AGENCY ACCOUNT.................................................................................

HANDLING.............................................

Avoiding Blood, Sweat and Tears

MICHAEL SIMS

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AGENCY ACCOUNT................................................................

HANDLING....................................

Avoiding Blood, Sweat and Tears

AGENCY ACCOUNT.................................................................................

HANDLING.............................................

Avoiding Blood, Sweat and Tears

MICHAEL SIMS

Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sims, Michael.Agency account handling : avoiding blood sweat and tears / written by

Michael Sims.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 0-470-87159-8 (pbk.)

1. Marketing--Key accounts. 2. Service industries--Marketing. I.Title.HF5415.13 .S569 2004658.804--dc22 2003025316

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0-470-87159-8

Typeset in 12/16pt Bembo by Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, IndiaPrinted and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, CornwallThis book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestryin which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.

To my parents for their lifelong love and support

CONTENTS.............................

PREFACE xi

1 CHOOSING AN AGENCY 3

Preparing for the Search as a Candidate 4Why Do You Want to Leave? 4What Do You Enjoy/Dislike about Your Job? 5What Sort of Person Are You at Work? 5What Sort of People Do/Dont You Get on With? 6What Do You Think of Your Current Agency Cultureand Style? 7Where Do You Want to Be in Five Years Time? 7What Position Are You Looking For? 7How Have You Made a Difference in Your Current Job? 8What Type of Agency Environment Are You LookingFor? 8

How to Work with a Recruitment Consultant 9As an Employer 9As a Candidate 11

How to Prepare Yourself Mentally and Physically for theInterview 12

Before the Interview 12During the Interview 13After the Interview 15

viii CONTENTS............................................................................................................

How Agencies Could Improve Their InterviewProcess 15

Before the Interview 16The Interview 17Unacceptable Questions 19

Selecting a Candidate 20Making an Offer 20Selecting an Agency 20

2 STARTING TO WORK WITH A NEW CLIENT TEAM 25

How the Agency Can Ease the Induction Process 26Not so Unusual First-Day Howlers 29Starting off on the Right Foot 29

Doing Homework on Your New Client(s) 29Your First Few Weeks 30

Getting Organized 32How You Can Help Your Team and Clients to Workwith You Better 37

3 THE DAY-TO-DAY RELATIONSHIP 43

What Clients Want 44Managing the Client Relationship during Campaigns 49Producing an Effective Creative Brieng 51Creative Presentations to Clients 54Managing Problems with a Creative Concept 58Moving Concepts Effectively to Campaign Execution 60Effective Campaign Communication with InternalDepartments and Clients 62Working with the Creative Product 63

4 CLIENT SATISFACTION 69

The Value of Focusing on Client Satisfaction 70Customer Orientation 71

CONTENTS ix............................................................................................................

Instituting a Satisfaction Review Process 75Improving Satisfaction through Performance 79

5 MASTERING THE MOMENT 83

Managing Difcult Situations 84Exploiting Excellent Situations 94

Extending the Honeymoon Period 94Extending the Success of a Campaign 95

Improving Your Presentations 95Getting Involved in Pitches 98

6 LOOKING AFTER YOURSELF 105

Being the Master of Your Own Destiny 106Setting Your Own Goals 109Enhancing Your Performance Appraisal Process 110How an Agency Can Maximize Personal CareerDevelopment 112

7 TAKING CARE OF THE FINANCES 129

The Principles of Running Campaigns Cost-Effectively 129Campaign Budgeting 131Securing Costs from Third Parties 134Preparing an Estimate 134Monitoring Costs 137Invoicing the Client 138

Understanding a Campaign Financial Report 140Reconciling Campaign Financials 144

Understanding an Accounts Financial Metrics 144Agency Prot and Loss 144Time Utilization/Billability 146Work-in-Progress Analysis 147Debtor Analysis 148

Budgeting and Forecasting 148

x CONTENTS............................................................................................................

8 STEPPING UP AND OUT 153

Spotting Your Next Destination 154Removing the Obstacles of Hard Work and Stress 158

Five Myths about Hard Work 158Managing Stress 161

Equipping Yourself Well 164Moving from Managing to Leading 167

EPILOGUE 175

REFERENCES 177

USEFUL INFORMATION SOURCES 179

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 181

INDEX 183

PREFACE.........................

