wheel. I’m

Chip Griffin 

just I’m just glad we were able to kind of get started on this. I did. I did have to see the new hamster though.

Gini Dietrich 

We did. Yeah, she there is a new hamster. We had to introduce you to pumpkin.

Chip Griffin 

hamsters last longer than fish, but still not very long as it turns out. No, actually, we’ve

Gini Dietrich 

had a fish super long. But now that’s gonna die because I just said that out loud. So

Chip Griffin 

Oh, 2020 2020 Yeah,

Gini Dietrich 

a 2020.

Chip Griffin 

What can I say? Yeah.

Gini Dietrich 

What do you do when an employee leaves your agency? In this episode, Chip and Gini talk about how to handle the transition with clients to minimize disruption.

There are definitely some things you want to make sure to do — as well as to avoid. Gini will even share an example from her past about how employees shouldn’t act on their way out the door.

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich 

And I’m Gini Dietrich.

Chip Griffin 

Yeah, you’re just messing with, like, You’re messing with me. You’re messing with the listeners. It’s just Oh, Gini. I don’t know. You know, don’t we have enough problems in 2020? without creating? I mean, all you’re doing is saying your name. It’s, it should be simple.

Gini Dietrich 

I know. It should be. You’re right. But it’s 2020. And while I sat there for a second, and I was like, should I wait five seconds? Should I talk over him? How should I do this? And that’s how it came out. So you know,

Chip Griffin 

well, that’s okay. I maybe maybe next time, I will simply introduce you. So we can just bypass that all together? Maybe that’s not a bad idea. So in any case, so So speaking of introducing you, you know, I, since one of us is leaving, you know, we have to figure out how to tell the audience.

Gini Dietrich 

I’m sorry, where are we going?

Chip Griffin 

Oh, oh, no.

Gini Dietrich 

Am I being fired? I get it. Now. I get it. Yeah. So So yeah, this week?

Chip Griffin 

That’s, that’s good. That’s good. Know, the topic. The topic is when an employee is leaving, how do you handle the client transition? Because this is something that just about every agency of every size, except for a solo has to handle at some point or another? If you’re a solo, and you’re leaving? Well, that’s called closing down the business. So generally speaking, so but but if you have an employee or could even be a contractor who’s got direct client contact, if that if you’re making a team member change, how do you handle that communication with the client to make sure that it goes as smoothly as possible? So that’s what we’re talking about today. Don’t worry, or maybe worry, both of us are actually sticking around. Yeah, you might want to worry about that. But then no, can you know, Jenny apparently thinks she’s getting fired. So I’m not sure that I can do that. Yeah.

Gini Dietrich 

I mean, you can just don’t send me a link every week.

Chip Griffin 

Well, there’s that Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I won’t send you your Patreon, either.

Gini Dietrich 

Yeah, well, thanks. Don’t do that. Anyway. Question did come up. This question did come up in the community. And it was one of our employees is leaving sad for us. But she’s leaving in great terms, terms, and we’re excited for her next role at a new agency.

You don’t want clients who are too small or too big for the work your agency does. You want them just right.

Clients who can just barely afford your services create one set of problems. Those who think your fee is a drop in the bucket will have their own issues.

Chip and Gini discuss why you need to follow the Goldilocks Principle when signing up new clients — and what happens when you don’t.

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich 

I’m Gini Dietrich.

Chip Griffin 

Now I’m thinking that you just you just deliberately wait, just to kind of get under my skin.

Gini Dietrich 

I did that last week. I did not. But that’s how I did

Chip Griffin 

it really. It’s it’s feeling like deliberate sabotage. Now, Jenny, and I don’t know that I’m okay with.

Gini Dietrich 

You know, this time it was last week, the first week. I don’t know what the deal was. Last week, I definitely was not on purpose. But this one that was on purpose. You’re welcome.

