Translate your culture as an agency or team to your client. Find similarities and ways to connect with brand teams to allow for both cultures to show and play off each other. Ensure you are opening the right communication channels to make your client comfortable whether it be group Zoom meetings, one on one phone calls, or short emails.
Keith Schwartz, CEO of Bounteous, quotes, “It’s really about forming a partnership where you can leverage the best of both organizations. Mature business leaders understand that having a partner that has knowledge capital about their industry and innovative trends creates a lot of value.”
A MediaCause article issues a warning, “ if you don’t establish a partner relationship from the start, you’ll more than likely forever be treated as a vendor.”
Never underestimate the importance of relationship building to gain trust with your client and go beyond that vendor relationship to become a true partner. Give them space to talk candidly about problems, ideas, and goals. Provide honest feedback to each other. You can gain so much more from the client and understand their true needs if you create these open communication opportunities.
Never underestimate the importance of relationship building to gain trust with your client and go beyond that vendor relationship to become a true partner.
To sum everything up, my advice is simply this: slow down and focus on collaboration.
For additional thought starters, take a few minutes to think through these questions and create a game plan to improve your brand-agency relationships today.
1) Where do you find the biggest challenges in understanding client needs?
2) What are the biggest barriers to developing strong and trustworthy client relationships?
3) What would you like to do differently to enhance those relationships?
If you’re interested in exploring a partnership with Coegi, contact us today to schedule a discovery call.