Article - Why Agency Leaders Choose the Wrong Support
READ: 1 min
AUTHOR: Robert Craven
I have just come out of a remarkable day of meetings with four sets of ambitious agency owners, founders and leaders.
Remarkable because of their spirit, enthusiasm and determination.
Remarkable because they could all see the potential of their businesses but didn’t quite know how to capitalise on it.
Remarkable because they all told a similar story, had similar issues and had been on similar journeys.
But what made this particular day remarkable, or maybe I just hadn’t noticed it before, was the underwhelming and disappointing experiences they had been through at the hands of their so-called business advisers, trainers, consultants and gurus.
Presented in various guises, all four agencies had handed over hard-earned money in good faith.
In a nutshell, the recipients of clients’ monies were brilliant at marketing (identifying customer hurts and selling the solution). Websites with videos and testimonials showed how past clients had seen their agencies totally transformed. Inspirational stuff.
And when looking for the universal antidote, the quick fix, the ultimate solution and the unique insider secrets, my guests had bought into some form of intervention.
Their complaints were varied and many. They mentioned:
organisations led by (noticeably absent) ‘celebrity’ entrepreneurs
free workshops or webinars claiming to reveal the ultimate secrets, with unsophisticated and fairly aggressive back-of-the-room up-sells
programs that lacked structure or the individual attention required
being sold a prescriptive one-size-fits-all program of work irrespective of individual idiosyncrasies or niche focuses
an obsession with a method ‘they’ had used in their ‘successful’ agency – but shall we say, that was back in the day
unlimited access to unique content that was not very unique but had been particularly well packaged.
I felt embarrassed that these four fine agencies had felt so let down by the business support industry. I know that the advisers who had worked with these businesses had done some fine work. Clients have seen remarkable results. So what was going on?
There is a continuum of effectiveness that exists when looking at developing and growing your business.
At the least effective end of the spectrum would be reading newspapers, books and manuals. Next would come attending workshops, exhibitions and events.
And then, at the far end of the effectiveness spectrum, would come one-to-one consultancy and mastermind groups. As effectiveness increases then so does the cost, in terms of time and money.
My point is this: Actions create results.
Whatever intervention you choose to buy will only impact your business performance if you make the tough decisions and take the necessary (and appropriate) actions for your business.
In other words, the intervention needs to get you to take action.
Attending or listening or reading great business ideas is an entire waste of your time and money if you don’t do something (and it has to be the right something) as a result.
And that’s it. Very few of the relatively inexperienced agency leaders have the skills to listen/read/understand and translate the great words of wisdom into a relevant and suitable strategy that they can roll out effectively.
By definition, people buy into such programs because they feel vulnerable or inexperienced or insufficiently wise.
They don’t know what they don’t know.
And they need help and assistance to know what to do.
This means that some kind of individual interaction is required.
I am afraid that being given the knowledge is not enough. You need to be given the tools, and the assistance and support. That is why consultancy and mastermind-type interventions, although exponentially more expensive than the cheaper options, should deliver significantly better results. The hand-holding and individual attention will give you exponentially better results.
So, what became of these four agencies?
Well, they had all been shown copious quantities of fascinating strategies and theories. Now they need to find a way of applying all this fine stuff.
Maybe the (unregulated) business support industry itself is at fault for not helping clients to understand what they are buying. In the zealous enthusiasm to nail another client, the benefits of the end-product get exaggerated.
Yes, we all know about ‘Buyer Beware’, but the vulnerable client is at a disadvantage as he/she may find it difficult to assess which product offering is best for their specific needs.
In such a circumstance, we should not be surprised that the customer buys from the supplier who they think is the right one. As the courses and programs should go on to tell the business:
Marketing is not a battle of the product but a battle for the mind of the customer.
Success is 95% about execution.
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