How to select the right digital agency partner

In the last 25 years we’ve been involved in hundreds of pitches of varying degrees of size and quality, ranging from one-pager “tell us what you can do” requests, through to 100+ page procurement-led government tenders, and everything in between.

Finding the right agency partner to support your long term growth is not easy. This is a team you’ll ideally be working with for several years, embedded in your business, and a lot of things have to align to make that a successful collaboration.

There’s a lot of good in the pitch world, but there’s also a huge amount of bad and ugly. In this article we’re looking at how you do more of the former and less of the latter, to set yourselves up for making the optimal decision when it comes to choosing your next partner in crime.

Why even choose an agency?

Agencies exist for a reason. They bring capability, specialism, direction, innovation, and the ability to ramp up or down as your needs change over time.

The most successful agency collaborations are those where the chemistry and relationship are firing on all cylinders, but also where there is a real culture of partnership and shared objectives, pushing each other forward to be more ambitious every month.

Like any relationship, it’ll have its ups and downs. Having the right processes, people and structures in place to navigate those challenges is just as important as the top line strategy and delivery to enable you to achieve your goals.

The process of choosing an agency should aim to uncover what it’s going to be like to work together over a prolonged period, how you align to each others’ values and goals, and what they’re going to bring to the table to supplement your existing capabilities.

Factors to consider when choosing the right agency

Writing a Request For Proposal (RFP) or its many iterations is not easy, but asking the right questions, providing the right information, and being transparent about your selection process are key.

There’s many articles online that talk at length about writing RFPs and running a pitch, so we won’t regurgitate it here, but we’ll cover some areas (from our own agency experience) that you might want to consider.

1. Make your objectives clear To get the best results from your agency nominees you need to be explicit about what you’re trying to achieve. Saying “we want a new website that reflects our brand” sounds great but it doesn’t really mean anything beyond a creative direction. Be clear about what you’re expecting from an agency partnership. Is it 20% increase in sales, a 10% reduction in cost? Can you share your business KPIs and roadmap for the next year so that they can see what you’re trying to achieve? Have you defined how you’ll measure success? If your agencies understand your direction of travel then the best ones will challenge you and come to the table with fresh thinking and ideas to help you get there. Without those objectives, they’re just guessing. More so, the best agencies will use that direction to provide you with their own success criteria that they’re willing to be held accountable for if they end up working with you.
   

2. Be transparent about budget We get it. You have similar budgets every year so you probably already know what you want to spend, but you think that by withholding that information you’ll get a range of options back that will enable you to make a decision partly based on cost. You may be really cynical and think that some agencies will “pad to budget” if you provide a figure. The truth is that transparency around budget provides heaps of value to you as a client. Firstly it allows the agency to immediately qualify out if they know it’s the wrong type of project for them. A small agency isn’t going to pitch for a £5m project, and a global agency isn’t going to bother with £100k. You can then go and find other agency candidates rather than getting to second stage and finding you only have a small pool to choose from. Secondly, if the agency knows what they have to play with, they can pull together a realistic vision and plan that they know is going to be achievable. Sure, they might throw in a few more ambitious ideas, but a £100k budget is very different to a £300k budget in terms of scope, specialism and innovation. Even if you can only provide a budget range… provide it. It’ll save you time and help you find the right partner. Lastly, a top tip: beware of focusing too much on day rates. They’re meaningless. If you have a set budget, ask what you’ll get for that budget.
   

3. Ensure cultural fit This is probably a blog article in itself, but over the years the best relationships we’ve had are invariably the ones where the key people get along. We call it the “beer test”: If we think back to the longest standing clients we had, it’s the ones where you would happily meet up for dinner or a drink and sometimes you wouldn’t even talk about work. It’s useful to understand a person as a whole, their motivations and ambitions, to then understand how you can best work together. Being able to have transparent and open communications in that nature of relationship will get you over most of the bumps in the road, and frees people up to either challenge you or be more forthcoming with new ideas to explore. But it’s not just about that account-level bond. If you’re sat in a pitch, who are you talking to: is it the A-team sales crowd from the agency, or is it the people you’ll be working with day-to-day? You won’t be having a beer in the pitch, but ask questions during the pitch process to understand the personalities who’ll be directly involved in working with you and your team over the next few years. Treat it like an interview. They’re the ones who’ll be carrying the load and getting you to where you need to be. If they’re not in the pitch, it’s a warning sign.
   

4. Ask for a plan The most critical part of any relationship is the setup: what are the first weeks and month going to involve, how will it play out, and what’s your responsibilities within that. An agency worth their salt will come armed with a roadmap for how they’re going to attack your challenges from day one. It’s going to require time, effort and (yes) the dreaded workshops.
   

   
   

   

   
   

   But how quickly are they going to start adding value? Nobody wants to be sat in Discovery mode for three months while your competitors are forging ahead. How are they moving the needle on growth in the first month while everything else is happening in the background? That plan should be a talking point that will give you a good idea of what it’s going to be like to work with the team, and give you an opportunity to challenge them on pace of delivery or to ascertain if their way of working is aligned with yours and that they really understand the organisational challenges they’re likely to encounter.
   

5. Look for process and methodology Most client/agency crises are borne out of a lack of fundamental process and governance.

   Every agency will have some sort of project management process they wheel out in a pitch, but the biggest problems generally stem from a lack of clear requirements, fuzzy specifications, or poor change control. If that isn’t robust then it leads to delays, cost overruns and relationship breakdown. Good agencies will talk about the whole process from start to finish. They’ll talk about how they’ll work with you to shape requirements, what the expectation will be from you and your team, how changing requirements will be managed, and how they’ll collaborate throughout.
   

6. Engage throughout

   One of the red flags for an agency in a pitch process is a client who won’t make time to field questions or have a pre-pitch call. We’ve covered open communications at a relationship level, but it’s also critical during the selection phase.

   Our most successful pitches were those where a 30 minute phone call would completely change the focus of the pitch towards problems not even mentioned in the RFP.

   It also gives you, as a client, an “off the record” experience of how the agency approaches problems from the nature of the questions they’re asking: are they focusing on the nitty gritty or are they challenging you on bigger picture themes. Ultimately it gets you more value from the process.

   Make the time to speak to your agency nominees. It’s up front investment that’ll pay dividends through the pitch process and beyond.

Speak to the Agency Squad

If you’re looking for help to assess your agency landscape, conduct a successful pitch, or just need a pair of fresh eyes on how you’re working with your agency partners, speak to us to see if we’re a good fit for each other.