Often I get an e mail introduction from people I don’t know introducing me to somebody in transition.  The e mail often goes to other people as well.  The person tells me that they are trying to help “A brother in need.”  I call this the Networking Handoff.  I see it all the time. Why not just pass this person along to somebody that has a large network.  It doesn’t seem very sincere to me. It is superficial help.  If this person really wants to help his fellow brother he should spend some time walking in their shoes.

Strangers passing people along to somebody they don’t really know doesn’t really help anybody.

Many people are quick to volunteer other people’s time rather than spending their own.  It is a little like that old Let Mikey Try It Commercial.

Sure I believe in the Paying It Forward but there needs to be boundaries to everything. I am a consultant.  I have less time than most people that work because you see in many ways I am perpetually unemployed.

When I get requests introducing me to somebody that I don’t know asking me to go into my Rolodex to find this person their next opportunity I wonder if these people have any clue about what I do.  They see me as a big data base.  I have a large network for sure but it is not a public domain. It is valuable because I have spent years earning it.  Asking me to give it away is a little like shop lifting.

I got an e mail recently from a person I couldn’t visualize.  I went to her Linkedin profile but there was not photo so that made it very difficult to recall her.  She provided a list of target companies and asked me to forward the message to three people in my network with ties to those companies.  Is this really an effective job hunting tactic?  Was this taught somewhere?  That is why college students need to take a course on what to do when they get fired.  Not if.  When.

I don’t have any problems finding people in transition that I know.  There are plenty to help.  There are also many people standing at the exits from Costco, Home Depot, or Vons with their signs asking for money.  We are all surrounded by need.

To make your job hunting networking efforts effective you need to have a connection with people.  A connection on Linkedin isn’t it. A contact in a data base isn’t it.  When people email me and tell me we are connected on Linkedin it doesn’t make us college roommates. When I read “Dear Linkedin Friends” from a stranger I think well there is your first mistake.

There is no doubt that networking is still the best way to find a job but as Etta Jones sang,  “Don’t Go to Strangers.”

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

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Watch a YouTube Video talking about The Power of Networking.

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Watch some other videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

I have been networking for decades even before it was the current social and business rage and rave.

So when is the best time to build your network?

By far the best time to build your network in these times is while you are working.  Harvey McKay wrote a book on it a few years ago called Dig Your Well Before you are Thirsty.

Many people quite eagerly try to build their network during the desert of unemployment or financial need but rarely network in the oasis of employment and limited needs. They are too busy to be planning for the future in the New Normal.

Here’s what I see.  I know some people who during the great recession that started when the World melted beginning in August 2008 or before have now had one or two or maybe three short term jobs during that time. Things change quickly in these times.

I only hear from them when they are in the desert between those jobs.  When they are working they don’t reach out to me to see if I can help them.  They aren’t thinking of me.

When they are in the desert they reach out very quickly because they know I have a very large and substantial network and often hear about jobs.  But I am not a public service funded by the government.

Quite frankly I don’t really feel very compelled to help.  There are many people out there and I only have so much time.  I speak often to people in transition so I know that I have satisfied my pay it forward quotient.

Then on occasion I meet people doing it another way.  I meet them at events like Laguna Niguel Connectors.  They are working.  I ask them why they are at a networking event largely populated by people in transition.  They say they remember the desert and the promise they made that if they ever got to the oasis they would remember those times and try to help in any way they can.

These people are rare and they stand out.  I may never do business with them but if they were ever in the desert and reached out to me I would immediately help.  They have a measure of sincerity which is compelling.

If you want people to be thinking of you when you are in the desert you need to be thinking of them when you are in the oasis.

It is as simple as that.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

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Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

It is no secret that sometimes these relationships can often be strained and not optimized.

According to a recent study by RSW/US only 44% of Marketers are truly happy with their primary Agency.  That’s worse than the divorce rate.

Why is that?  Why are things so dysfunctional in the advertising, public relations, PR and Marketing arenas?  Inevitably poor relationships can’t lead to the best execution and stewardship of the billions of dollars that are spent on advertising and other disciplines.

I had my gut feeling but I wanted to validate it. So I went out to my social network and posed the question that I wanted to validate an assumption.  My belief is that most marketing people do not really receive any formal training on how to work with their advertising, public relations, or digital agencies.

This is the feedback that I received.

