Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast

Welcome to episode 121. This is part two of a two-part interview with Simon Rhind-Tutt and Carey Evans, who are Co-Founders of Relationship Audits.  If you missed part one, I would really recommend you go back and have a listen (it’s episode 120). Simon and Carey just packed it full of insights and tips for agencies when it comes to strengthening their client relationships.  This episode is no exception and we talk about:
- what every client wants but rarely gets from an agency- what a brain trust is and why you might want one for your agency- and why leveraging your learnings from other client relationships is often a huge missed opportunity. 
 If you'd like notifications about future guests coming on the podcast, or notes from the episodes that I have with guests, as well as tips on agency account management and potential trainings, then you can sign up for my weekly newsletter at https://www.accountmanagementskills.com

Welcome to Episode 120, which is the first of two episodes covering my in-depth chat with Carey Evans and Simon Rhind-Tutt, Co-Founders of Relationship Audits®. 
I met Simon and Carey many years ago when I was working as client services director for Publicis life Brands. We were struggling with a client relationship, it was a very important client but it wasn't going well. Whilst we knew some of the reasons why the relationship was faltering, we didn’t know the whole story, so we invited in Simon and Carey to evaluate our relationship. Essentially, they went into the client’s offices and interviewed all of key client stakeholders to find out what was going on and their perception of the agency. 
 Not only did they uncover what was going well and what wasn't going well, they also uncovered growth opportunities for us as an agency to go back into the client and crystallize what they needed in the future and provide extra value. If we hadn't have done that and they hadn't have provided that action list, report and their recommendations, we wouldn't have retained that client for another two years, worth £700,000 to the agency per year. Immediately, the return on investment for employing the services of Relationship Audits changed the game for us. 
That’s why I am delighted that they've joined us back on the show for this two part interview, talking about what your clients don't tell you.  Whilst you might be evaluating the strength of your relationships with your clients and asking them questions, what Relationship Audits do, and they've been doing it successfully for years, is listen for what's not being said. They have a very established question set and they're able to spot things that you will miss.  If you would like to talk to either Carey or Simon, please visit their website, https://www.relationshipaudits.com, or send them an email at [email protected] Finally, if you are in an agency account management role and you'd like to be kept up to date with the next episodes that I'm going to be sharing on the podcast, and you also want tips about the account management role and any trainings that I'm doing in the future, then you can sign up for my newsletter via my website, https://www.accountmanagementskills.com

Welcome to episode 119. Today's episode is for you if you're curious to understand how another agency works, particularly when it comes to how they manage their client relationships and how they sell their services.  I’m joined by David Huckerby, the owner, and Natasha Jones, the Account Director of creative communications agency, Conteur. Conteur is an award-winning full service creative communications agency. They help organisations in the health and social care, housing and hospitality sectors to stand out and grow through market leading PR , video and digital services.
 
 David and Natasha share so much insight into how they run their business, including:
 
 -          why they follow the principle of providing a personalized seven star service to their clients-          how they realized some of their clients weren't aligned with their own board and what they learned from that-          how that then informed how they worked with their clients moving forward-          why they introduced service packages as a result of filling a client demand and how that impacted the time spent on proposals -          and why moving from a yearly client strategy focus to a quarterly focus helped the team's proactivity.   You can connect with David and Natasha via their LinkedIn profiles:
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-huckerby-05094330/https://www.linkedin.com/in/natashajones24/ If you'd like to receive my weekly email where I share insights from the podcast, chats, tips and strategies to enhance your account management role, alerts for any training webinars I'm running, as well as all the training courses I run for the account management community,  please visit  my website, https://www.accountmanagementskills.com and sign up for my newsletter.  

Welcome to episode 118. On the last episode, I interviewed the brilliant Tim Williams from Ignition Consulting group about pricing strategies and why agencies need to sell outputs and value and not hours, particularly given the rise of generative AI. If you haven't listened to that, I'd recommend you go back and listen to episode 117 because Tim shares so many different aspects of why we need to do this as agencies. Today's guest, founder of Lodestar Agency Consulting Brian Kessman, continues this theme and shares how to make that shift to a value led revenue model. 

