Best PR Agency/Client Relationships are Based on Collaboration and Teamwork

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(Executive Roundtable, January, 2005)

By David Brimm

PANELISTS

David Brimm (Moderator)
President
BrimmComm

Mary Conrad
Senior Associate
Jones Lundin Beals

Kathryn Beiser
Managing Director
Burson-Marsteller Chicago

Lyn Corbett Fitzgerald
Chief Communications Officer
United Way of Metropolitan Chicago

REMARKS

Lyn Corbett Fitzgerald (from left), Kathryn Beiser, Mary Conrad (Photo by Suzanne Woolford)

PCC Executive Roundtable Offered Insights Into Agency Relationships

The latest PCC Executive Roundtable in January continued a tradition of providing in-depth, provocative insights into topics of special relevance to senior PR practitioners. The most recent Executive Roundtable, entitled "How PR Agencies Win Big Clients and How Clients Select Great Agencies" featured a panel of experts with an innate sense of the agency search process and experience establishing lasting relationships between the agency and the client.

On the panel were: Mary Conrad, senior associate with Jones Lundin Beals and a 25-year marketing veteran; Kathryn Beiser, managing director of Burson-Marsteller Chicago, with 20 years of PR experience, and who heads up Burson-Marsteller’s pharmaceutical group; and Lyn Corbett Fitzgerald, Chief Communications Officer of the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago, and a 30-year PR veteran whose background includes executive level work on the corporate side (Kraft., Quaker) and on the agency side (Ogilvy Public Relations).

Moderator David Brimm, president of BrimmComm, began the discussion by asking Mary Conrad to explain the services provided by Jones Lundin Beals.

"We are experts in client/agency relationship management. We sometimes act like marriage counselors trying to save a client/agency relationship before a divorce is needed and an agency search is launched. Changing agencies is really the last thing you want to do. Fixing the relationship is much preferred," said Mary. Jones Lundin Beals does conduct agency searches on behalf of clients and also gets involved in compensation issues.

Burson-Marsteller’s Kathryn Beiser agreed that a "divorce" hurts both parties. "When we enter into a relation ship with a client we want to partner with the client. The best agency/client relationships are collaborative. The last thing we want is to be referred to as a ‘vendor.’"

Lynn Corbett Fitzgerald, coming from both the not-for-profit and agency sides, noted that while not-for-profits have much in common with other clients when it comes to retaining an agency’s services, they also have some different needs. "Often times the communications team has no experience working with agencies so they need to understand how an agency/organization relationship works. What we want is a partner, who can add value and pick up the work that we can’t handle. We need to find an agency that is flexible when it comes to billing and wants to give something back to the community by undertaking not-for-profit work. This usually is project-oriented," explained Lyn.

The discussion ensued about why agency/client relationships fail, and some of the reasons included:

• The agency is no longer big enough or has the broader capabilities to meet changing PR needs
• Client is no longer receiving value from the relationship
• The client and agency have different strategic visions
• There are compensation issues
• There are some ego clashes or shareholder conflicts

The panel agreed that "client satisfaction comes when performance exceeds expectations."

"When you have a client conflict and the client says ‘NO,’ your response should convey that you understand, ‘but have you thought about this?’ The key is to resolve the issue and analyze why there is a problem. It may actually be on our side," said Kathryn.

Mary Conrad agreed. "You need to establish an open and honest relationship. Listen to the client and really hear what they are saying. Sometimes, you aren’t communicating in the same language."

"Manage expectations," added Lyn. "You both have to agree on what success would look like."

"Sometimes relationships are hurt when the agency team gets too insolated by only working among themselves. Have your radar out. Ask peers for advice. Follow trends in the industry. Our job is to shorten our learning curve. Our greatest relationships are established when we match the right account people to the client. Occasionally, the team needs to be changed because someone on the team isn’t the right match," suggested Kathryn.

Echoing Kathryn’s comments, Mary said: "Sometimes even if you have the right agency, you have the wrong team to address a client’s problem. There has to be a chemistry fit between the agency and the client."

When it comes to pitching new business, Lyn noted that her biggest turnoff is when a senior agency executive is handling the majority of the pitch and the other members of the team are clearly minor players. "I’m not interested in a slick presentation. I want to get to know the people that will do the work."

"Beware the sales team," warned Kathryn. "Clients want to meet the team that will work on the business."

The conversation, prompted from a question from the audience, was whether it is wise for smaller agencies to couple with other agencies to expand their capabilities when pitching a new account.

"It’s very much in vogue," said Lyn. "When I evaluate an agency, I want to see what kind of resources they bring to my account. "

Mary expressed a cautionary note. "Your alliance must look genuine. You don’t want to come into a room to talk with a client and look like your team just met outside in the lobby."

