Chip and Gini will be recording a couple of separate solo episodes since scheduling conflicts prevented them from recording together recently. (Of course, we would love to hear your feedback about these and some of the other formats we have experimented with recently, including guest co-hosts.)

In this episode, Gini fields a question from Kevin Anselmo who asks about pitching agency services to prospects, including cold calling and other techniques. She explains her approach which centers around creating VIP lists of potential clients.

After you use such a list to get a meeting, Gini explains her style during initial consultations: “People want to be around people who challenge them. They want to be around people who make them think differently.”

Resources

* Kevin Anselmo on LinkedIn | Twitter

* Experiential Communications

* Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount

Transcript

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

Welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I am Gini Dietrich.

Chip Griffin and I are going our separate ways just for a couple of weeks, not forever. It’s, as most of you know, is a crazy time of year war clients are trying to spend budgets they haven’t spent and they’re trying to allocate budgets for next year. And because of that Chip and I have had a hard time while that and a sick kid and a funeral and other things that personal lives have thrown our way. We’ve had a hard time figuring out how to get together to record some episodes.

So with that, we’re going to do some solo episodes. It probably — no, not probably, it definitely will not be as entertaining. I don’t have anybody to make fun of if he’s not here. And I’m certainly going to have to do my own segue at the end. So we’ll see how we go how we do.

Kevin Anselmo is a podcaster and does a lot of work in university and education PR sent a note to Chip that said, “electronic communications are great, but seeing people in person talking on the phone or sending handwritten notes offers even more value in the digital age. I would be interested in your thoughts about prospecting and related to the above post using the phone. Just read the book fanatical prospecting by Jeb Blount. I don’t agree with everything he says. But he did give me some ideas that I plan to implement as it relates to using the phone to prospect more but more deliberately, around the ideal work I want to do. I’d be interested in hearing you and Gini discuss questions such as and then he says, Is there a place for cold calling? If yes, what’s the best way to approach this? If a warm lead were the best ways to interrupt someone over the phone? How have you refined your respective short pitches regardless of medium howdy You go about getting time on the calendar in the most efficient way possible with prospects for more in depth business development discussions? And what is your approach on these pitch calls slash meetings?”

So some really great questions here. Kevin, I definitely have a perspective. I’d love to hear Chip’s response to these because I think he probably will agree with some and disagree with others, but for now, you get to hear my thoughts and then he can come back later and add in his

So first of all, I’ve not read Fanatical Prospecting and definitely will be something that I pick up. Kevin, like you I imagine I will agree with some of it and not with all of it.

I have found just like in pitching media, that phone phone calls are hard.

Why do PR and advertising agencies feel the need to look down their noses at each other? Why can’t everyone just get along?

That’s the discussion that Chip and Gini have after an article appeared in AdWeek with the provocative title “PR Agencies Invade Adland.”

As the creator of the PESO model that calls for the integration of all forms of media, Gini has some especially strong feelings on the subject. The reality is that the lines between all types of agencies have blurred. It’s now more of a question of an agency’s primary focus, but there is an increasing need to have some degree of fluency in a range of communications disciplines at any type of agency.

Resources

* PR Agencies Invade Adland

* The PESO Model

Transcript

CHIP: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the agency leadership podcast. I’m Chip Griffin,

GINI: and I’m Gini Dietrich,

CHIP: and we’re here today to talk about a communications Civil War.

GINI: It’s it definitely seems that way for sure.

CHIP: It may be a little little dramatic, but it is it is the ongoing, never ending battle over the supremacy of PR versus advertising.

GINI: Why can’t we all just get along?

CHIP: Yeah, so many reasons. many, so many reasons.

It would be no fun. And then we’d have nothing to talk about spare so

GINI: well, at least not today. We wouldn’t. That’s true. It’s nice to have an episode, you know, cooked up by the fact that the two types of agencies cannot seem to get along because they view they look down their noses really at the other PR is, thinks that that advertising is just

CHIP: I don’t know how I would describe it, but they just look down their noses at each other and it’s It’s really unfortunate and so unhealthy.