Chip Griffin 

Thanks. I mean, we don’t have enough problems doing this show. So we really ought to create new issues proactively just for fun. Well, so needs money. So I guess the question for our listeners is, was that pause too long, too short, or just write? Nothing? Just just right. Just right. Excellent. Excellent. So and that is indeed a segue into today’s show, because I thought we would actually get into it rather than, you know, taking two minutes of banter time today, trying to be efficient with your time and ours. So hey, all right. So we’re going to talk about the Goldilocks principle when it comes to dealing with prospective clients. And we’re going to look at it in a different way than you typically do. Because oftentimes, people talk about Goldilocks pricing, where you have three different options that you provide to a prospect one low, one high and one just right. And the whole idea is that you steer them towards that middle option that the preferred option that you would like them to take, maybe get them to spend a little more money, you know, take on a little bit more, we’re kind of just really, right, size it for you. But, but I also think that there’s another way to look at the Goldilocks principle when it comes to prospects. And that’s what we’re going to talk about this week. And that is that you should be looking for clients for whom the amount that they’re spending with you is just right. So not just from the pricing standpoint, but what they are, if they’re coming to you, they can comfortably afford to buy your services, but it’s not so insubstantial to them that your agency’s work just doesn’t matter. And so I think this is something that often gets overlooked. And there are some pitfalls for agencies that aren’t thinking this way, particularly when they’re looking at ideal clients.

Gini Dietrich 

You know, it’s interesting, I’m a big proponent of the low, medium and high just from a psychology perspective, pricing, because clients, typically humans, not just clients,

Despite all of the gurus who tout the idea of “value pricing” to agency owners, it may not be the best approach for everyone.

In fact, it is a concept that is often misunderstood and rarely implemented properly.

Chip and Gini talk about what value pricing — and what it isn’t — as well as how and when it may be useful. They also explore some of the pitfalls, misconceptions, and downright bad advice that agencies get.

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin,

Gini Dietrich 

and I’m Gini Dietrich,

Chip Griffin 

and you again had that lovely delay as if you didn’t know what your name was or you didn’t.

Gini Dietrich 

I got through it this week. I got I made it this week.

Chip Griffin 

Well, I guess that’s a good thing. But you know, we do have this same setup every single week. So I say, I’m Chip Griffin, and then you say, I’m Gini. Dietrich, there’s, there’s no need for a pause, you should be you should be prepared for it. Now, okay. Or at least more prepared than we are for the topic of today’s show, which we came up with 30 seconds before I hit the record button. But I think it’s gonna be a good one to do.

Gini Dietrich 

It was two minutes. Well, that’s not entirely true. Because you did put together a list of topics like three weeks ago, and we’re just going through the list right now. So

Chip Griffin 

it’s, but this was one that was decided, we just we just

know what it was.

Gini Dietrich 

I just didn’t Yes, it was. I just didn’t say it out loud.

Chip Griffin 

Oh, okay. All right. Yes, I’m glad you remember what’s on the list. I thought it was an original idea I had this morning. Just that that goes to show where my head’s at. All right. So let’s let’s get into the show. Because all right, I really want to rant about this one. Because I’m really annoyed. I know, I am annoyed, because I spend a lot of time reading and listening to the advice that agencies are given. And a lot of that surrounds pricing. And my pet peeve these days, in particular, is this notion of value pricing. And the reason why it drives me just bonkers is because most people first of all, don’t know what they’re talking about when they say value pricing. And secondly, it’s very difficult for most agencies to properly implement value pricing, even if they wanted to. So I want to talk about this because I think that a lot of folks are getting some some really bad advice out there. And or they are misconstruing the advice that they are being given.

Gini Dietrich 

Okay, so let’s back up and talk about what value pricing is, and how that compares to fixed pricing.

Chip Griffin 

Yes, that’s, that’s one of the that’s one of the biggest misconceptions. So that’s. So value pricing, when implemented properly means that you price the work that you’re doing for a clie...

We often get asked by agency owners and executives about how they can get their team members to improve their performance. They often frame it in terms of “being more accountable.”

The reality is that accountability is a two-way street. As a manager, you need to be accountable to your team members, too.

Listen in to learn how.

Transcript

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

Gini Dietrich 

And I’m Gini Dietrich, and,

Chip Griffin 

and we, at long last have this episode underway. Jenny has been having a bit of a tough time getting going this morning

Gini Dietrich 

saying her name I can’t even say my name. I guess what? I got it up there. Geez. Yes.

Chip Griffin 

For some reason you thought your name was incredibly funny. I don’t I don’t think your name is that funny. So

Gini Dietrich 

it’s not that funny. I just, yeah, I’m having a time right now.

