By Published On: June 7, 2018

Most days I love my job. But, some of my most frustrating days as a designer and as a creative director have come about primarily because I forgot one simple truth that none of us in the agency world can ever really afford to forget: we are vendors. Agency people, at least good agency people (or at least agency people that I want to work for and with) like to think of ourselves as resources, as trusted allies, as partners who are psychologically and emotionally invested in the outcomes of our work and therefore in the success of our clients’ businesses. But the simple truth remains: we are vendors. The larger the clients’ companies are, the more likely you are to encounter conversations with people who see you purely as an expense, or, even worse, as a supplier. Shudder.

After one of those weeks where I got my feelings hurt (I know better, it was a moment of weakness) by an unachievable request, I thought to myself that perhaps someone is training employees to treat agencies like any other vendor. Maybe there is some popular wisdom that says thoughtful, impactful, high-quality services are meaningless unless they are also cheap and fast. Or perhaps there is a business axiom that teaches that the best way to get great work out of an agency is to not tell them by what criteria they are being judged and then to act like they’ve let you down in some way. And then I calmed down a little.

On a quest to understand, I went looking. I started where I thought I should start based on my own perspective by searching terms like “communicating with agencies”, and ultimately “how to get the best work out of your agency”. What I found was some thoughtful, well-written articles that highlight many good ways to get exactly what your business needs from a creative agency whether in advertising, marketing, or branding. They talked a lot about open communication and ROI and relationships. Then I realized that they were all written by agencies.

So, I took a step back and remembered that We Are Vendors, and I searched using the phrase “vendor management”.  Again, I found a series of thoughtful, well-written articles by bright people. This time the articles used a lot of words like negotiation, controlling costs, and risk mitigation. There is also a great deal about setting the criteria by which vendors should be judged and reviewing this regularly to make sure that the vendor is holding up their end. Now, words like negotiation make me uncomfortable because I’m a creative and negotiations are not my strong suit. But, the rest of those things seemed to make perfect sense to me once I thought about it. After all, knowing the target that we are aiming at is vital to the creative process. And I know that controlling costs is key to doing business, after all, we’re a business too.

My goal is to be able to communicate our value better. Procurement systems and vendor management programs are a reality to any agency that works with corporations these days, there’s no way around it. So, I’ll be working on gaining a better understanding of how to speak that language. I’ll also be trying to find a way to make our value as an agency clear to the people who control our clients’ procurement budgets, hopefully in a language they can better understand.

About the Author: Beth Seitzberg

Beth Seitzberg
During her career crafting creative Beth has conceptualized, designed, developed, strategized and overseen the building of brands, campaigns, and creative platforms for large corporations as well as for dozens of regional and local companies in every sector including financial services, manufacturing, retail, medical, and non-profit. This range of experience with clients of all sizes has honed a specialization in brand management and application of master brand strategy across channels and tactics. With a background in psychology and sociology she brings both a researcher’s behavioral approach and an artist’s instinct to her work. Beth specializes in designing outstanding, strategic creative that ties into business goals and communicates the client’s message clearly and distinctly in their unique voice.
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