When Will the Agencies Step Up?

By James W. Obermayer
Sales Leakage Consulting, Inc.

Regardless of the type of agency (branding, direct, PR, or on-line) most, but not all, are universally afraid of proving the return on the client's money put at risk. Granted some are kept at arms length and regardless of their efforts to talk about actual results, the client demurs, hedges, hesitates, backs away, avoids, passes up, circumvents, evades, steers clear of, shuns and just plain hides from any discussion about ROI.

The agency that wants to keep its client base, especially in tough times when marketing dollars are cut, had better ask the tough questions of its clients. For instance:

1. When we create these inquiries, how soon will they be distributed to the sales channel?

2. Are business rules in place for 100% follow-up by marketing, the sales channel or both?

3. How are you qualifying the inquiries we create so that the salespeople are aware of the "Leads" from the non-buyers?

4. Does marketing have a system in place to measure the return on investment for the lead generating dollars we spend on your behalf?

5. May I see reports that show the sales that result from the demand we create?

Tough questions, but agencies that have courage (and want to keep working) will force their clients to face the reality that it isn't enough to create demand, you have to prove the results. Results are why clients spend money with agencies.

I asked Robert Moreau, VP of Sales & Marketing of the Rubicon Marketing Group, Inc., how they manage to convince their clients to embrace the best practices in inquiry management. He said:

"At Rubicon we believe the lead management process is the foundation for successful lead generation. Marketing accountability is the primary objective for many of our VP/CMO level clients and, to that end, maximizing lead generation is critical. Our clients are keenly aware that unless Sales and Marketing efforts are aligned, many leads are left undiscovered, neglected and ultimately dollars are left on the table. In addition, many of our clients are using (or are in the process of considering) marketing automation to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and pipeline visibility to both Marketing and Sales teams within their organizations.

Of course, automation technology is only as good as the process it is automating and to ensure our client's success, an important part of the Rubicon Way involves collaborating with our clients to establish a rigorous foundation. Our clients have been delighted with the success that they have realized both immediate and over time in generating, maintaining and maximizing lead generation."

From another perspective, Gary Slack, Chairman and CEO of Slack Barshinger said,

"There is no lack of desire on our part or our clients' part to measure success: there is more often than not a lack of funds to do so or a lack of knowledge as to how to do it. What we first do is offer our clients our expertise in how to adapt their current infrastructure to measure results or, if this is not possible, create external measurement infrastructures that we can manage for them. That said, measurement costs money. It is absolutely worth the investment, but make no mistake that it is labor-intensive work and budget dollars must be dedicated to make it happen.

To help clients justify this investment, we show them the kinds of information we can provide through reporting and measurement to help them visualize what they will able to do with the data and how that data will improve the performance and perception of performance of marketing."

Some Agencies Make the Effort!

There are some agencies that embrace accountability, which translates into having the best sales lead management process that is available. These agencies have the courage of their convictions. Agencies I have known that attempt to manage what they create for their clients include: Babcock & Jenkins, The Kern Organization, Rieches Baird, Rubicon Marketing Group, Inc., Slack Barshinger, Young Company, Vantagepoint and Hacker Group. I am sure there many more agencies, but their numbers are few.

The Challenge for Agencies

At SLMA we challenge agencies to step up and help clients prove the return for every dollar put spent on behalf of their client. If you are an agency and you have a good story about how you prove the ROI for your programs, sent us a 250 word story about how you proved the ROI for one of your clients' campaigns and we'll print it. Send the article to: [email protected].