Building Strong Relationships in Agency-Client Partnerships

Are you striving to refine your selling strategy and cultivate enduring client relationships that stand the test of time? How can you elevate your approach to not just closing deals but fostering long-term partnerships that drive mutual growth and success? Today's guest started her business with the idea of embodying a strategic dance of trust, value creation, and genuine connection. Tune in to learn how leading with strategy can lead to success in the agency world.

Molly Baker is the founder and CEO of Indie Consulting, a marketing agency that specializes in strategic planning and activation. Molly shares her journey from working with big brands to starting her agency. She explains her reasons for prioritizing strategy and highlights the need to deeply understand client goals and strengths before making recommendations. 

In this episode, we’ll discuss:

• Why Molly chose to sell strategy to gain clients’ trust.

• The challenge of developing a repeatable process. 

• Offering a foot-in-the-door and client workshops to become a trusted advisor.

• A unique approach to account management. 

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Sponsors and Resources

E2M Solutions: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by E2M Solutions, a web design, and development agency that has provided white-label services for the past 10 years to agencies all over the world. Check out e2msolutions.com/smartagency and get 10% off for the first three months of service.

Ditching the Agency Model and Forging Her Own Strategic Path

After graduating from college, Molly kicked off her career working at a prominent agency, where she mostly worked in digital media buying for a few years. She learned a lot and enjoyed all the great things that come with working at bigger agencies. After that, she went to work on the brand side at Ben & Jerry’s, a great experience that allowed her to work with all types of agency partners. However, the brand side ultimately wasn’t for her.

Wanting to find her own way in the industry led her to work freelance for some time as she gained more and more interest for the strategy-based offer. Eventually, it was time to give her vision a shot and see what happened.

She always saw herself starting a company, although she refrained from categorizing it as an agency, aligning with her distinct vision. This leap of faith has proven successful, as her business continues to thrive five years later.

Selling Strategy and Building Long-Term Client Relationships

Most agency owners typically start by leveraging their expertise and working as freelancers, tailoring their services to meet their clients’ specific needs, all while trying to establish a successful business model. For her part, Molly took a distinct approach from the beginning.

Initially, her value proposition centered around offering businesses the opportunity to hire her for a period of 3 to 6 months, instead of bringing in an in-house marketing director or digital strategist. This allowed business owners to thoroughly assess their needs and devise a plan before committing to a permanent in-house hire. It proved to be an appealing offer, especially at a time when business owners were overwhelmed by the options presented by digital but knew they had to embrace it to be relevant.

As her business evolved, Molly expanded her services to include addressing traditional strategy inquiries, such as the most effective investment models or creative strategies tailored to each business. This evolution ultimately led to the development of a fractional resourcing offering, providing clients with a dedicated partner who could seamlessly integrate with their team on a full-time basis.

It’s a very effective way to gain clients’ trust and get over the initial hesitancy that can come when they suspect the agency is just trying to sell something. Molly built a true consultancy where they sit down and help clients figure out the gaps in their business, which goes back to the very basis of the agency work: helping someone solve a problem.

Developing Repeatable Processes Amid Market Abundance

When it came time to start delegating some of the load to her team, Molly faced several challenges. Initially, she hired friends she’d previously worked with, which made for a seamless integration due to their similar styles and approaches. However, once the team started to grow and she hired outside of her known pool of past associates, it became more about effectively communicating how she wanted things to be done. 

It ended up being more complicated than she thought, since the way they did things couldn’t always be translated to a teachable process. It took teamwork and helping her team get educated through some of the same courses she’d completed but they eventually got there.

As they built their process, they encountered projects that served as valuable learning experiences, teaching them not to rush through tasks. Understanding a client's business goals and needs before making recommendations was crucial to Molly and her team. As a result, individuals who sought to speed the process were not a good fit for them.

Given the sheer volume of options available in the market, strategic planning has become more important than ever, as clients are realizing that a one-size-fits-all approach no longer suffices.

Of course, selling a process that takes three to five months to complete is challenging, Molly has learned that diving straight into execution only leads to increased spending while testing, learning, and making corrections along the way.

Using a Foot-in-the-Door Offer to Sell Clients on the Value of Strategy

Even though clients are currently more aware of the fact that the right solution won’t come from a few paid ads, Molly admits it can be hard to sell clients on the value of strategy. In such cases, a foot-in-the-door strategy emerges as a valuable tool to attract clients for a smaller commitment, allowing them to experience your work and view you as a trusted advisor.

Statistically, clients are 20 times more likely to engage your services again after their initial commitment. Therefore, including a foot-in-the-door offer can help you close a lot more deals and cement a relationship that can help clients feel more secure in paying the higher fee.

Offering Client Workshops to Become a Trusted Advisor

Beyond the foot-in-the-door strategy, Molly and her team are also preparing to implement a strategy workshop where clients will be able to learn from each other and get to see examples of what her agency’s strategy output can look like.

These types of networking events provide a space where agencies can showcase their capabilities and expertise more interactively and engagingly, rather than relying solely on traditional sales pitches and capability decks.

From her experience, Molly has seen clients at these workshops are mostly interested in learning what’s working and not working for other brands and which tools they’re leveraging. Providing this information also perfectly positions her agency to connect with potential clients and present themselves in a professional yet friendly environment where they can showcase their expertise.

For Molly, it’s like a "karmic boomerang", highlighting the idea that by consistently offering help and support to clients without expecting anything in return, agencies can build a positive reputation and trust with their clients. This approach creates a cycle of reciprocity where clients are more likely to turn to the agency for assistance and solutions because of the trust and goodwill that has been established over time.

A Unique Approach to Account Management

Molly is very decidedly against the general idea of what account managers are and has been since the beginning of her agency journey. In her view, account management can mean many things to different people and she challenges the traditional notion of account management as simply project management.

She believes that account management should be viewed as a partnership, where agencies work closely with clients to understand their needs and goals, rather than just focusing on getting tasks done.

Molly's agency takes a unique approach to account management by assigning account leads based on skill set and personality match, rather than having dedicated account managers. This allows for a more personalized and tailored approach to client relationships, where the agency aims to be a business partner and thought partner for their clients. By building curiosity and soft skills within her team, Molly ensures that they can show up better for their clients and truly understand what makes them tick.

Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset?

Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.