On the high bar, Diane commented “I received training when I was with General Foods (which is now Kraft). And I know when I worked with P&G, they also received training on how to work with Agencies, as well as how to judge Creative. I don’t know of anywhere else where this type of in-depth training took place. I was lucky enough to get it.”

From across the pound, I also received a comment from the UK from Annette saying,  “Here in the UK, the Chartered Institute of Marketing has been a force for good in helping new and existing marketeers understand the different marketing communications disciplines, what works when, and how to ensure that integrated campaigns are developed, including digital marketing!” http://www.cim.co.uk/tandq/qualifications/qualificationDetails/whichqualification.aspx

Thank God for England.

The majority of other people said that they have never received any training in this area. That is pretty scary to think that you have to figure out those relationships managing that kind of investment by the seat of your pants.

Many said that companies expected that Marketing people would have an innate understanding of how to work with their agencies.

David wrote, “Hank, I concur with your observation. Many other aspects of Product Management and/or Product Marketing are assumed to be innately enabled when one assumes the respective title.”

How did those skills get into their DNA and wiring?

Some clients wrote back that “ You learn as you go.”  Glad that they aren’t pilots.

Training certainly doesn’t seem to be happening in college.  Karen was kind enough to send me this. “ I just finished my MBA with a marketing focus and in all of my marketing classes I don’t think this was discussed once even in my advertising and promotion class which was taught by someone with decades of experience on the agency side.”

Surprising those on the agency side said they had the added responsibility of training junior clients in all areas of advertising including how to work more effectively with their agencies.  Thanks for that Chris.

Others said, “I was able to work directly with advertising/branding and digital agencies during my internship.  The experience was great and I appreciate the individuals who took time to train me.”

I got another comment saying, “…They show up. We hope they know what they are doing.”

As a shareholder would that increase your comfort level and want you to increase the marketing budget?  I don’t think so.

Does the lack of training lead to poor fundamentals, a variety of approaches that change with each company and eventual frustration?   If a client is burned by one agency does that legacy go with them to other positions and other agency encounters.  I think so.

In this recessionary environment I think that most agency people that I talk to would say that their people receive little training and that good AE’s are very hard to find.  From clients I hear that within many organizations that training is a bad word.

That doesn’t make me feel more assured that this situation will change in the near future.

How about you?  Where did you get trained?  Did you learn to just tolerate a frustrating client agency relationship?

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

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I know a lot of advertising, public relations and digital agencies.  This comes from my years as an agency person pursuing New Business and my experiences as an agency search consultant.  I have also spoken to many AAF Chapters on Networking Your Way to New Business and Why Agencies Don’t Want New Business.  I also constantly network.

Here are some thoughts on What Agencies Should Stop Doing in 2012.

• Stop being Cobbler’s Children.  Enough from me on that topic already.  All agencies that fit this profile recognize it but few are make any changes. They accept it.  Why are people who are innovation agents and constantly advocating that their clients change accept being poor self marketers?
• Stop comparing yourself to agencies you are not. The tactics that destination agencies can use don’t apply to you because you are not them. Most clients don’t even know you exist. That feeding frenzy can get you to commit to activities that are outside of your scope of capabilities and resources and waste your time.  It is just a game of internal machismo that leads to low opportunity pursuit.
• Lofty goals are pie in the sky for most agencies.  There are very few David and Goliath success stories in advertising.  Minnows rarely swallow whales.  Why try?  You will win New Business by a high probability approach not long shots.
• Stop sending boxes to strangers saying you would be perfect for them.  I often ask clients if they get unsolicited packages from agencies.  “Yes is what they said.”  Do you look at them?  “No is what they say.”
• To win in New Business you need to use many channels and knock on many doors.  You need to blog, use direct mail, call, speak at events, implement PR, and have a strong social media presence. Maybe even consider some advertising.  SEO and PPC for sure. You have to be there when prospects are ready to listen.
• Stop staying in your office and not going to AAF Chapter meetings.  If you want to be an industry leader, act like it.  You need to network everywhere constantly to be seen.  Agency principals need to be outside people not inside people.  They need to be finders and not grinders. They need to be on top of the business versus in the business.

• Join an agency network to learn from your peers.  Quit talking to yourself, your spouse and your friends.  Learn how others do it and learn from those exchanges.
• Talk to consultants.  When I go to any city to speak to any organization I always reach out to agencies saying I am going to be in town.  I tell them I do agency searches and would be happy to sit down with them while I am in town.  I reach out using the contact info on their sites.  I rarely hear back. That’s OK.  They may never hear back from me.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

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Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

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Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

Don’t send him any boxes when he is not doing a review.

