why isn't our agency delivering?

the question usually arrives in the same form. more is being produced than ever, and no more is happening than last year.

it's rarely because the agency is bad. we work with specialists ourselves, and they're good at what they've been asked to do. they just can't solve something that isn't theirs.

four things that look like an agency problem

1. hours were bought, not a result. the agreement describes channels, deliverables and a quantity per month. it doesn't describe what has to move. so the report becomes an overview of what was made, because that's the only thing it can be.
2. the agency has the responsibility, but not the levers. they have to create demand for a product they can't change, at a price they aren't allowed to touch, on a website they don't have access to.
3. nobody on your side owns the relationship. the agency talks to four people who want four things, and decisions get made between meetings by whoever answers an email fastest.
4. the number isn't defined. the agency reports leads. you're short of customers. neither of you is lying, and you aren't talking about the same thing.

none of the four is solved by changing agency. three of them come along.

the test takes ten minutes

ask your own organisation what the agency is there to achieve. then ask the agency exactly the same, without either side hearing the other's answer.

if the answers don't look alike, you've found the problem, and it isn't at the agency. it's in what was ordered.

the two answers we hear most often are 'they need to get us more leads' and 'they run our ads'. the first is a result nobody has put a number on. the second is an activity that can't deliver anything but itself.

what a relationship requires of you

1. one goal, phrased as a result. not as a channel and not as a quantity.
2. one person on your side who owns the relationship. and who can make a decision between two meetings without asking three other people.
3. access to the levers the work depends on. or an honest agreement that they aren't available, and what that means for the goal.
4. a fixed cadence where the result is asked about. a meeting that reviews deliverables is a receipt. not management.

when it really is the agency

it happens, and then you should switch. there are three signs worth taking seriously.

the senior people from the pitch aren't doing the work. they were there when the deal was closed, and they haven't been there since. that isn't illegal, but it's something other than what you thought you were buying.

the report can't be explained without being read aloud. if the person presenting the numbers can't say what changed in your business, the report was made to be handed over. not to be used.

the agency has never said no. an agency that has accepted everything you've asked for, for two years, has either had no opinion or not dared to voice it. both cost you money.

switching solves half of it

if the problem is competence, a switch works. if the problem is what was ordered, it comes along, and you spend six months finding out.

tidy up the order first. it takes less time than a pitch process, and quite often it turns out the agency was the right one all along.