Expect More from your Agency: How to find strategic partners that deliver more passion, more accountability and more value
“We love our partners, but oftentimes they’re learning on our dime.”
Coming from nearly two decades in the PR agency world, this recent Wall Street Journal piece by Isabelle Bousquette and Mark Maurer on AI programs that overpromise and underdeliver felt very familiar. Though the focus was Big Four consultancies, if you’ve worked with (or for) large communications agencies, the story likely rings true as well.
For years, I’ve heard versions of this same frustration from clients about big agencies “learning on the job.”
A senior comms strategist once asked me, “Why does every big agency project start with a $100k discovery session?”
If a firm sells itself as a specialist in your field, isn’t it fair to expect that any necessary knowledge ramp is their investment, not yours? Clients should be paying for the value we deliver, not footing the bill to take your team from intern to expert.
Agencies often pitch themselves as leading subject-matter experts, yet once you award the business, the senior pitch team you had all that chemistry with disappears and step one of your plan is a time-intensive, costly learning exercise before you (hopefully) see any real value.
To be clear, structured discovery led by expert facilitators with clear objectives can make later work sharper and more relevant. When it produces decisions, strategies and tangible deliverables unique to your specific business challenge, it can be worth every penny.
But a $20 million AI “pathway” report with no practical applications? A $100k discovery session with no tangible business value? It’s no wonder many clients feel burned by firms that overpromise and underdeliver. After enough rug-pulling, who could blame them for taking those workstreams in-house?
But let’s consider the alternative. There’s a reason specialized outside counsel can be transformative. When a partner brings real industry perspective and tailors that experience into actionable recommendations, creative execution and dogged determination that continues long after the pitch, the results can exceed even the highest expectations.
Choosing the right partner
Dig deep on trust. Hiring the right partners is hard. Look beyond the flash of the pitch and ask questions that will reveal trust. Do they truly understand your business and where you sit in the market? Are they creating artificial chemistry by saying “yes” over challenging your thinking? Do they bring as much genuine passion and care for your brand as you do? If not, keep looking.
Prioritize results, not activity. Great counsel isn’t free. But that doesn’t mean you should be paying for time spent that doesn’t move the needle. If a firm markets itself as a category expert, their onboarding should be their investment. If you’re paying for discovery, demand is results in deliverables and an implementation plan you can put to work – not some generalized report or vague justification of hours that didn’t move your business forward.
Plan for accountability. If the pitch team isn’t staying on your account, question why. You’re buying knowledge, expertise and a relationship with your counselor – get beyond the rehearsed material and have a conversation with your actual strategists about how they’ll personally advance your business goals, what success looks like, and how they plan to demonstrate accountability against that strategy.
A seasoned senior strategist once told me “I would never invite one of the big guys to a pitch ever again.”
My lesson was different. Don’t give up on the value of exceptional agency partnerships –demand accountability from partners willing to stand behind outcomes and who are as willing to invest in your long-term success as you are.