In essence, Agency Account Handling strives to dene the difference betweengood account handling and great account handling. It has been written forclient-facing personnel in all types of marketing agencies, in fact any agencythat deals with a creative output. It is a practical handbook that providesguidelines, tips and techniques for those working in agency environmentswhose remit is to service clients successfully.

The book sprang out of a desire to help agency account handlers and client-facing personnel get to where they want more quickly. Time is too preciousnot to know the guidelines for excellent client servicing. Account handlers areworking with clients day in, day out. If they are wasting time and resourcesin doing this, they are not realizing their own full potential. If they are notrealizing their potential then they are jeopardizing the success of both theircareer and personal life and the success of the agency. Therefore I have set outguidelines and elaborated on them with strategies, tips and techniques that havestood me and my colleagues in good stead over the years.

It is as much for the new recruit starting out on an agency career as for thoseaccount handlers who have been itching for some time to run an account,as well as heads of department who should read this if they want to createenvironments where people can excel and client business can grow.

xii PREFACE............................................................................................................

This book will help you understand the wider picture of client servicing,give you satised customers and allow you to go home at night with a smileon your face. In reality it may not avoid all the blood, sweat and tears, but itwill certainly reduce them to a manageable level.

You should not expect a list of tricky agency situations with the accompany-ing magic bullet solutions. This handbook will, however, equip you with theprinciples and practices to tackle such situations and will leave you in charge ofmaking decisions on the right solutions for your situation. It will allow you toidentify the solution more quickly and give you the most appropriate space inwhich to operate.

My experience has been in direct marketing, brand advertising and digitalmedia, therefore I dont see this book as appealing to only one type of agencysector. It is structured so that account managers wanting to become accountdirectors can realize their dream by focusing not on chasing a job title but onunderstanding how the step up is made. It is also for graduate recruits whoknow they will be managing directors one day and want to achieve this quickly(how quickly is up to your personal determination). It is also aimed at agencymanagement (managing directors, client services directors, personnel heads etc.)who want to see the best from their staff and want to create an environmentwhere excellence ourishes. It will help them reduce staff turnover and clientattrition and keep their sleepless nights to a minimum.

At college I was inspired by David Ogilvys books and as a edglingaccount handler I was enraptured by some of the personalities and principlesof the advertising industry. I would therefore like this book to inspire peopleto become great at their jobs, pursue their goals and conduct enrichedlives. I would also like readers to feel that by doing their jobs successfullythey can create enough time and space to pursue their own ideals in andoutside work.

HOW TO READ THIS BOOK

This is a handbook for account handlers. It can be read like a novel from startto nish, or it can be used like a Haynes motor manual to ne-tune your

PREFACE xiii............................................................................................................

performance according to where you are on the road to your success (get usedto the cliches, they dont go away).

Each chapter is peppered with specic tips, comments and anecdotes. At thebeginning of each there is a list of what you will cover and at the end there isa list of short exercises that will help you analyse your own situation better.

I have included certain sections that will be of more interest to those runningclient servicing operations these are in a box with a shaded background.

TIP

Absorbing information from a book can be arduous. I have found one techniqueparticularly useful. Imagine you are reading this book with the aim of impartingit to another audience (e.g. a group of like-minded account handlers desperatefor help from you). You are the teacher and you need to digest this material sothat you can eventually present it. What you will nd is that you will question thecontent more, use the exercises and consequently retain more. This could be anadditional exercise at the end of each chapter (i.e. prepare lecture notes for yourown masterclass eat your heart out, Tom Peters!).

COMMENT

This book should not be read in isolation. What it requires is an opennessof attitude, a desire to excel and an agility to juggle a number of activitiessimultaneously. Hopefully after completing the book, you will challenge yourself tocontinue your personal development in other areas of your work and personal life.

TIP

The last thing anyone wants to do at the end of a hard day at the agency is togo home and open a book describing the stresses of a working day. Similarly, Iwouldnt be seen dead with this type of book en route to my exotic beach holiday.What about negotiating with your boss a training morning at home to get intoreading it? And then following that, setting aside half-hour sessions before yougo to work? Alternatively, take it to lunch outside the agency. Or leave on timeand go to one of those fancy coffee bars and make use of those comfy sofas(foreign language students cant monopolize them all the time).

xiv PREFACE............................................................................................................

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have drawn on a variety of sources for inspiration and have acknowledged mygratitude by quoting them where appropriate. You will also nd a completelisting of the reference literature at the back of the book.