In this chat, we talk about:
-  what it means to productize your agency's value
- the benefits it can have on your agency's financial and operational performance
- how the agency is set up to work in this model by department
- and the skills you'll need in your account management role to be successful with this new way of working. 

Please check out Brian’s website because there's a detailed 15 minutes presentation called ‘Shift Your Agency's Model from Commoditized Services to High Value Solutions’, and it's well worth a watch if you're interested, particularly in diving deeper into value led revenue models. 
https://www.lodestaragencyconsulting.com/productize-your-agencys-value

If you're responsible for managing client relationships and for delivering the commercial value to your clients and growing your accounts, I'm going to be running a mini training webinar in the summer of 2024, so if you'd like to be notified about when these go live, you can do that by going to my website, https://www.accountmanagementskills.com and signing up to receive my weekly emails. I typically share tips and strategies for commercially minded account managers. 

Welcome to episode 117.  This episode is going to be very relevant for you if you're responsible for pricing your agency's services.  I first saw Tim Williams, Founding Partner of Ignition Consulting Group, speak at an IPA conference in London in 2016. He was talking to agency owners about why they needed to ditch the billable hour if they wanted a profitable business.  I've been following Tim's work in agency pricing and positioning ever since, and for me, he's been the consistent voice of sanity throughout the years. 
 Here are just a few of the topics we cover in our chat: ·       why the time based billing system doesn't work for agencies. ·       how generative AI is only accelerating the need for agencies to rethink their pricing strategies. ·       and Tim shares key steps you can take right now to start the transition to premium pricing. 
 Ignition helps agencies and other professional service firms develop focused business strategies and transformative revenue models. You can follow Tim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timwilliamsicg/or via the website: https://www.ignitiongroup.com. 
 If you’re listening to this during the summer of 2024,  I'm going to be running some free 20 minutes mini training webinars for agency account management soon. If you’d like to be notified about these first, please sign up to my email newsletter via https://www.accountmanagementskills.com

Welcome to episode 116. This episode is for you if you are responsible for managing projects in an agency.  This one could be quite controversial, but equally very enlightening because my guest is going to be potentially challenging your belief about the role of project management. Jack's Skeel’s book is called ‘UNMANAGED’ and Jack makes a very compelling case for the fact that teams work more effectively when managed less, not more.  During this chat we cover:·         why agencies should be asking themselves what they need to start unmanaging rather than managing the origin of project management, and why it doesn't work in an uncertain environment like an agency. ·         how less management can boost profitability and productivity·         what we can learn from Japanese management culture·         what Jack sees as the future of the way agencies operate·         and the biggest mistake agencies make when scaling.   This is such a good chat and I enjoyed being challenged to think about what we consider really the ‘sacred cow’ agency operating structure.  I love Jack’s work and I'd urge you to get in touch because he's saving agencies tons and tons of money by completely shaking their operations up.  If you are listening to this in Summer 2024, I'm going to be running some 20 minutes mini training sessions in the coming months. If you like the idea of jumping on a Zoom call to watch a 20 minute live training in account management, then please visit my website and sign up for my weekly email and you'll be one of the first to receive an invitation.  https://www.accountmanagementskills.com

About Jack Skeels:
Jack Skeels, author of Unmanaged: Master the Magic of Creating Empowered and Happy Organizations, is a two-time Inc. 500 award winning entrepreneur, consultant, and former management sciences researcher at the think-tank, RAND Corporation. A noted author, expert and speaker, he been published and featured over 35 times including: Ad Age, Entrepreneur.com, Business Horizons, Wall Street Journal, Training, and many other publications.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackaskeels/
https://jackskeels.medium.com
https://business.facebook.com/AgencyAgile/
https://twitter.com/AgencyAgile