GINI: Yeah, you know, it’s funny because I worked for an ad agency and I did PR. But I ran, I ran the PR department inside the agency. And it took a really long time to educate my colleagues on. Okay, it’s great that you have a new ad campaign, but I can’t just go tell the media about it because they would, for real come into my office and be like, look what we’re doing. Can you go tell the media and I’d be like, No, we need something else. And you know, I did a lot of brown bag lunches and things like that, because that was their perspective. It was okay, you do earned and we do paid and that’s that’s how we work. And there’s an article that ran an ad aged about a week or so ago that that talks about the the lines between paid media and earned media are all but erased. But it’s interesting from the, from the perspective of how that looks, because I don’t think most PR firms and maybe the global guys are but I don’t think most PR firms are doing creative campaigns and Super Bowl ads and TV ads and YouTube video, you know, I mean longer form advertising, YouTube videos and things like that. But but the Ad Age article makes it sound like we are stepping all over advertising brother end and eating their lunch. And I know that that’s necessarily true.

CHIP: It seems like unnecessary panic on the part of the advertising community. Because you’re absolutely right. There are and first of all, I think everybody needs to accept that there are different levels of PR and different levels of advertising. You’re talking about Super Bowl ads. You know, there are folks who can do Super Bowl ads even within the advertising space. Not every ad firm. Yeah, is set up to do a Super Bowls or level ad. And PR agencies probably are not going to be getting into that space anytime soon.

A recent post in the members-only forum of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) discussed the benefits of small versus large PR agencies. It stemmed from a remark an agency consultant made on a recent webinar where he referred to small ad agencies as “two guys and a bong.”

While we can assure you that Chip and Gini were not smoking anything when they recorded this episode (OK, at least we think we can), they do stand up for small and mid-size agencies. Not that there’s anything wrong with being big, since every size and shape of PR firm has its pros and cons.

Chip also reminds agency owners to understand the difference between punching above your weight and fighting in the wrong weight class.

Resources

* InsidePR podcast

* PRSA

Transcript

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

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

GINI: and I’m Gini Dietrich,

CHIP: and we are very professional

GINI: we are we are very professional. In fact up right before this, well,

CHIP: we didn’t have to, you know, wave our hands in front of our face to get a straight face going so that we could dive into this. We are your

GINI: all buttoned up serious professional.

CHIP: Right?

GINI: Yes.

CHIP: But, you know, that’s, that’s why you enjoy listening to this podcast because we have a little bit of personality. Not a lot, but a little bit.

GINI: I will I will tell you that. During the Inside PR recording this week, Joe Thornley said, I really enjoy listening to you and Chip because you have a conversation. And you play off of one another really well. And it’s fun to listen to you. And I was like, thank you, Joe. So, Joe,

CHIP: well, it’s good to know that we have one listener so at least one episode.

GINI: Well, we have more than one listener because we know that Shane Carpenter also enjoyed the one where you felt like you went off the rails. And I felt like it was hilarious. So

CHIP: yeah, so I was a little concerned when when you typed on Twitter that I was frisky on that episode because, as I say, I’m not sure that word means what you think it means.

GINI: It does.

CHIP: Okay.

GINI: There are multiple meanings to many words.

CHIP: Okay.

Well, but it’s certainly it’s not the cat food so I can, I can assure you because I’m not a cat person. So I don’t have a bag of Friskies sitting next to me. And I don’t snack on that. I smell all sorts of weird things. But anyway, Alright, enough of this. It is time to get into a very important discussion. And it actually kind of plays off of what we’ve been doing here because one of the reasons that we can do this and have a little bit of fun is because we’re small, we’re not a big corporate podcast. We are a small scrappy one, sometimes even frisky, but we’re going to be talking about big versus small agencies today. That was quite the Segway. Wow. Well, you know, I really worked at it. It’s I think it’s the three hours of sleep that I had last night. Is is really Helping me

GINI: Yeah. Wow.

CHIP: Okay. So big versus small. Why and why did we come up with this topic tonight?

GINI: Well, a blog post on the PRSA, or maybe,

CHIP: I guess it was applied to the forum

isn’t a forum members community and

GINI: there was a conversation about big versus small PR. And apparently on a recent ad week webinar, the author heard an agency consultant refer to smaller agencies as two guys and a bong

CHIP: was that Eugenie? Were you that we that was not me? No, it wasn’t me either.

What agency owner hasn’t dreamed about telling prospects: here’s what I do, here’s what it costs, take it or leave it?

That’s pretty much what Chip and Gini tackle in this episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. It all started with a provocative question posted by Gini in the Spin Sucks Community on Slack:

What would happen if we all banded together and stopped sending proposals? We put our pricing on our websites. We became clear about what we do (and who we do it for). And they either buy or they don’t.

What does that life look like?

Gini believes passionately that this is the right path, while Chip frames it in more idealistic terms. Wherever you fall in the debate, there’s lots of good insight shared in this discussion.

