How to Get Over Trust Issues and Retain Agency Clients Longer

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3 Golden Nuggets From This Episode

1. Honest rapport with clients. Trust in agencies has hit alltime lows, according to Bob. That’s not a place any of us would want to be. So how to gain back client trust in agencies? Especially in a time when more and more clients are moving to inhouse many services. Bob believes the key to building trust starts with the initial conversation. He makes it a point to treat it as a conversation, not a pitch, and makes it about them. “I feel like squaring the meeting centrally right on their business and what they need is the place to be,” he assured. Also, he’s seen the positive effect of knowing who you are as a business and how you can help their business, instead of trying to do everything, which comes across as just wanting more money.

2. Building leadership. As we always say, you can get to the milliondollar mark almost by accident. But to be a multimilliondollar agency you’ll need to start building a structure, starting with your leadership team. Bob didn’t always get that right, in some cases because the people weren't quite right. But also because they weren't quite ready as new owners to really understand what that meant. They really had to look themselves in the mirror when the company hit a cap at $3.8 million and start to get serious about leadership. They needed more structure, so they selected a group and shared everything about the business with them. “If these guys are going to lead, they need all the information to become leaders too,” he acknowledges.

3. Try to not be a fixer. How can you help your leadership team grow? Prepare them to solve issues and trust them. Bob and his partners started organizing weekly meetings with their leadership team to discuss new business leads and prospects, financial forecasts, what they call remarkable creative briefs and opportunities, they also talk about employees or client issues and possible solutions. This way, they started to prepare the leadership team and shared the information and metrics they may need to do their jobs. Ultimately, it is always about trusting that they are capable to face any issues that may come up. Agency owners normally get to where they are because they are very good at solving problems, but at some point it should be your team’s responsibility to do so.

Do your clients have trust issues with your agency? How can you go about creating an honest rapport to build trust? Working at a larger agency Bob Bailey started to notice a trust problem. Clients are losing trust in their agencies. This trend has actually increased over time, with clients moving to inhouse services. This is the opportunity he and his partners saw when they created their agency Truth Collective. They wondered "wouldn't it be great if a marketing agency could thrive by just telling the truth?" Then they set out to have honest conversations about strategy, creativity, and relationships. In his conversation with Jason, Bob spoke about alltime low trust levels in agencies, how he tries to build trust with potential clients from the first meeting, how he has built leadership teams in his agency, and why agency owners must themselves from being the fixer to empower their teams.
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JASON SWENK IS AN AGENCY ADVISOR THAT GUIDES MARKETING AGENCIES THROUGH A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR GROWING THEIR AGENCY FASTER & EASIER.

In 1999 he launched his first digital agency growing it to a multimillion dollar operation working with brands such as AT&T, Hitachi, and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of amazing growth, his agency was acquired in 2012.
Since then he has cofounded and has grown another 8figure agency. He also runs a unique consultancy helping marketing agencies grow, scale, and enjoy running their agency by applying the framework that he used to grow, scale, and eventually sell his agency.

Jason has helped over 20,000 agencies in 42 countries meet or exceed their business goals. He generously shares it all as a speaker, podcaster, and author. He has been featured as an expert in top media publications such as Entrepreneur and Inc. Magazine. Plus, he currently hosts the top agency podcast: The Smart Agency Master Class.

Jason is dedicated to providing tactics and strategies to agency owners. His mission is to be the resource he wishes he had as an agency owner.