Tap Agencies to Onboard New Client Personnel

While talent turnover in agencies gets a lot of industry attention, churn in client management represents an even greater challenge to marketing effectiveness. From CMOs and marketing directors to brand managers, all the people changing jobs leaves holes in the institutional knowledge of marketing organizations.

That’s magnified by project and specialist hiring that leads marketers to manage multiple agencies at any one time. Getting new marketing leaders up to speed with the complex relationships can slow down market reaction and strategic planning significantly, while also draining agency teams.

What can be done to address this problem? Speeding the onboarding process is critical for marketing effectiveness—and clients can condense the learning curve by taking these four simple steps.

Get face to face

There is no substitute for in-person time. A well-planned, two-day meeting with social outings after hours enables clients to know, appreciate, and trust their agency teams and leadership on personal levels screens simply can’t match. 

Ask what’s missing

What’s been done isn’t all you can do. Open the conversation to recommendations the agency has withheld and ideas from the cutting room floor.

Solicit category knowledge

Increasingly, new marketing leaders come from other industries. Being overt about areas of the business you need exposure to will tap the combined intelligence of experienced agency teams. They know the players, history, opportunities, and threats in the category. This speeds the shared context for existing work, and most importantly, strategic planning.

Ask about your organization

Strengths and gaps within the marketing organization, from departments to individuals, aren’t immediately evident to a new brand director but are clear to agency teams working on the business. They know the personalities and preferences of company colleagues and and leaders—from how work gets done, measured, and presented to the tone of creative and approach to media and retail. For example, they know firsthand whether a senior executive focuses on data or storytelling.

With new client personnel, agencies’ first job needs to be to help educate, not rush to defend what they’ve already built. For their part, clients need to be open to the category and company intelligence that agencies can provide.

Get it right and new ideas, directions, and opportunities will emerge fast. The increased speed to synergy will make the brand more competitive than ever.

Dan Eisenberg is CMO of Blue Chip.