I would like to thank Daisy Lilley for approaching John Wiley & Sons onmy behalf when I was searching for a publisher. I would like to thank ClaireOwen of Stopgap for her support. I would like to thank Sarah Ciccone for thenal stages of critical proofreading it made all the difference.

In addition, I must thank a number of colleagues who took the time to readthrough my half-formulated rst draft and made wise suggestions as to how itcould be enhanced. These include Rowan Jackson, Emily Stokes, Janine Yatesand Mark Young.

I would also like to thank all those others who encouraged me to start andhelped me complete this labour of love.

CHOOSING AN AGENCY

CHAPTER 1........................

CHOOSING AN AGENCY

In this chapter you will learn about:

Understanding what you are looking for.

Working with a recruitment consultant.

Preparing yourself mentally and physically.

Getting the most out of an interview.

How agencies could improve the interviewing process.

Tips on candidate selection.

Tips on agency selection.

Both as a candidate and as an employer, recruitment can be a veryswift process: pick up the phone to a recruitment consultant, say what youare looking for and let gut feel take over. With this method you may getit right, but you are more than likely to encounter severe problems and getit extremely wrong. While instinct should not be ignored, what this chapteris about is arming the candidate and employer with all they need to gointo the recruitment process. Finding a new job or new candidate is a verytime-intensive process involving both visible and invisible personal and agency

4 CHOOSING AN AGENCY......................................................................................................................

costs. Therefore the risks need to be reduced and the process needs to be assmooth as possible. Much of it is about knowing what you are looking for andoptimizing the time at an interview.

PREPARING FOR THE SEARCH AS A CANDIDATE

Whether you are a seasoned player or a raw graduate, you need to take a criticallook at yourself before you start your search for your new ideal agency. Inessence, you need to know what you are about and what you are looking for.

I will approach this from the aspect of somebody who has already beenworking in an agency, although the preparation exercises are just as valid forraw recruits.

Something is making you think that a move is a good idea. In order to avoid apremature conversation with a recruitment consultant or prospective employer,take a step back and interview yourself. Ask yourself the following questions.

Why Do You Want to Leave?

Be truthful about the reason. Better job fullment, career advancement, nearerlocation, getting away from your idiot colleague and so on are equally validreasons and everyones motivation will be different.

If you are not honest with yourself about your motivation, you mayencounter problems. If you are running away from something and you are notfacing up to what it is, you may nd it at your next employment. For example,a reason such as Im sick of pandering to clients trivial whims may uncover alarger issue (lets face it, agencies will always have clients with particular styles).So your suitability for the service industry may have to be questioned.

COMMENT

Often people identify reasons that they feel they cannot share. That was the casewith an old friend of mine. He asked my advice, as he knew that ultimately hewould be asked this question a number of times by recruitment consultants andprospective employers. Although he did not get on with his boss, that person had

PREPARING FOR THE SEARCH AS A CANDIDATE 5............................................................................................................

an impeccable reputation in the industry and my friend felt that people wouldthink he was the one with the problem.

I understood his dilemma: lack of personal chemistry is a valid reason formoving and I knew people would understand this, but I could see that my friendwould feel uncomfortable with such an explanation in an interview situation.This type of discomfort should be avoided, particularly at the beginning of aninterview, so I proposed he use a slightly different interpretation of the situationto the recruitment consultants. I suggested he should say that it was the lackof personal development opportunities that was making him move. When iteventually came to telling his current agency, I told him he should say that he hadbeen made an offer he could not refuse.

When he started interviewing, this reinterpretation helped him to be comfortableand focus on the more important matters in the interviews.

What Do You Enjoy/Dislike about Your Job?

Try to deconstruct the elements of your daily routine and grade their importanceon a scale of 15. Put them in a matrix to see the elements in comparison, likein Figure 1.1.

Element in current job

Strategic input

Client interaction

Internal team interaction

Departmental interaction

Filing/admin

Financial housekeeping

Creative product involvement

Account business sector

Project management

4

3

3

2

2

5

2

4

3

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

YES

NO

NO

YES

Score Desired in next job?

Figure 1.1 Current job suitability matrix

What Sort of Person Are You at Work?

You can dissect this in a number of ways, but I would suggest that rst youthink about what clients and colleagues would say in a This Is Your Life situation.