Resources

* Spin Sucks Community

* Inside PR Podcast

Transcript

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

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

GINI: I’m Gini Dietrich.

CHIP: And today we’re, we’re going to light a match well, more appropriately, Gini already lit a match in the Spin Sucks community recently. And so now we’re going to talk about the results of that match lighting.

GINI: And it really light a match. There’s just something I’m very passionate about. And I think that things are done a little backwards, but we continue to do them because it’s the way things are done. And I would like to see us change that.

CHIP: And I think this is going to be a productive discussion because I think I’m gonna fall into the camp of it’s nice to live in that world, Gini, hey, it works. But the rest of us live in the real world.

GINI: No, it works. I’m telling you, it works. It doesn’t work just for me. It works. I have I do this with all of our clients. It works.

CHIP: I’m not saying that you Well, let’s we should probably instead of speaking in hypothetical terms here, we should we should lay out the topic because i think i think It works in part because everybody is not doing it. But the the conversation centered around what if everybody did it? And I think if everybody did it then actually that would be bad for your acolytes.

GINI: Hmm. Okay,

CHIP: but so explain to the audience what the hell we’re talking about here so that they don’t just Well,

GINI: I’m sure this is not the first time if you’ve been listening for almost the last year it’s been almost a year which is crazy.

CHIP: You know, it really bothers me. It’s actually been over a year but has

GINI: it? Yeah, well, we’re 49 so I figured we had two more three more episodes to go before we

CHIP: missed. We missed a few in there but thanks for reminding me audience that we’ve been inconsistent. But but at least this show didn’t take a whole summer holiday so

GINI: summer and all fall pretty much IPR.

CHIP: Sorry, sorry, sorry.

GINI: Sorry, Martin, Martin, and Joe and me. One of the things that really bothers me is that and I started to do this in my own agency, because I would sit down with the prospects, they would be really excited, we’d have a great fruitful conversation. You know, I would say, so what, you know, I think we can help you, what is your budget? And they would say things like, Well, you know, I don’t really have anything budgeted, but tell me what you think it’s going to cost. And we can go from there. And over the years, I got smart and would say, well, we have a minimum of and then whatever our minimum was, you know, it continues to increase every year,

Agency businesses have some challenges unique to the individual owners and circumstances. But many of the growing pains are predictable and follow patterns established by other similar businesses.

Leaders can take comfort in knowing that they are not likely the first to experience any particular challenge, nor are other agencies immune from the obstacles.

Brad Farris has spent decades advising businesses and helping them overcome these growing pains so that they can continue to thrive. In this episode of Chats with Chip, Brad shares his observations on each of the key stages that agencies experience, along with advice on how to forge ahead at every step.

Resources

* Anchor Advisors

* Breaking Down Your Business podcast

* Brad’s email list

* Business lifecycle grid

* Brad on LinkedIn | Twitter

About Brad Farris

Brad Farris guides business owners through the pitfalls and joys of growing their business. Brad is a speaker and author. Brad is passionate about business and helping business owners find better ways to do things, make more money and enjoy life more.

Transcript

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

CHIP: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Chats with Chip Podcast. I am your host, Chip Griffin. And my guest today is Brad Farris with Anchor Advisors. Welcome to the show, Brad. Thanks. I’m glad to be here. It is great to have you here. But Can Can you remind me why I have you here? What is it? What is it that you do?

BRAD: I help small agencies to get bigger. I particularly focused on working with agencies that have have gone over a million in in service revenue, and want to get to that three to $5 million range. And and what I’ve found is that there’s a real barrier between like a million 1.5 million, where people get stalled out, and there’s some things that I can help them with that can get them up to that $3 to $5 million place much faster.

CHIP: Well, you just did a great job of reminding what we were talking about because we had talked about life cycles of agency businesses. And so you’ve had a nice segue right away. It’s almost like you have your own podcast. I know how to do this.

BRAD: I do actually I have a podcast. That’s true. But the life cycle thing has been interesting. Not too long in this year. And in 2019, I started playing around with this idea that sort of like there are human growth life cycles, you know, we’ve got toddlers, and then we’ve got school age kids, and we got teenagers, and then we’ve got proto adults or whatever you want to call them after that, that businesses go through similar phases, and tend to have similar challenges within those phases. And then they run up against barriers that help that make it hard for them to get into that next phase. And as I started laying it out, I did some some original research this year to try to validate some of this. And people are finding it to be a useful framework to help them to think about where they are in their business growth.

