🚀 This Week's Growth Hack: 5 Mistakes Brands Make When Hiring An Agency

Given my background growing and selling an agency & now running agencyreviews.io … I interviewed Dan Gray on the podcast last week about the 5 biggest mistakes brands make when hiring agencies. Dan is the Founder of Vendry.io which is a has white-glove approach to solving the agency <> brand matching fit!

He said something on the episode that really sticky with me:

“Companies will spend millions of dollars on headhunters and recruiters but when it comes to hiring agency partners to run their marketing, which arguably has a MUCH larger impact on their business, they are trying to do it all by themselves.” - Dan Gray, Vendry.io

So I thought for this Week’s Growth Hack, I would summarize the 5 mistakes we covered int he episode but if you want all the juicy nuggets and how-tos we covered, I strongly recommend checking out the episode (links below)!

So here are the 5:

1. Not Defining Success Criteria Clearly With A Scorecard:

   • This was the first time I've ever heard of creating a scorecard or decision matrix in the process of hiring an agency but I thought it was absolutely brilliant

   • By outlining your clear decision criteria, your whole team can get aligned on making sure you find the perfect agency for you

   • It also leads to more subjective decision-making in the process and helps solve misalignment with agency capabilities.

2. Relying Solely on Case Studies and References:

   • It can be hard to differentiate between many agencies leaving brands to go solely off of case studies and references

   • this leads to bad fits because most agencies manipulate their case studies to show the best outcome possible

   • not to mention most agencies are only going to put you on the phone with their happiest of customers so it's kind of a waste of time getting on the phone with a reference

3. Underestimating the Importance of Cultural Fit:

   • Ignoring the cultural and operational fit between the brand and the agency is detrimental to the working relationship

   • Dan really hammered this home on the episode …

4. Poor Communication Expectations:

   • Brands should specify their expectations for updates and proactive communication to avoid issues.

   • Things as little as response times to slack messages or corporate holidays can sour the agency relationship quickly

5. Not Setting Clear Scope and Expectations:

   • Ambiguity in project scope and deliverables can lead to inefficiencies.

   • Most agencies leave scopes vague on purpose and most brands don’t actually know exactly what they need… So bringing in a third-party expert to help clarify the scope for both sides can be extremely valuable

   • Example: if you hired an agency to build you an iPhone app and you have no experience building apps, you should consider bringing in a fractional CTO that you can find on Upwork to help make sure the scope is clear for both you and the agency

By steering clear of these mistakes, you can enhance your chances of securing an agency partnership that not only meets but exceeds your brand’s expectations.

Definitely save the episode with Dan from Vendry for listening to later this week on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube!

💕 Whenever you are ready

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