Small Fish Big Deals

Tag: seo

  • Why Most Agency Relationships Fail (And How to Ensure Yours Doesn’t)

    Note: I’ve also shared this on my personal blog (WillRead.co), as I think it’s relevant outside of the SaaS world too

    With use of agencies, consultants and freelancers rising due to the economic climate, the AI wave empowering smaller teams, and Naval prophesying the end of the 9-5 and an explosion of freelance and contract arrangements, here are some useful rules of thumb for agency selection.

    I’ve wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on agencies that produced negligible results. I’ve spent similar amounts on others and seen 10x return. Founder friends tell the same story. So – how do you give yourself the best chance of success?

    For simplicity, ‘agency’ refers to any person or company you outsource a service or project to. Think SEO, PR, recruitment, design, ads, etc.

    Where it all goes wrong

    Let’s start with the inverse of what we want. The nightmare scenario; you pour significant time and money with an agency and they fall way short. This typically happens for one of only a few reasons:

    1. Lack of Prioritization: You aren’t a top concern, meaning you don’t get their best people, effort, or resources.
    2. Incapability (General): They simply lack the skills or experience to deliver the promised results for anyone.
    3. Incapability (Specific): They might be good, but not at delivering results for a company like yours, in your specific niche or situation.
    4. Misaligned Expectations: A gap exists between what you expect and what they plan to deliver (scope, timelines, outcomes).
    5. Client-Side Issues: Your own processes, communication, or ability to collaborate effectively with external partners are lacking.

    Assuming you have a tight brief, can work well with external parties, and they are capable, we’re going to focus on point 1. These rules should help make sure you’re getting a level of attention, service and prioritisation that will lead to great results.

    Rules for working with agencies

    Only work with agencies that will prioritise you and treat you as a top 3 (ideally top 1) client. This usually happens when:

    1. The amount you’re paying them is a significant portion of their revenue: the simplest way to get their attention
    2. A testimonial from you could meaningfully impact the trajectory of their business: if your shared success could create a step-change in the future of their business, it’s more likely to happen
    3. You can build a close relationship with a senior contact (ideally the owner/CEO/MD) you can speak to at any time, about anything. Ideally you want to be on WhatsApp/Text/’Quick Call’ terms
    4. You can incentivise high performance and disincentivise poor performance: this can be through % of upside arrangements, or can be achieved just by avoiding unnecessarily long contracts
    5. You’ve been able to run a reference call on them, ideally with someone you know and definitely with a company that looks like yours (size/need/situation)

    Agencies that get it

    A shoutout to agencies we’ve had great working relationships with:

    • Thrive Accountants who took us from disorganised mess to confidence in our numbers
    • Seene Digital who have helped us with all things SEO
    • James Ker-Reid of Sales For Startups who helped us transition from me doing all sales to a high performing team
    • Canvas Offices who grew with us and always had creative ideas
    • The Animation Guys who delivered some great explainer videos for us and our CMO loved working with