In conversations with prospects, partners and applicants, we often receive questions about the cooperation between customer and agency. Over the past few years, we have developed a strong vision of how we like to work with customers. Achieving maximum financial impact logically plays a major role, but we think it's just as important to have fun and give everyone involved the opportunity to keep developing. That sounds good right? You can read how we do that in this blog.
Traditionally, agencies have often been seen as suppliers. In the industry, this often translates into a traditional service principle: a customer asks for (proverbial) apples and an agency delivers the delicious apples. The agency sends an invoice, the customer pays. Everyone is happy — at least that's the idea.
Since the inception of Yellowgrape, we have had a different view on this. In fact, an agency may be a supplier, but in our opinion, cooperation should go much further. Amazingly, the practice is usually conservative and rigid. After all, when we ask an organization or customer what they are looking for in an agency, we almost always get the same answer: pro-activity, thinking along, support... In itself, this is a noble goal, but what customers forget is that this also requires something of them. If you want external parties to think along with you, this requires absolute openness. Everything has to be on the table: numbers, finances, company strengths, weaknesses, etc. Transparency requires trust and trust is created by working together longer, daring to give each other feedback and doing fun things together. This does not only apply at the management level. No, everyone involved from the customer and agency plays a role in this.
This level of openness is not one-sided. This also requires commitment from an agency. Think of a non-competition clause or a willingness to share all available data. Openness, and thus trust, works both ways. Only when you are willing to be fully open, work together on the relationship and improve each other can you evolve from supplier to strategic partner.
Give it a try. Watch out, you're going to fly!
A second common problem that stands in the way of a strategic partnership is a fragmented (online) marketing team. In the landscape, we see that many customers place orders in lots of lots with various agencies. In our opinion, this is a way of working together that is completely at odds with the concepts of efficiency and consistency.
Yellowgrape believes that you can only make an impact with a data-driven, full funnel marketing strategy. In short: consistently communicating the same message across all channels, tailored to the recipient's information needs. If you work with many different agencies, this is practically impossible.
Perhaps some people see this as preaching to their own parish — and we get that. The aversion to be dependent on one party is often used not to jump into the deep end. 'We don't need an agency, because we do everything in-house'is another oft-heard cry. We certainly welcome a lot of in-house work and we also understand that you don't want to be 100% dependent on an agency. But as a director or shareholder, do you want to be the owner of a number of employees? We strongly believe in the cooperation between internal teams and agencies. Why? In-house teams know the company and the product range like the back of their hand. The agency, on the other hand, sees a lot best online marketing practices in various verticals. Agency consultants learn a lot from this. When you work closely together, you can provide each other with the right knowledge and keep each other sharp.
An additional advantage of playing openly is that an agency can help professionalize and expand your in-house team. In the scaling up phase, a customer is usually largely dependent on an agency. In this phase, an organization is simply still too small to build a full marketing team. Moreover, it is not easy: finding the right people together, with the right knowledge, mindset and attitude. Unfortunately, we have seen this fail several times.
Our tip? Ask your agency for help! If you work together at a strategic level, that shouldn't be a problem. In fact, your agency knows your team and knows (if all is well) exactly where the need lies. We have helped many customers to further expand the marketing team.
We strongly believe in a full-service partnership that is based on openness and mutual trust. This will not only have a positive effect on the results, but will also help the agency and customer to grow ever closer. From supplier to strategic partner.
In our opinion, this evolution is accompanied by a new vision of remuneration. We now have a partnership with a number of customers where we are paid according to results. When the business is doing better, we earn more as an agency than if the targets are not met. This sounds very logical to us, but 90% of the agencies are still paid on the basis of hours.
The big advantage of this form of cooperation is that the hours of discussion disappear. Where, as an agency, you normally have to miss or postpone tasks or opportunities because insufficient hours are made available, you can now take them up. It is also easier for customers to initiate new things, as they pay based on the result. If it works out less well than expected, the bill is also lower. This is incredibly motivating and promotes the quality of cooperation.
Since 2019, we have tested with a number of customers with a performance-based collaboration. By working partly on the basis of results, we notice that both parties are even more result-oriented. In addition, it contributes to openness and we seek each other out more actively. But perhaps the most important thing is that performance-based collaboration contributes to the fun factor.
In short, a performance-based collaboration can have a very positive effect on both the relationship and the results. It requires transparency, trust, and effort, but it will improve your business. Curious about our experiences? Come talk to us and take advantage of it!
