How do you get to Trust? Drink your clients' Kool-Aid

In Forbes today a survey conducted by a marketing consulting firm tells us that advertisers continue to be frustrated with their agencies.

A client of ours asked me today what I think the cause is.

It starts with money.  But it comes down to one thing:  Trust.

Why does it start with money?  Because of our flailing economy, there’s just less of it to go around.

When there’s less money to go around, that goes double for marketing, as companies look to maximize resources in ways that can show better proof of spend, like sales, supply chain, and finance.

Because there’s less money to go around, margins are thinner.

Because margins are thinner, the level of fear is exponentially increased.   Every decision is scrutinized and questioned.

And when fear goes up, trust goes the opposite way.  And trust is everything when it comes to partnership and collaboration.

The symptoms are numerous:  Clients may feel that agencies don’t make their business a high enough priority or put their best people on it; they may feel like they’re paying too much money or not getting enough value. 

Or they just might not feel like they’re getting the strategic and creative thought partnership they crave (and pay for).

So how does an agency get to Trust?  It’s not so complicated.  

Throw yourself into their business.  Learn what makes them tick, dig into their category, interact with their brand and product, live a day or week in their shoes. 

Study their past successes, talk to people who’ve been part of them, learn from them.   Really believe in what they do and how they’ve succeeded.

Drink their Kool-Aid. You'll be surprised at what a big difference it can make.

Agencies are struggling to be trusted because they have a hard time dedicating the resources for their people to have even just a sip of Kool-Aid.  They're just stretched too thin. The irony is, the survey finds that advertisers want agencies to deliver “more for less.”  

One good way to do that is to have a more efficient, more nimble agency.  Which explains the rise of small and medium sized independents. 

So if trust is everything, one way to get there is clear:  reduce the size of your agency or create a not-so-big one from scratch.

Or as Steve Martin once said, get small.