Welcome to episode 115. If you're in agency new business or account management and responsible for contract renewals and account expansion, you're in for a huge treat because Tim Riesterer, author of ‘The Expansion Sale’ (Four Must-Win Conversations to Keep and Grow Your Customers), joins me.  Tim is a powerhouse and working with huge enterprises in this area, but he also has a background working in agencies.  We discussed data backed insight into: ·         the real reason prospects buy and how to change your approach to new business·         why how you sell to prospects is not the way you should sell to existing clients·         why overcoming the client's status quo bias is the key to unlocking client growth·         why asking your client what problems they have just doesn't work·         and so much more.  I highly recommend following Tim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-riesterer or via the Corporate Visions website: http://www.corporatevisions.com/  and buying the book, ‘The Expansion Sale’: https://win.corporatevisions.com/The-Expansion-Sale.html We talk about Tim's research and what overcoming a client's status quo bias means for agency account managers in my training. If you’d like to discuss account management training and all the options that we offer, then please go to my website and book a call.  https://www.accountmanagementskills.com Or alternatively, you can send me a direct message on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyplant 

Welcome to Episode 114. If you're an agency owner who wants to stand out in a competitive market, then today's guest has written an entire book about it. 
Gareth Healey, author of "STAND OUT OR DIE" joins me to share:
- what he learned from scaling and exiting his business
- his seven step framework for standing out in a crowded marketplace
- and his advice for other agency owners who want to productize their services and Stay competitive in the future.

You can connect with Gareth Healey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethhealey/
And find his book here: http://mybook.to/STANDOUT

if you're struggling with new business right now, and perhaps finding that your pipeline is drying up or taking longer to convert, maybe it's time to turn your attention to how you can add more value to your existing clients' business and grow your accounts.

If you want to know the quickest and easiest ways that are working right now for other agencies, check out the details of my Account Accelerator programme. It's a year long coaching and training programme for those responsible for account growth in the agency who are managing those client relationships on a day to day basis.

You can find all the details here: https://www.accountmanagementskills. com/account-accelerator

Welcome to episode 113. This will be particularly inspirational for you if you are currently a small agency owner with aspirations for huge growth. Jared Lopiccolo, CEO & Co-Founder of Noble Studios, built his agency from a single laptop to a multi million dollar agency. He shares some insight into what it took to achieve that growth and also his advice for other agency owners who may want to do the same thing.  Jarrod also shares:·         the pivotal moments that were the growth accelerator points in his business·         how you need to change and adapt as a leader·         how to build a strong culture of very engaged employees·         some of the trends he's seeing in the agency landscape·         how he thinks agencies need to adapt to what's coming.  He shares so many more tips and insights into running the business.  You can find Jarrod on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jarrodlopiccolo
and via the Noble Studios website: https://noblestudios.com/ 
Many agency owners come to me to talk about account management training, but the three big outcomes that they really want from the training are to answer the following three questions:·         how can I have more predictable client retention and revenue from existing clients?·         how can I hardwire these commercial skills into the business and ensure I have a repeatable process that everyone can follow in the agency so that if that person leaves, everybody else knows what to do when it comes to account retention and growth? ·         How can I foster a more commercial mindset which will give me a competitive advantage in the marketplace?  If any of those three outcomes resonate with you, please check out my Account Accelerator programme, which is on my website at https://www.accountmanagementskills.com/account-accelerator. It is a one year coaching and training programme and it's designed for those who are working in an agency managing the client relationship, and responsible ultimately for the growth of that account.  

Welcome to episode 112. I’m joined by Shannyn Lee, Managing Director of Win Without Pitching ®, which is widely recognised by the creative industry as one of the best quality sales training programs because it's specifically tailored to agencies.

This episode will be particularly valuable for you if your job at the agency is winning new business and you'd like to know how to do that without having to go through a costly pitch process.

During our chat, Shannyn shares:

- the Win Without Pitching ® principles
- what it takes to circumnavigate a client's pitch process
- the common sales challenges faced by agencies today
- her advice for agency owners who want to stand out in the market, and lots more.


Please visit the Win Without Pitching ® website (https://www.winwithoutpitching.com) to find out more about everything the company does, find which workshops are coming up. and to buy Blair Enns’ book, ‘The Win Without Pitching Manifesto’, which is practically the industry bible. 

You can connect with Shannyn Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannyn-lee-2a32846/

If you're listening to this episode in April 2024 we are opening enrolments for our May Account Accelerator™ training for those in the agency who are responsible for existing client growth. If your job is to manage client relationships and grow your accounts, check out the details on my website: https://www.accountmanagementskills.com/account-accelerator