CHIP: Now, Brad, you’re going to start giving us consultants a bad name, if you do research and put actual facts and evidence and

BRAD: I know, right, I have to keep that in my hat.

CHIP: Yeah, we’re just supposed to state the obvious and m...

Podcasts can be powerful tools for agencies to showcase thought leadership, make connections, and build their own brands. New research from Dante32, a podcast production and promotion agency, looks at how brands are deploying their podcasts what that indicates about best practices.

Chip and Gini use this research as a jumping off point to share their insights on using podcasts in the agency context. They review the key findings from Dante32 — and of course have a little fun along the way.

Resources

* Branded Podcast Website Best Practices

* Dante32

Transcript

The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please review the audio for accuracy.

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

GINI: And I’m Gini Dietrich.

CHIP: And we’re here today to talk to you about something that we didn’t initially think of as an idea. And that’s we’re going to take you behind the curtain a little bit and let you know that sometimes we actually get a little bit lazy because some of you listeners are kind enough to send along your own ideas and things that we should talk about.

GINI: So it’s nice to get ideas. Yeah, I love that

CHIP: it is it is really appreciated, particularly when you provide some additional resource or research or information so that we can jump off of that instead of having to actually use our own brains and come up with topics and do our own independent research. Hey, it works for me. Absolutely. So, Word to the wise, if you were listening and you’ve got a good idea for a show, feel free to let us know if you’ve got some resources or research that you’d like to add to it even better.

GINI: Yes, so a friend of mine from Dante 32 here in Chicago, which is a podcasting business fee, probably would not Like me to describe it that way, but that’s what they do. They create, produce, develop brand, everything that goes into doing a podcast for organizations and

CHIP: and these types of agencies are becoming a lot more common today there’s a around the world. I know there’s a fair number of these folks who are working with brands, even with other agencies to put together branded podcasts that, you know, all you have to do is show up and do the interview. Basically, there’s all of the the other work is done.

GINI: Pretty nice. It’s pretty nice. So they did. He sent me a link to an article or some research that they had done on how to promote your podcast essentially, and what that all looks like. So things such as, should you integrate it into your website, should it be part of your navigation? How do you name it all that kind of stuff and I think they looked at I think you have the number exact Chip but I think they looked at 65

CHIP: it was mid 60’s. I thought it was 63

GINI: 63 of the top branded podcasts from fortune 500 names to startups to niche brands to find out more about podcast website best practice practices. So if you are go if you’re thinking about a podcast or creating one or you have one and need some additional insight on how to promote it or get it out there in a different way, we are about to save you.

CHIP: And we will, of course, include a link to this resource in the show notes so that you can get over to the Dante 32 website and look at it yourself. But we of course, will jump right in and start commenting on it. And I particularly like that the the very first question that they looked at, it caused them to eject two of the 63 from the study altogether and didn’t even bother continuing to research them so and that one was, should your podcast be indexed by Yes. That really shouldn’t be a question today and...

The co-hosts discuss an article that Gini wrote for Spin Sucks that looks at 6 reasons that agency owners have trouble scaling. The conversation includes lots of actionable ideas — despite Chip’s best efforts to sidetrack things as he struggles to remember high school science basics in making an analogy.

* Reason #1: You Don’t Have a Business Plan

* Reason #2: You Can’t Break Free from Client Work

* Reason #3: Operating In Chaos

* Reason #4: Freakin’ Technology! Who Can Keep Up?

* Reason #5: Not Understanding the Whole “Measurement” Thing

* Reason #6: You Lose Focus

Agency owners are entrepreneurs and Gini notes that tends to come with a certain level of stubbornness.  Or as Chip put it: “There’s great similarity between a toddler and an entrepreneur.”

The pair try to help owners break out of this tendency to find solutions and help them scale. As an added bonus, they talk about making beds, splitting atoms, renovating kitchens, and lots of other things to keep you entertained.

Resources

* Six Reasons Agency Owners Get Stuck and Can’t Scale

* Do I need a business plan?

* Traction by Gino Wickman

* Built to Sell by John Warrillow

Transcript

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

CHIP: Hello, and welcome to the agency leadership podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.

GINI: And I’m Gini Dietrich.

CHIP: And we are here today to talk about scaling, not the bathroom scale, you know, Thanksgiving. So we’re not we’re not talking about, you know, how much did you have for Thanksgiving and you got to get on the scale. Now this is scaling your agency business.

