In the world of consultancies & agencies, collaboration is a term that is used very often.
10 out of 10 pitches & proposals mention collaboration or partnership – but surely not everyone can be delivering on that commitment. So how do you separate authentic commitments from hollow words?
Here are some considerations for how you can identify whether your agency or consultancy is genuinely collaborative or simply looking to “land and expand” within your account at the expense of others.
Competitive incentives
Most of you will have heard the term, “land & expand,” which is a popular reference to “win a bit of work, then win more once you’re in the door.”
Consultancies & agencies want to earn more work by delivering great results. On the surface there’s nothing wrong with that; the problem is that most people assume that this is a “zero-sum” game. That you have a fixed budget and therefore to expand your “partners” need to win work away from each other. I don’t think this approach is particularly helpful to you or any client organization looking to get the best out of their team of collaborators. This fixed-pie mindset demands that one team’s growth comes at the expense of another.
When agencies jockey for a larger slice of the budget pie, their motivations shift. Instead of focusing on delivering the most value, they start positioning to win projects at the expense of others – and I’ll argue long and hard that it’s a tell.
A complete giveaway that they don’t think they’re offering you enough value (either not strategic enough or not valuable enough) to be successful enough to grow their allocated budgets. Either they can’t wait for you or they don’t think it’ll happen.
Now you may be a bit different, but every client I’ve ever worked at will keep putting money into whatever delivers ROI. It’s actually a rather commonplace occurrence! So if a consultancy or agency [or any “partner”] is delivering true value, your resources [and consequently budgets] should grow. A rising tide lifts all boats, right?
If your partner is truly collaborative, they’re not strategizing to “steal lunch” from other partners1 and they aren’t working to prove that they could do another partner’s job better. Instead, they’re identifying ways to strengthen the entire partner ecosystem around you. They can talk about “collaboration”, “synergy”, “partnership”, and whatever other fun buzzwords are hot that day; but if they’re putting energy into winning away work that’s energy they aren’t putting into your success. Hollow words.
I won’t regale you with examples of how we at Ones & Heroes™ do this (but if you really want to hear about it, drop us a line).
Calling BS on faux collaborators
So how can you tell if your agency is genuinely collaborative? Look for these signs:
1. Alignment on growth trajectory: Does the partner respect the pace at which your company is growing or are they constantly pushing you to spend money you don’t have? If they’re constantly bringing you stuff you love that fits with what you need then great! If you’re feeling anxious because they always seem to be just a bit too pushy then they may not be aligned with your growth trajectory.2
2. Value-first mentality: Are they proposing projects that genuinely add value or just looking for new ways to bill? If there isn’t a clear line to ROI or benefit then it could be less about collaboration and more about billings.
3. Complementary, not competitive: Does your partner seek to provide support and complement work already sitting with other teams rather than try to take it all over? Genuine collaboration means recognizing what other partners bring to the table. For instance, if another partner handles web analytics, we might focus on predictive modeling or advanced analytics rather than positioning ourselves as a replacement for that other partner.
Courage to collaborate
True collaboration isn’t easy. It demands that a team forego the easy route of “getting a bigger slice of the pie” and instead focus on making a bigger pie. I’m hugely biased on this point. I firmly believe you want courageous partners. I think it’s a virtue we should all aspire to.
When your partners do put their money where their mouth is and really collaborate, you feel it. You see it. You might even smell it. Most importantly, your bank account notices it.
Hopefully the next time a team pitches “collaboration” as part of their values/strategy/whatever, you’ll ask them to talk about their growth strategy and how they plan on meeting their growth targets as a member of your partner collective. I bet you’ll find the answers illuminating!
Footnotes
- In cases where overlap with other service providers occurs, some friction is unavoidable. When choosing partners, look for those who view their role as complementing others rather than competing with them, focusing on creating shared value and aligning their ambitions with your success.
- A good partner will challenge you. They’ll tell you that you’re wrong sometimes and they ought to be proactively bringing you stuff to think about. The point isn’t that they sit around waiting to be told what to do (that’s a terrible partner!); it’s that everything they’re bringing you feels consistently “off-key”.
/in word
