I’ve known many clients and prospects who will hold as many discussions with agencies as possible. Their goal is to pick the brains of the experts and then implement pro strategies on their own. There’s a problem with that approach, other than the OBVIOUS ethical one:
An Expert Tactic Requires Expert Execution
The prospect company will walk away with a quiver full of ideas to implement, but no real vision as to how they are implemented or knitted together. The result? A half-assed campaign with a short-lived life span.
The second problem (after the obvious poaching for ideas) is that these client-side managers don’t realize that the cause of their failure was their execution, not the expert’s strategy. They walk away from the failed experiment assuming the strategies were bogus and they go back to the way things were before, writing off any future attempts to do it better. Because obviously, “If I tried it and it didn’t work, it’s a bogus marketing tactic.”
Client-Side managers don’t realize that the cause of their failure was their execution, not the expert’s strategy.
The Takeaway
It’s common sense, but it’s often overlooked. If you didn’t brainstorm the approach, you probably aren’t qualified to understand the complexities of the execution. That’s not an insult. That’s just reality.
Know your strengths, your weaknesses, and when to rely on others more qualified than you. Unless you’re paying enormously bloated prices to cover an agency’s infrastructure, you really do get what you pay for.