Chip Griffin 

Well, it’s probably because we’re going to talk about accounting today, right?

Gini Dietrich 

Oh, yeah. Let’s talk about accounting.

Chip Griffin 

So I have my notes accounting, is that I have run out.

Gini Dietrich 

That’s, I think you’re meant accountable or accountable.

Chip Griffin 

Oh, so that’s different. That’s not the same. So see, I thought we’re talking about p&l. And so I have my calculator all here. And my, my printing tape and you know, whatever. No. All right.

So accountability.

Chip Griffin 

We are accountable to our listeners, or really weren’t Yeah, apparently. Yeah, we just

Gini Dietrich 

kind of lost this. We’re not gonna have any listeners.

Chip Griffin 

Well, the good news is we don’t have any to begin with. So going from zero to zero is actually maintaining the status quo. And we always tell people if in 2020, you hold your ground.

Gini Dietrich 

At least five listeners. I know that I know of at least five,

Chip Griffin 

at least five. All right, well, does that does that count me when I listened to 30 seconds of it, just to make sure that it recorded correctly are now

Oh, wow. So now we have six

Chip Griffin 

now? Well, yes. I don’t listen to the thing all the way through. I really don’t want to listen again. Jenny,

Gini Dietrich 

I know. I wouldn’t want to listen to me more than once either.

Chip Griffin 

Now listening to myself. That’s a whole nother story. I love listening to myself, boy

in.

Chip Griffin 

When I get bored,

A week doesn’t go by without Chip and Gini being asked about which software to use for sales tracking, media monitoring, time tracking, accounting, and more.

We get it. We like tinkering with tools, too.

But how should you approach making these choices for your own agency business?

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin,

Gini Dietrich 

and I’m Gini Dietrich,

Chip Griffin 

and we’re here today to talk about tools, hammers, nails, screwdrivers, saws, table saws, right. No,

Gini Dietrich 

no. And I will say to you that we have a client who provides solutions. And anytime anybody writes that it’s a tool. They write in all caps. We are not a tool, and and sometimes I think

Chip Griffin 

I was gonna say, yeah. Oh, the fact that you say that, to them, the fact that you said that.

Hi, Mr. Yeah.

Gini Dietrich 

Not what we’re gonna talk about today, though,

Chip Griffin 

but it’s not. It’s not too far afield? I mean, what is it that they say that that a carpenter never blames his tools or something like that? It’s not one of those things, not the Yeah. Right. And and so that’s, that’s sort of that’s sort of where we’re headed. That’s a little bit of a teaser for you. So don’t go away after the commercial break that we don’t have.

Gini Dietrich 

That we don’t have.

Chip Griffin 

Right. We should have a commercial break, though. Don’t you think? I think I think we should have commercials. Yeah. So if you want to pay us a lot of money to have a commercial, we would be happy to go put it right here. Right in this very spot. Not not on this show. We can’t turn back to future future shows. I got it would be nice. Wouldn’t be nice. We’ll get back to the future this year. We could like, like, completely redo 2020 all over again.

Gini Dietrich 

Oh, yeah. It’s you know, time travel in general, I would really like to do

Chip Griffin 

some crazy hair. You know, that’s why I can’t if I go back into the pet while actually no, I guess. Well, I don’t know. Anyway,

Gini Dietrich 

like Brian Urlacher who used to play for the bears is advertising some care plug something they need to do that?

Chip Griffin 

Yeah. I mean, there are there are benefits to be involved, particularly in the midst of a pandemic. You know, my, my younger son has, you know, shoulder length hair at this point, because he hasn’t gotten his hair cut since February. And it looks atrocious. He’s, but we finally arranged for him to go to a properly socially distant barber this weekend so that he can

Gini Dietrich 

Oh, we’re not a picture. I want to see it before it’s taken off.

Chip Griffin 

Oh, I will, I will be sure to share with you his school picture that we just got back yesterday. I want to say it was special. It was special.

In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss whether you should share ideas with prospective clients during the business development process.

If you don’t share ideas, you worry that you can’t prove your expertise and creativity.

If you do share ideas, you worry that the prospect will take your thoughts (for free) and implement them on their own.

So what are you to do?