We all know that the average job lifecycle of a CMO can be pretty short these days.  I have read articles that say it can be as short as 18 months in some categories.  While doing some research on that topic I also came across some stats that said the average life cycle of a CEO was 54 months.

Since nobody gets hired as a CEO right out of college that translates to roughly  four to five CEO jobs in a working lifetime.  I also read an article that said it takes an average person making $100K plus an average of 18 months to find a job using networking, recruiters and job boards.  That is a lot of time on the beach.

I recently learned that two CEO’s who jobs were eliminated.  They were doing a great job but things happen, companies get sold, things go bad, there are mergers and acquisitions, changes, and cheese gets moved in the New Normal.

I have always believed that the CEO’s of companies need to do more to market and promote themselves when they are working.  They need to create a lot of accomplishment legacy on Google to help them find their next gig when things go South.

I think that they should insure that a proportion of their companies PR budget is focused on promoting them as well as the company.  They should be the face of the brand or the company.

Some say that this is self serving.  Well are company’s severance packages self serving these days?  I have heard many stories of people at various levels of organizations who were heroes one day bestowed with cornucopias of awards and recognition jettisoned from those companies in a fashion that would make your think they were delivery people. Accomplishments and accolades dissipated into vapor.

CEO’s need to stay top of mind when they are out of the game and the content of your past achievements on Google helps keep you there.  The more content you get out there when you are on the job the better. While you are tenured you need to promote yourself.

Make sure your leadership and accomplishments are the focus of company features in trade and business journals. The perceptions of a well run ship inspires employee and investor confidence.   Bringing that to the forefront is not self serving, it is smart business. There is a legacy of CEO’s that were great personal branders when personal branding was not in the vernacular.

CEO’s need to write articles and blog.  Be one of the few CEO’s who has a robust Social Media presence besides Richard Branson.  Also be one of the few CEO’s that attends networking meetings on a regular basis in your business community and industry.  Speak at Conferences. Accept Linkedin invites.  People who walk a different path get noticed.

Start your own CEO networking group comprised of working CEO’s and CEO’s in transition. Promote it aggressively and get credit for it. When you need a lifeline the CEO’s that are currently in transition may have landed and they will be your strongest supporters.

Does this take a lot of time?  For sure.  Then again if you remember the stats at the start of this blog there will be times when you have too much time.

By the way I am not a CEO.  I just see.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

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Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

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Email him at hank@hankblank.com

To change your actions you need to focus your resolutions on how you want to live your life.  If you focus on the way you approach life, breathe life, see life, then the working out and the other things you want to change will become easier because you will be in control of your life. It is easier to change direction if you are in the saddle.

So here are some resolutions I want to share that you can adopt for the coming year.

• Focus on your accomplishments.  For many people the last four years of the recession have been very challenging.  Doubt can quickly rise to the surface. Drop that baggage.  The only one creating it is you. Focus on your accomplishments and not your defeats or what you don’t have. You have done a lot; you just need to have the eyes to see it.
• Focus on gratitude.  You can find gratitude in very small things if your eyes are open, your ears are clear and your heart loves.  Gratitude gives you tremendous clarity. Gratitude makes you feel better every day.  Gratitude is life’s greatest shield.  If you are grateful you may be besieged but you will never be defeated.
• Focus on humility.  I think that many people misunderstand humility. It is not weakness; it is a source of great strength that rewards you with tremendous appreciation and vision. I think that both gratitude and humility provide everyone with the ambition to do more, appreciate more and invest more in the things that are really important in their lives.
• Focus on your passion and your success will come.  It may be an obscured journey but if you believe in your passion and vision things will happen.  If you have a failure bump would you rather fail by doing what you believe in instead of what people tell you do? Defining yourself by the company you work for instead of who you are is a very shallow measure of self worth and accomplishment.
• Focus on accountability for your goals to achieve your goals.  The best accountability monitors are the people that you respect and the people that love you and respect you and that you never want to disappoint.  If you have people around you that do not want you to fail you will succeed.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

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Email him at hank@hankblank.com

Because of my network, companies sometimes use me for recruiting so I have talked and met with numerous job seekers.  I see a lot of good things and some things that scare me and make me ask why would a person do that or not do that?

