Break Out Session Agency/Client/Publisher Relationships

Some Assumptions…

1. The Agency & the Publisher/Seller Both Want to Bring the Client Impactful, Strategic Ideas 2. There Is Some Inherent Tension in The Relationship 3. Both Parties Would Like to Come Up With A Model for Real Strategic Cooperation 4. A Set of Best Practices and Rules-of-Thumb Would Help Govern These Relationships and Improve Performance and Yield on both sides

Issue One:

We’re all in the business of ideas, but profitable, successful ideas don’t get realized often enough. What’s the single biggest process issue in the agency/seller relationship that stands in the way of idea generation?

Issue Two:

Seller organizations want access to clients for many reasons. Give us three common sense rules for them to follow in pursuing those client relationships so that they won’t destroy the agency relationship.

Issue Three:

The RFP is a staple of our short business cycle, but is it really a good vehicle for exchanging creative ideas?

Issue Four:

Many sales organizations would love to have higher level relationships with high level agency executives – media directors, AMD’s, agency presidents, and so on. What’s the right strategy for creating and fostering those relationships?

Issue Five:

One thing sales and agency executives share is a common focus on profitability. I’d like each of you to finish this sentence: “Agencies (or Sellers) would help me make my business a lot more profitable if they would…”

Issue Six:

Pick an agency relationship (or a seller relationship) in which spending has increased dramatically and consistently over the past three years. Without saying who it is, please offer up several adjectives that describe the character of the relationship.

Issue Seven:

In all relationships, things can go wrong. In overcoming adversity (a major error on a campaign; a budget cut that really hurts the publisher’s bottom line; missed creative deadlines; political disagreement) what are some of the best practices? How can you fix a problem without damaging the relationship?

Thank You!

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