Transcript

Chip Griffin 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin,

Gini Dietrich 

and I’m Gini Dietrich,

Chip Griffin 

and this time we really are here to sell you an idea.

Gini Dietrich 

We are But first, I would like to tell people who cannot see you about the shirt you’re wearing today. It’s a lovely blue color, t shirt, round neck, and it says it depends, which is amazing and totally perfect for this podcast. Now I feel like I need to order myself one and we will match. I’ll get red or something.

Chip Griffin 

I can say this is the first time I have ever appeared in a public video wearing a T shirt.

Gini Dietrich 

I believe that that’s true.

Chip Griffin 

I think it’s probably the first time I’ve ever done any work function wearing a T shirt either of any kind.

Gini Dietrich 

I believe that that’s also true knowing you like I know you but it’s perfect. It’s perfect for this and I clap When I saw it,

Chip Griffin 

I thought it was fun. So I, you know, you got to have.

I think it’s great.

Chip Griffin 

Yeah. I thought maybe it was a good antidote to the doom and gloom episode that we published

Gini Dietrich 

the doom and gloom, but by the way, after we stopped recording, he went on and told me more about his doom and gloom. And then I was like, wow, I have a migraine. I wonder why?

Chip Griffin 

Well, you know, it’s, it’s important not to completely depress the audience because we want them to come back. Just

Gini Dietrich 

me. Yeah, just depress me.

Chip Griffin 

Well, yeah. But I share the unvarnished truth with you, Jenny. I

Gini Dietrich 

do and it wasn’t on varnished. I

Chip Griffin 

slightly varnish the truth for everybody else. Not much. Not much. So. I mean, no,

Gini Dietrich 

I would say you didn’t. You just, I wouldn’t say you varnished the truth. I would say you just didn’t go it’s say everything.

Chip Griffin 

Yes, I stopped at a certain point. The point I stopped that was much more speculative. So in all fairness, so we don’t We don’t tease the audience too much into two.

Gini Dietrich 

Oh, yeah, it was.

Chip Griffin 

It was,

Chip and Gini started this episode with the idea that they were going to talk about whether you should share ideas with prospects before they sign on the dotted line. They were all set for a vigorous debate since they don’t entirely see eye-to-eye on the question.

But then their usual witty banter at the top turned serious, and Gini prodded Chip to share his fairly gloomy forecast for the end of 2020.

Tune in to this episode to hear why Chip is not optimistic about what November and December holds on a number of fronts. At the same time that they share their concerns, Gini and Chip also balance it with optimism that those who plan and innovate can still make it into 2021 in decent shape — or even better.

Of course, as they always say: it depends.

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.

Chip Griffin  

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin,

Gini Dietrich  

and I’m Gini Dietrich,

Chip Griffin  

and we’re here today to give you an idea. But we’re going to charge you for it. We won’t give you an idea until you become a client of ours. No ideas. Not at all.

Gini Dietrich  

I mean, I kind of agree with that. Well, I know we don’t agree on this, but no,

Chip Griffin  

we don’t we don’t agree on this. Well, I think I think like most things where you and I think we don’t agree, and we start a show, because of that, we’re gonna find that there’s more common ground than we think because we go along,

Gini Dietrich  

maybe, or maybe I’ll just argue with you to argue with you. You

Chip Griffin  

know, I mean, why not? It’s 2020. So,

Gini Dietrich  

and you’re you’re tired today, so I could just like,

Chip Griffin  

I am tired. I just,

Gini Dietrich  

yeah, I just I don’t know why. I mean, 2020 has been such a joy. I can’t imagine why anybody would be burned out. Yeah,

Chip Griffin  

I just part of it is I’ve had too many conversations recently where we’ve talked about the rest of 2020 and I am I am Very, very pessimistic on where the rest of the year goes. But we’ll save that topic for another

Gini Dietrich  

week. Now I want to talk about that instead of ideas.

Chip Griffin  

I don’t think anybody really wants to hear my theories about q4 though, I would

Gini Dietrich  

like to hear your theory so that I am better prepared because this is what I learned during the Great Recession. Everybody, all these economists were saying the sky is falling, the sky is falling, the sky is falling and I was like, Oh, please, it can’t be that bad. And then it was so I would like to be prepared. So let’s change our topic.

Chip Griffin  

Well,