So here are some tips for job hunters for 2012.  Finally the hiring momentum is moving in the right direction.  Make sure that you are ready to capitalize.

• First, sharpen your tools.  Many times I see resumes with no e mails, I see no salutations on people’s emails, I get calls on my cell phone from blocked numbers so I cannot call the people back when I am driving.  All of these things make it harder to get in touch with people.  In this day and age of numerous candidates for every position you have to make yourself as sticky as possible and extremely easy to connect with.
• Invest in yourself. When I hear the news comments about the hundreds of thousands of people who have stopped working I can’t help to wonder if some of those people just aren’t keeping themselves marketable. Is your business card stock the weight of toilet paper?  If your Linkedin photo looks like it was shot by an amateur you aren’t investing in yourself.  Who’s to blame if you aren’t staying current on trends, technology, social media and other hiring practices?
• Drop any negative baggage.  It’s a weight. Don’t listen to your mind. Feed your mind. The smarter you become, the easier you will be to hire and the better your attitude will be.
• Quit wasting your time.  Asking second degree connections on Linkedin to introduce you to somebody that they are connected with on the second or third degree is not a warm introduction.  It is futility in job hunting.  Networking isn’t connecting strangers to strangers.
• Remember that in hiring there are two clocks.  There is the company hiring clock that moves very very slowly.  And then there is the hiring clock for people in transition.  They do not run at the same speed.  Not even close.  Quit driving yourself crazy by trying to align them.  Things will happen when they are meant to. You have no control over the schedule.
• Who were the two or three most influential people you met last year?  Spend more time with them in the coming year.  Obviously they had an impact on you.  Try to stoke those fires by spending more time with them. They are as valuable as Connectors.
• Think of Linkedin as Twitter and update your profile with substance four times a day.  Remember that your target audience is not your friends but your potential hiring manager.  Post accordingly.
• If you have stopped networking you have stopped looking for a job.  Over 70% of jobs are found through referrals or associates.  You only need to meet one person to change your life. There is a good chance they won’t come to your house. What if they were at that networking event or Starbucks you blew off derailing your potential journey?  People create opportunities not Tweets.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

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Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

Agency searches take more time than most people think and can be disruptive to an organization.  So when it is time to fire your agency?  Well there are a number of factors that lead to clients losing trust in their agency partners.

Today clients want agencies to bring them solutions to solve their problems and not sell them stuff.  Too many agencies often bring clients ideas that are nothing more than solutions looking for problems. They may be opportunities brought by their media partners and they aren’t really thought through at the agency end and are not strategically focused.  If that is what you are getting then your agency may be one dimensional in their approach.

A lack of knowledge of the client’s business is one of the biggest frustrations for clients.  Superficial knowledge is not insight.  It is painful.  Poorly trained account people are not acceptable these days.  You need A players at all levels of the team.  If you don’t have them ask for them.

If your agency prefaces many of their presentations with the words, “This is what we did last year, this is what we have done before, we’ve always done this,” they are going through the motions.  They may not know it but “this is the same thing that we did last year is akin to “we want to lose your business” in my opinion.  Technology and consumers are changing too rapidly to accept the same old thing.

If your agency isn’t bringing you new ideas all the time it is time to consider another partner.  Business is too tough these days and the brand deserves the very best thinking today.  People often ask me how does one stay top of mind with other people.  “If you want people to be thinking of you, you have to be thinking of them.” It is that simple.  The same thing applies to client agency relationships.  If you don’t feel that your agency is always thinking about the business it may be time to find somebody who would. If you rarely see the people that pitched your business and promised their involvement it may be time to look elsewhere where you might get more attention.

If your agency opens every briefing or conversation about a marketing problem with the question “What’s Your Budget?”  they aren’t really breaking new ground.  Most clients will try to find a budget for solutions they think can be successful.

The agency business is a service business that must be accompanied by a service attitude.  If you feel your agency is just an order taker and doesn’t go beyond then they might not be the right partner for you. You need to feel your agency is always infused with passion and interest about your business and the brand.  The business is also too hard these days for your agency always to be defensive or worst yet argumentative.

Agency change can cause short term disruption but if they aren’t bringing you their A game then it may bring long term gain.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

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I wrote the first post in this series called How Clients Can Get the Most from their Agencies which was followed by Part Two. Not an overwhelming creative title but perhaps some perspectives in my blog can turn into knowledge if it created some learning.

