As a first step, we often receive briefs from client-side marketers with a couple key problems:
- budget omitted
- timeline too aggressive
Though they have the most wholesome of intentions, they often come to us with the impression that by honestly disclosing these critical elements to the agencies in consideration early-on, they will be reducing room for negotiation later. We challenge this view.
From our experience working on the behalf of our clients, we feel that full disclosure of budget and [true] timeline is critical from the very start. Here’s our reasoning.
Budget. From the start, our clients will typically speak with 6 shortlisted agencies about their brief. Upon disclosing their budget from the start, these agencies will be in a position to provide input regarding their ability to work within the provided budget (in some cases advising the client that they would be better served by increasing, or indeed decreasing their budget–or suggesting spending their funds in another way) and to tailor their response to the brief with the budget in mind. As agencies’ top thinkers are most often involved during the pitch process and set-up and perhaps less frequently thereafter, it’s smart to ensure that the full power of their thinking is put toward considering brief with all constraints in mind. It sounds obvious, but we feel that full and honest disclosure of client funds is critical to achieve great results.
Timeline. Being honest, most clients will provide a deadline within their project brief. The real problem is that their ideal delivery date is often too aggressive and cuts things a bit too close. And having an agency-side background, we know that though the initial deadlines are always communicated by clients as being absolute, extra time is somehow miraculously found when things don’t go according to plan. So, I suppose our ask of clients would be that they allow their agencies to work toward ‘cheap and good’ campaigns rather than spending like crazy to achieve ‘fast and good’ or worse yet…burning money by opting for ‘cheap and fast’.
So, if in doubt, we urge you to be honest with your budgets and generous with your timelines in order to achieve the best results with the right agency. And, of course, selecting the right agency is where we come in.