GINI: Yes. Growing, scaling, putting in processes that allow you to still service clients at the level that you like, but not necessarily have it be you and getting to yourself to the goals that you have created in the dream vision of what your life looks like when you own your own agency.

CHIP: And scaling matters. Because without scale, you don’t really have a business you You’re just a freelancer. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a freelancer. If you want to be a freelancer, cool solo printer. Solopreneur. Sorry. I apologize. Yeah,

GINI: I learned my lesson — solopreneur.

CHIP: See, this is me. I gotta be careful here. Everything I say is fraught with some some sort sort of political pothole or what I call land mine? Yeah. See I can’t even speak now. So yeah, sorry. Anyway, if you want to, if you if you want to be a solo, that’s great. There’s nothing wrong with it. I love solos, but and if you choose that route, you still have some scaling issues. But if you’re going to build an actual multi person business that sustains without you, that’s when you need to focus on scale big time.

GINI: Yep. Um, I think I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the very best books I’ve read on this is built to sell. And at the time, I remember thinking, well, I don’t I’m not going to sell my my agency, at least not anytime soon. So I don’t really need this. And in fact, what I discovered was the the concept is that you’re going to build something that you can sell later, but the but the idea around it is creating processes that allow your team to be able to deliver at the same level that you would and so the clients aren’t ...

One of the most frequent questions that Gini and Chip receive from agency clients is “how do I prepare for the recession?”

In this two-part episode, they explore the question of whether/when we should expect an economic downturn and what agencies can do to prepare themselves for it. As important, they also discuss how to help their team prepares for any challenges that lie ahead.

Last week’s first part examined the economic outlook, including signs that Chip and Gini are seeing in their work, along with some relevant industry research.

This week, the co-hosts tackle what agencies can do to better prepare their business and their team members for what lies ahead.

Resources

* Recession Outlook (Promethean Research)

* Whether or not a downturn is coming, the time to prepare is now (HR Daily Advisor)

Transcript

CHIP: We all accept that there is going to be a recession. We have no idea when it’s going to be, but let’s be smart and let’s prepare. You started touching on some of the things that you can do to prepare and the mindset that you can take going into it, but what are some of the concrete, actionable steps beyond the ones you’ve already talked about that you might want to be thinking about as an agency [crosstalk 00:16:55]?

GINI: Yeah. I would say that that one specifically about adding new revenue streams is investing in growth that allows you to be agile, so if something happens, you’re able to be nimble and flexible. It could be new revenue streams, which I will always advise, but it also could be working with contractors instead of full-time employees, or doing a combination of full-time and contractors because contractors are a lot easier to add when business is good and to subtract when business is down, and you’re not having to take on the responsibility of lay-offs and all that kind of stuff. So invest in your growth in an agile function I think is a really good piece of advice.

CHIP: Well, and that agility is, again, that’s good advice regardless of whether you’re in a recession, and more and more agencies are starting to go to that hybrid model or they’re already there as far as having in-house and contract labor. You’re absolutely right that using contract labor allows you to expand and contract with business much more easily, and particular right now where the job market is absolutely brutal.

CHIP: Anyone who’s out there from the employer side, trying to recruit talent in the PR space, unless you’re looking either at the very high-end or the very low-end, you don’t have a lot of folks to pick from because as a country right now, the US is pretty close to full employment, not quite there, but pretty close. It makes it very difficult to find the talent that you need in that middle tier that makes up the vast majority of employees at most PR agencies.

GINI: Yes. It’s funny you say that because there is a jobs board in the Spin Sucks Community, and that is the rallying cry. How do I find somebody with that five to 10 years of experience? And everyone just laughs. You can’t.

CHIP: Yeah. You can’t. You can’t because anyone in that space, they have the pick of jobs right now, and if they don’t have the pick of jobs, that’s probably a good warning sign to you as an employer that you might want to take a closer second look and figure out why that is.

CHIP: But look, that’s a piece of the puzzle, but there are other things because it’s looking at your total overall cost stru...

One of the most frequent questions that Gini and Chip receive from agency clients is “how do I prepare for the recession?”

In this two-part episode, they explore the question of whether/when we should expect an economic downturn and what agencies can do to prepare themselves for it. As important, they also discuss how to help their team prepares for any challenges that lie ahead.

This week’s first part examines the economic outlook, including signs that Chip and Gini are seeing in their work, along with some relevant industry research.

In the conclusion, the co-hosts tackle what agencies can do to better prepare their business and their team members for what lies ahead.