The question was asked: "Can small agencies compete with large agencies when it comes to gathering the research increasingly being expected by clients during a pitch?"

"Absolutely," said Mary. "You have access to the same resources that large agencies have, but the biggest resource you have will come from the client. Talk to everybody you can at the client. Then share your intelligence with the client during your meeting. They will think you are pretty smart and already understand their business. You can also name drop some of the people you talked to at the company, demonstrating that a relationship has already been built."

"If you do team with another group, make sure you have a group briefing so everyone is on the same page. Learn about the client and share information. Although we are a large agency, we recently teamed with a smaller agency specializing in branding. They added so much to the team, and it was really their insights that helped us win the business," related Kathryn.

Kathryn addressed the issue that weighs heavily on every agency after they don’t win an account. She said that Burson-Marsteller always tries to debrief with a client to see where they fell short. Common reasons were: "didn’t meet our needs;" "spent too much time on the process, not the program;" "team was too arrogant;" and "team didn’t do a good job selling their ideas."

Yet, the real priorities for a pitch come down to three "Cs" according to Kathryn.

• "Content. What is the program you presented?
• Chemistry. How did the team interact with the client?
• Creativity. Did we have new ideas that addressed the client’s needs? What’s last on the list? Credentials. "Bragging about yourself usually fails to impress anyone," said Kathryn.

As Lyn added, "The client wants to know one thing: Do they ‘get’ us?"

This prompted Mary to share the "Seven Deadly Sins Made By Agencies Pitching a New Client?"

1. Lack of differentiation. Agency failed to define their niche, their unique skill sets or why their approach to business is different than other agencies.
2. "Me" vs "We." Too much time talking about themselves, their proprietary account process, their awards, and taking too much credit for hyped up case study results. Other factors are: if an agency fails to stay within the allotted time for their presentation (sends a message that agency doesn’t respect client’s time); or even whether the agency follows their meeting agenda (if they don’t follow their plan now, how will they follow the plan they develop?).
3. Failure to "walk the walk." The account team brags about its experience and dedication to teamwork, but the team comes across as strangers.
4. Poor meeting casting. The team in the meeting doesn’t click with the client. Agency didn’t do a very good job studying the corporate culture or the backgrounds of the client representatives in the meeting.
5. Don’t understand the client’s business. Team didn’t do their homework and didn’t demonstrate knowledge of the industry, the competition, the issues facing the company, etc.
6. Strategy and execution mismatch. Team presents a great strategy but the program and creativity don’t reflect the strategy outlined.
7. Lack of passion for the business. Team needs to look excited about the opportunity. Be animated about the client and its goals and needs. Avoid the "been there, done that" mentality. Demonstrate that you "get" the business and WANT the business.

Since budgets and compensation are invariably an issue, Lyn advocated that an agency should never hide its budget. "When you finish the strategy and program outline, the last topic you present should be about the budget." This should be the case even if the client refused to share their budget. An agency’s job is to find out a prospect’s budget, even if all they have is a range. And a client should not be afraid to share their budget. Surprises are seldom a good idea in business.

Kathryn agreed. "You can’t present a plan without talking about a budget."

Mary added that incentive-based compensation is slowly making its way into the compensation structure for PR accounts. This "shared-risk" model can be a boon to ad agencies, but she really didn’t know yet what impact it will have on PR agencies.

She noted that compensation concerns can really hurt a relationship. "Your billing and budget should be transparent to the client. If you don’t have a formal compensation agreement, the money issue will undermine the relationship."

There was general agreement that if a client is questioning a bill, there are deeper problems than billing. The account is generally in trouble at this point, and the problem may rest with the agency or the client. The panel suggested that this situation occurs when the agency and client aren’t communicating enough or holding regular "How are we doing?" meetings.

What makes a bad client? The panel had some thoughts: "not sure what they are looking for," "they have a poor culture where decision-making is weak," or "there are internal turf wars fueled by ego that interferes with the agency relationship."

Since PR pitches, unlike advertising pitches, almost always divulge ideas and creative themes, the question arose whether PR agencies should hold back their best ideas to safeguard them against "borrowing" by clients.

"Bad idea. What would you hold back?" questioned Kathryn. "If you want the business you have to go full bore. You can’t worry about the client stealing your RFP. If the RFP divulges specific and confidential information about the company and its needs, they certainly should be expected to respect your ideas."

Finally, the panel was asked to assess the PR marketplace.

"We have seen a dramatic improvement in new business opportunities. I think it’s a reflection of changing perceptions within the marketing community. PR is seen as bringing genuine value to the marketing mix. This has also contributed to rising budgets," said Kathryn.

"The agency world is definitely on the up-tick over the past six months. We have seen more agency searches over the past six months than over the past two years," added Mary.

Good news for all of us!

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