Ever in pursuit of speaking my truth, shooting straight, and wearing my heart on my sleeve, my favourite relationships (of all kinds) have been rooted in clarity, openness, reciprocity, empathy, and maybe a little tomfoolery. My approach to work is no different. So when Ilana and I began discussing the idea of building an agency together, it became clear that we shared appreciation for a handful of fundamental traits: Open communication, trust, sincerity, light-heartedness, and an intrinsic need to just do the right thing. Naturally, these themes became interwoven in many of our conversations as we examined our own compatibility as business partners. We quickly found that the interplay of transparency and integrity with growth and gain would be essential in our approach to business development and client relations.
At the same time we were building, we were living. Life comes with wins, snares, interpersonal goings-on, pressures, big decisions, and other shenanigans. In supporting each other through some of life's greatest hits in our earliest weeks of going live as new business owners, we were able to let personal and professional growth intertwine.
The agency world, both full-service and boutique, has become a little saturated. While clients have nearly unlimited options, it can be challenging for them to unveil trustworthy agency partners that can service their needs appropriately. The pursuit of becoming the right fit with a potential client isn't just about outshining competition and securing contracts; it's about establishing meaningful partnerships by listening, strategizing, and offering solutions that thoughtfully reflect a business’s pain points.
If you’ve ever engaged with a potential client to discuss an opportunity, you’ve probably heard something like, “Love the approach, but we’ve got so many moving pieces internally that it’s going to be hard to get this off the ground right now”—or you’ve picked up on cues that make it clear from the outset you just wouldn’t be the right partner to support them.
A forced-fit with a client can be a slippery slope marked by misaligned expectations and fundamental operational differences. And while coming to the table with creative, resourceful solutions is key, a mutually beneficial client relationship requires both of the following to be true:
It's a good fit.
It's the right time.
During the engagement and discovery process, taking a partnership approach over one that's inherently sales-led benefits both the client and the agency. Demonstrating your ability to observe, listen, and synthesize a client's gaps, strengths, and goals helps guide these initial conversations to determine whether mutual compatibility exists, and how to move next if it doesn't.
As new agency owners with loads of agency experience, we've learned that implementing these components during the initial discovery process can help identify fit, keeping the client's best interests at the core of your approach.
- Examine objectives: Explore the client's business objectives and how they envision marketing contributing to these goals. Where are they strong? Where are they less so? And what is it, really, that they're trying to achieve?
- Align expectations: Engage in an honest discussion about the client's expectations. What are their short-term and long-term goals? What's their timeline? Can your agency realistically meet their expectations?
- Discuss resources: Openly discuss the budget and available resources for marketing. What can they allocate for marketing support? What about ad spend? If they have an internal marketing team, what does it look like, and how would you be able to interface with them?
- Evaluate fundamental compatibility: Assess whether your agency's values, culture, and approach align with the client's. Are you on similar ethical and operational wavelengths?
Detaching from the idea of "losing out" can prevent you from trying to force a bad fit. Can you meet the client's needs? Are they even the type of client you'd like to support? An abundance mentality suggests that there will always be enough opportunity to go around for those who offer genuine value. Shifting your perspective away from scarcity can allow you to zoom out, set the idea of competition aside, and examine mutual fit honestly.
The discovery process isn't about selling—it's about learning. As we engage in discovery with potential clients, we initiate conversations that organically, intentionally uncover their needs, aspirations, and challenges. In allowing for space when compatible opportunities don't check the "right time" box, we can nurture them in the meantime to build trust, loyalty, and rapport, supporting the chances that the partnership will eventually manifest. And by being comfortable to let go when it's truly not a good fit, we can make way for new.