Resources

* Recession Outlook (Promethean Research)

* Whether or not a downtun is coming, the time to prepare is now (HR Daily Advisor)

Transcript

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

GINI: And I’m Gini Deitrich.

CHIP: And we are really well prepared today, Gini. In fact, I don’t think I have ever had a show with you where we have been this prepared.

GINI: I would like to say that me working early in the morning, after you send me some links to review and me spending some time at six o’clock in the morning, it actually is effective.

CHIP: Well, sadly when you sent me the email at 6:30 in the morning or whatever it was, I was already four hours into my day because-

GINI: Right, because you’ve got the international…

CHIP: Well, yeah, and I’ve really managed to screw up my sleep schedule now. I’m generally up now between 2:30 and 3:00 in the morning, even though I don’t need to be. But I’m just wide awake, and so what do I do? I go sit at my computer and I start working.

GINI: Well, that’s what I would do, too. I don’t have that problem.

CHIP: I had so much accomplished by the time I got your email in, and I’m like, “Wow. This has already been a great day, and now it’s getting even better.”

GINI: The best part is you responded immediately, and then we had a whole conversation that early too.

CHIP: Right, right. Well, hopefully that preparation will show in this particular episode.

GINI: I feel like you totally just jinxed us. Thanks.

CHIP: Well, possibly. Possibly. But the irony is we are well prepared for a conversation about being prepared.

GINI: That is rather ironic, yes.

CHIP: Yeah, so it’s not even one of my really butchered, horrible segues. It’s a semi-natural one. The topic today, and this is probably the question that I get asked most frequently by agency owners these days, which is how do I prepare for the coming recession?

GINI: Yes.

CHIP: There is a near obsession with it amongst agency owners. It’s in the business community more broadly as well, but I think particularly amongst agency owners. We’ve got some tactics in mind, but I think we first should start with is there really going to be a recession? Are we just accepting the inevitable because that’s what the buzz is, the conventional wisdom, or do we really see it coming? I think this is one of those ones where you can point to almost any evidence that you want of good or bad. What are your thoughts on this, Gini?

GINI: Well, I will say a couple of things. The first is, for those of us who lived through the Great Recession, we are freaking out about it because I know for myself, I don’t want to have to go through that a...

Agency owners want clients to be happy with the results they provide – that’s one of the reasons they are in the business. A recent research project about the RFP process shows that one out of three clients are dissatisfied with their agencies.

In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss why a third of your clients may be unhappy, and what you can do about it. They tackle the topics of RFPs, communication, and managing expectations.

Quotes

* Chip: “Oftentimes, the reason why someone is dissatisfied is because there’s a disconnect between what their expectations are, and what your expectations are, what you can deliver. And so you’ve got to get those things meshed together from the very earliest stages of the relationship.”* Gini, on building processes: “You start to realize, Oh, I almost need a recipe, and a recipe can be replicated. And from my interns all the way up through my vice presidents the work is the same level, no matter who’s doing it.”* Chip: “There are very few agencies that have no staff turnover. And if you have no staff turnover, that’s probably a bad sign. There is a healthy amount of turnover, it brings in fresh ideas. And it also validates that you’ve got a great team, because people are pursuing them.”* Gini: “When a prospect knows how the sausage is made, kind of like knowing how hot dogs are made, you really just don’t want to do it anymore.”

Resources

* Read Chip’s summary of the research* View the full report (PDF)* View the press release (PDF)* Listen to Robert Udowitz and Steve Drake of RFP Associates discuss the RFP process on the Chats with Chip podcast* Listen to Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich discuss the pros and cons of the RFP process on the Agency Leadership Podcast* RFP Associates* CommunicationsMatch* Researchscape * Institute for Public Relations * Built to Sell

Transcript

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

GINI: And I’m Gini Dietrich.

CHIP: And we’re here today to talk about some new research because it’s a good way to learn and do research about what other agencies are doing, what agency clients are doing, and figure out what the heck can we learn from it, right?

GINI: What the heck can we learn from it?

CHIP: and we’ll find out over the next 20 minutes, we can learn. And in this particular case, it’s it’s a collaborative research project that was conducted by the Institute for Public Relations, RFP Associates, CommunicationsMatch and Researchscape, all those links will be in the show notes. So you don’t have to actually remember them. We’ll also, of course, have a link to the survey results itself. And this survey was of senior communications executives, mostly at larger organizations, about half of them are publicly traded companies, and half of them were not,