My friend Joel Don summarized the first blog with a tweet  saying that clients need to educate their agencies, give them clarity, and inspire them. Part two talked about the power of clear and ongoing communication, how to be fair with timelines and the motivation of appreciation.  Agencies are companies but are comprised of people and in these times and throughout time everyone loves to be appreciated.

Here are some additional thoughts on how you can get the most from your advertising, PR, digital, mobile, or search agencies.

• To get good work from your agencies you have to pay them. You cannot expect to get investment thinking if you only pay agencies on a project basis.  They don’t have a lot of extra staff in the backroom playing cards waiting for clients to order.  Pretty simple but sometimes it is not that easy to change perceptions that agency life is a fun party life.  Not true. I think that there is a legacy of agencies that it hasn’t been true for a very long time.  The Mad Men era was in the 60’s and 70’s and is more about Hollywood than reality these days. Clients have created very lean agency partners with their compensation systems.  I wrote a blog once called Who Has the Great Recession Changed the Most?  Clients or agencies? The vast majority of agency people I know would rather be on the client side these days.
• Give them a report card.  My first account was McDonald’s in Canada.  During that time somebody on the client side shared with me three ways you can deal with people. You can praise them; give them a cold prickly or a lukewarm.  The worst thing was to be on the receiving end if it was a lukewarm because you didn’t know where you stood.  Agency report cards are good and should be a regular part of your yearly client practice akin to your planning process. On a micro level, you should have lunch with your agency at least once a month as a top line check in. More importantly you should definitely implement a yearly review or evaluation where you rate the performance of your agency on a number of key criteria measures that are important to you and the performance of your business. This should be in a business environment followed by dinner if it is going to be happy times.  If not, conduct it early in the morning at your office. It will hurt but in the end it may help everybody involved in the process.

Hope these blogs lead to productive experiences.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

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Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

In the spirit of Christmas download my free audio CD called Hank Blank’s Guide to Holiday Networking.  Adjust the volume up a bit.  Hope you enjoy.

I shared that I walk on both sides of the street so to speak as I have worked for many great agencies in my career.  I have also conducted agency searches for clients like Jenny Craig, Raley’s Supermarkets, and Jacuzzi. I hear the accolades and the frustrations from both worlds.

So here are more thoughts on how to get the most from your agency.  In many ways these aren’t just agency management practices as much as people and life practices.  I think that careers are different these days.  Sure where you work is important on your resume or Linkedin but the way you worked is important to your reputation and the word of mouth about you.  No matter where you live people always say that the advertising and marketing worlds are small worlds and social media and word of mouth makes it even smaller.

So here are some additional thoughts.

• Communicate with your agency and its people.  By this I do not mean just email and texting.  I mean talking and talking face to face.  I have felt that Face Time and not Facebook leads to relationships. When I worked at an agency and I didn’t talk to my client at least once a day I felt something was wrong. Lunch with your key client contact at every level of the organizations on both sides at least once a month.
• Be straight with your agency.  Don’t give them the political reasons for doing things, give them the truth. Confidences lead to trust and trust leads to commitment and commitment leads to hard work because you don’t want to let people down who trust in you.
• Be fair with timelines.  We all know what has happened.  Clients have more to do with less people with the additional responsibilities social media so they are often overwhelmed.  Agency resources are often stretched because budgets have been cut by clients.  You are both (fill in the blank).  Many clients compress the timeline to meet their internal commitment which strains the process and often relationships.  Some clients think that their agency has no choice but to meet them because they need them.  When things are tough maybe.  When things get better it may mean adios or get to the back of the line because fair people will come first.
• Appreciate them. Have a yearly Agency Appreciation Day where you take your team to a Hockey game (I’m Canadian), dinner, or whatever. If you have an AE who is doing an outstanding job and is living the brand send their boss’s boss an email recognizing them. You will create levels of gratitude and benefit from your action.  The person will be committed to you for life.  Your behavior and appreciation is a greater motivator to agency productivity than money.  Clients that recognize their agencies and appreciate them get better work in my opinion.

More thoughts to come.

You can connect with Hank on Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/in/hankblankcom

Follow his updates on twitter @hankblank

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hankblank

Watch some videos on http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHankblank

In the spirit of Christmas download my free audio CD called Hank Blank’s Guide to Holiday Networking.  Adjust the volume up a bit.  Hope you enjoy.