How to get the best from your agency

Dear reader,

I've sat on both sides of this — as the person hiring an agency, and inside one being hired. So let me let you in on something. The clients who get brilliant work aren't the ones who watch hardest. They're the ones who make it easy to do brilliant work.

Give them the why, not just the what

An agency handed a list of tasks builds a list of tasks. An agency that understands your business makes it better while they're in there.

• Share the goal behind the request, not only the request
• Tell them the constraints early — budget, deadlines, the busy season
• Let them push back; if they never do, that's a worry, not a comfort

The best briefs I ever received explained what winning looked like and trusted me to find the route.

Small habits that pay off

The relationship works or fails on the boring stuff. Get these right and everything else gets easier:

1. One decision-maker — someone who can say yes without a committee
2. Feedback in one place, in one go — not dribbled across five channels over a week
3. Quick answers — your reply speed sets the whole project's pace

An agency can only move as fast as your slowest decision.

And please, resist rewriting their work for them. If something's wrong, tell them what's wrong and why. Let them fix it. That's what you're paying for, and it's how they get better at serving you.

Treat them as a partner rather than a pair of hands, and you'll be amazed what comes back. Trust, clarity and quick replies are worth more than any amount of supervision.

If you'd like help setting up a working relationship that actually delivers, start with a FREE call and we'll map it out.