Let’s Talk About Agency Relationships

Written By Ted Grigg

The Direct Marketing Association asked me to lead a discussion group on this topic some time back. So I reluctantly agreed thinking the attendees would be clients searching for better agency relationships. Such a topic rarely got the kind of attention other DMA issues did in my opinion, so I expected my group out of nearly 8 other more interesting topics would languish on the side due to low interest and poor attendance.

But to my surprise, my session was the best attended! And what was even more surprising was that the attendees were primarily vendors seeking guidance on how to sell their products to advertising agencies.

So within 5 minutes of launch, my prepared comments were scrapped and we discussed agency relationships from the suppliers’ perspective.

They were asking about what titles and what individuals in agencies were most responsible for influencing the client sales. Were they production managers, traffic managers, account executives, account supervisors? And the answer to that question was yes.

As with any business-to-business sale, there are purchasers, influencers and end users. And rarely do they lie within the same individual.

But my advice was to treat agencies as you would any client. Become a student of their problems, then set out to solve their problems.

Don’t focus on your capabilities. Focus rather on the kinds of problems the agency faces. Time pressures, the ambiguity of evolving strategies, needed research to understand the clients’ problems --- all the while looking at the client problem from an eagle’s perspective and sharing the agency’s discomfort. Then you are ready to demonstrate how your capabilities fit the problem to be solved.  

As we got deeper into the discussion, it became clear that vendors have clients just as clients have customers. And we are all selling our services and products to people with problems.

So we need to focus on the solutions we bring and not the capabilities.

What other things could I have said that would make vendors more successful in selling to agencies, consultants and advertisers? Where are they missing the boat?

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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