I have heard it time and time again, from many agency principals across the country on how they are the Cobbler’s Children.
First, I am truly amazed that many of these agency principals impress me with their knowledge and their smarts, yet they acknowledge dumping themselves down with a shrug of acceptance.
The irony is that these same agency principals set a very high bar for their work and their personal achievements, yet they compromise on marketing their agencies.
Why do they lag?
Funny how many agency principals will pay for a personal trainer, yoga lessons, pay for an outrageous meal, lease beautiful cars, but won’t use outside expertise in marketing their business. Yet, all day long they preach to prospects that they need an outside perspective and you can’t do it with your own vision.
So here are some thoughts on getting some shoes for your children.
First change your process. Reverse your priorities.
Most agencies start their Monday mornings with a review of the client’s status list. Change that.
I think most agency people already know on Sunday night, what work is facing them on Monday without a status meeting. That’s why they don’t want to go to work on Monday.
Start your Monday morning meetings early with a review of your agency’s status list of projects to market your agency and not your client. Follow that meeting with your New Business Meeting. Those are the two most important things you can do on a Monday morning because they are the only two things you can control in your life. Can you control your client?
Review your client’s project list first thing on Tuesdays. Many of the urgent projects will have been addressed on Monday without the status meeting. Trust me on that.
Then it is time for agency principals to leave the office on Wednesdays and Thursdays unless there was a great networking event on Tuesday. Get out of your office because you are the face behind the brand. Attend networking meetings, visit your client’s stores, do store checks, have lunch with your clients, be outside. Be the first agency principal in your market who regularly attends AAF, PRSA, AMA, IABC chapter meetings in your town. Your time investment will be amplified through word of mouth. You will be core.
On Friday mornings, bring in breakfast for all of your employees from a restaurant that is not part of a national chain. Have a different employee each week bring in their favorite music and play it at breakfast or your sound system. On Fridays, ban internal emails. If your employees need to get something done internally, insist that they meet with that person face to face especially if you are a larger agency.
Insist that all agency principals on Friday have lunch individually with a different employee, supplier, alliance partner or a person they have met while networking that week that is 10 to 20 years younger than them.
Can’t do that? Then have a lunch and learn every Friday.
From 2 to 5 pm on Friday’s, it’s should be totally agency time. Write blogs, update your website, tweet, get smarter by networking, and connect with people on Linkedin. There are many things to do.
You need to be focus on being core and committed.
“But Hank, this would take so much time!” Yes and no. The question you should ask is, “Will this make my agency grow and, is this the way I would love to live my agency life?
Hank Blank frequently speaks to AAF Chapters on Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business and to many organizations and companies on Networking Your Way to New Business. You can contact Hank at hank@hankblank.com He has two CD’s on his site about New Business development process that many have found helpful but then again why spend the money.
Meet Hank Blank!
May 26, 2011 at 10:07 am
Hank,
I’m a long-time, in-house professional who has recently ventured out on my own to start New Insight Marketing. Your blog post is directed at larger agencies, but it really hit me as well. Great post and great advice!
Jason Newmark
May 26, 2011 at 11:00 am
This applies to every agency in my opinion. Thanks for the comment and connection. Take care.
Hank
June 29, 2011 at 10:11 am
Hello Hank,
Your article spoke directly to me.
For a long time, my firm has been a cobbler’s child. My website has been outdated, and didn’t feature any of my recent work. I was constantly apologizing for it (which wasn’t good, since we sell websites!) After a year of “I’ll get to it,” I finally decided to spend a few weeks focusing on my business. I’m happy to say that we launched our new site two weeks ago (www.strawberryfieldsdesign.com), and it feels just great. I’m going to make a habit of putting more focus on marketing my business from now on.
Thanks.
November 25, 2011 at 7:07 pm
[...] Cobbler’s Children. A comfortable excuse but not an enlightened business decision. How would your employees react if you announced at the end of the year that there were no bonuses or raises because the leadership team of the agency would rather be Cobbler’s Children than aggressively promoting themselves? How come what is clearly intolerable for some becomes acceptable to others? [...]
January 10, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Hank – thank you for this long overdue article! My business has suffered the same fate and while we do great things for others, you would be hard pressed to see that with our own presence on the web. We have a “to do” list of things we would like to accomplish for ourselves but our customers come first so they often get pushed to the back burner.
Although some of your recommendations tow a hard line, there are some really good suggestions that I’m going to try with my staff starting tomorrow. Time to stand up for our own cobbler’s child!
January 14, 2012 at 6:52 pm
[...] being Cobbler’s Children. Enough from me on that topic already. All agencies that fit this profile recognize it but few [...]
February 8, 2012 at 10:58 am
[...] Decisions are made in a few minutes that waste hours and hours of time that could be better spent on liberating the agency from being a Cobbler’s Child. [...]