We want to be partners with our clients, not vendors. However, we often do not have the level of true partnership with our clients that we should. These times will test us, and right now, building the partnership is our highest priority.

Our counsel to agency clients is to “manifest partnership.” It’s something that has to be practiced every day. The pandemic only elevates this priority. When budgets are reduced or suspended, you have an even greater obligation to your client, and your agency, to continue to invest in the relationship.

Your ideas, your experience, your counsel, and your time have value. Traditionally, over-service begets more over service, and the client begins to expect it. Times are different now, but the principles of effective organic growth haven’t changed.

One of the fundamentals of organic growth is getting paid properly for the work that you do. Understandably, this isn’t the best time to press your clients to compensate you for past over-service. But you owe it to yourself, your account teams, and the client, to be clear in setting expectations and managing over-service. Your offer to provide over-service now, with the understanding its in the spirit of partnership, may strengthen your relationships and ignite new opportunities.

Our industry is recalibrating for what the future may hold, and how client relationships may evolve. And yes, there are agencies out there that have won new business in the last 60 days. Whether its net-new or reigniting an existing relationship, now is the time to position yourself for organic growth. It is never too early. Nor is it ever too late.

Here are five things to consider:

1. Assess the relationship. Have an honest and open conversation about your performance. Where is your agency succeeding and failing? This charts a path forward. Also, talk money. Too many agencies are afraid to have direct conversations with their clients about money, especially now. Get over it. You have a business to run. Clients need to understand this as clearly as you understand their business objectives. A true partnership recognizes the investments and compromises each party must make to have a successful relationship.
2. Strengthen the ties that bind. Most clients have more than one agency. Convene a zoom. Get to know them and talk about how to serve your shared client better. New things will emerge, and your client will recognize that you took this important step to help their business.
3. Garbage in, garbage out. Most agencies get paid for about 75 percent of the work they do. Gather your account teams – include everyone – and list everything you do for that client. Dig in and be specific. You need transparency from everyone. No judgment. Highlight everything for which you get paid. Now, for the work you are not typically paid for, but the client has come to expect, meet with the client and review. The likelihood is that you will cut the over-service altogether or set new terms with your client.
4. Make the call. Now is the time to form new relationships with CMOs and other client-side leaders you don’t typically interact with. If you’re the CEO and you are not speaking to your agency’s clients on a regular basis, start now. Demonstrate partnership and uncover their strategic imperatives whether it is in you scope or not.
5. Account plan. Agencies create plans for some clients, but are you creating account plans for every client? With the information acquired with steps 1-4, you can map the future for your client. You now know what is in your control and what is not, who manages budgets, priorities, etc., all with the intent of identifying the barriers to growth. Once you have identified those barriers, you can identify pathways to new organic growth.