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POP vs POP vs POP
It's the never ending agency struggle
Tim Kilroy
30 Sep • Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
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Editor’s Note(s):
Last issue I sent out a bunch of AI-powered experiences designed to help you with sales & content. The way that they were assembled on the landing page made them misbehave. Here is a RE-RELEASE:
I hope you find them useful…now back to out regularly scheduled program…
A Strategic Plan Revealed A Crisis
There is an ongoing crisis for the “I’m really good at marketing” marketing agency founder as they start to step away from daily operations. Earlier this week, I put together a strategic plan for one of my Agency Kickoff VIP clients who had faced this demon head on.
In their last agency, they created a Billy Idol Business (you know “…more, more, more…”). They scaled fast, were low cost, and all in on the agency labor arbitrage fantasy:
Low cost labor
Productized service
Simple, repeatable processes
High margins
Low management involvement
The idea was that if they were able to make the process clear enough, they could train anyone to do it, and the outcomes would be similar across all clients. And if the magic is in the process, why pay more for labor than needed, right?
Like many (if not all such models), they scaled quickly selling low-cost magic to micro-businesses, had a 100+ clients. Life was good…until the churn beast reared its ugly head. They had a reasonably large team to support (even if they were low-cost) and they were having a hard time driving new business faster than they lost it.
The results weren’t there because the team didn’t know anything more that the SOP, and that meant the management team was in constant “fix it” mode.
They HATED that business.
So they killed it and started over - similar, but better quality audience, similar, but better quality service. They want to make this go-round better, more successful, more sustainable & less stressful. (That’s what we do in Agency Kickoff VIP, btw…more success, less stress.)
As they’ve started growing, old patterns have started to emerge. They’ve hired better quality staff who have more experience, but results aren’t consistent across clients. Makes you kinda want to say, “WTF, we are doing the right things and it still sucks!”
I have zero design skills. |
POP vs POP
The low cost agency fantasy is based on a simple belief…
Process is what creates the outcome. Perform the same actions & get the same results.
This is PROCESS OVER PURPOSE - (POP).
In this paradigm, client circumstances and goals aren’t a core part of the equation. It is a single purpose machine:
Insert prescribed client information
Perform prescribed process
Get prescribed results
In theory, that is a MARVELOUS approach. There are NO variables. Simple input, simple output.
But we all know that the world is full of variables - and simple repeatable processes have a hard time accounting for them. The team follows the process and generates subpar results & client experience. That leads to the agency leader getting REALLY frustrated with their team because they don’t do the thing that makes sense and is clear to do to generate better results for a client.
The “I’m really good at marketing” founder has a really hard time with this because the changes that need to be implemented for any individual client are so obvious that it just doesn’t compute to them that their team doesn’t see it.
But we all know the rub, right? If you hire someone to follow process, that’s what they are gonna do. They earn their money by following the process.
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In a more “boutique” agency, we might see the opposite…
Every client engagement accommodates for every variable imaginable, requires enormous understanding of the client’s business & likely draws on many different marketing competencies.
When this business starts to grow, there may not be high churn, but the founder has to be everywhere to put their marketing stamp on each engagement. The business can only scale as long as founder-level marketers join the team and are relatively self sufficient.
Client results are the measuring stick. The agency is reinvented with every new client.
This is PURPOSE OVER PROCESS (POP).
This paradigm is a little more sustainable, but there is no machine. Every engagement is driven by the strategy and execution of a single or small handful of marketers - its usually the founder or founding team. Every engagement is bespoke, crafted carefully to the needs of the client.
In general, this approach is resource heavy, overall success depends on your ability to hire quality marketers, and in most cases, there’s very little chance to grow margins. This is how many agencies are shaped - and they can be tremendous businesses. But the core management team is managing business growth and client work, hiring and reporting, and client results vary from team member to team member because there is no core point of view or essential process. This is a true management challenge because you are involved at the executive and the operator level - lots of content switching and stress.
But, this is an agency that is successful because they hire great people and let them cook.
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What Else Is There, Tim?
Productized services or bespoke services - that seems to cover the menu, right? Actually, there’s another option that gives you real structure and allows you to grow great marketers on your own team.
Think of it as the middle ground between bespoke & productized. It doesn’t have a name AFAIK, but here is the paradigm:
PURPOSE OPTIMIZES PROCESS (POP)
In this incarnation of agency thinking, you start with a clear POV and approach. For instance, Common Thread Collective has focused on maximizing contribution margin, Tinuiti has staked out ground around using a human-decision maker informed by proprietary data models, Quartile is all in on it’s AI-powered media spend management toolset.
They have a point of view - a construct - that gives them a way of thinking and acting. That informs and creates their basic processes. But they are results focused, so rather than performing the same optimizations for all clients, they adjust based on all the variable that they can find to make the point of view and the execution match.
In this paradigm, process evolves and is informed by data. Results drive decisions. Talented marketers are supported by a consistent point of view and a way to do it. But client results are the north star.
Purpose optimizing process is the way that greatness is made. This requires a sophisticated management approach that demands you have true trust in your team, but also create effective learning structures that allow knowledge to flow horizontally from team to team and from client engagement to client engagement. It isn’t top down management as often happens in productized agencies, nor is it pure talent management and motivation as you might find in a bespoke agency.
When purpose optimizes process, your agency becomes self-reinforcing…
This requires you to elevate your vision so that you aren’t thinking just about capacity and profit margins, or simply hiring the best talent you can, but rather you are focused on creating an organization that builds its own best practices, insights and methodologies.
Done right, Purpose Optimizing Process is how you create an agency that attracts clients because they understand your excellence and feel your leadership.
You may have some elements of all 3 different POPs happening in your agency…but purpose optimizing process never happens accidentally - it is engineered and nurtured. In the early days, it is a hot house orchid..delicate and fragile. But when it is solidified and part of your culture, you’ve created an organization that thrives because of what it is, not who leads it.
WTF Is Up With All This AI BS, Tim?
I've been experimenting with AI and agents, and I must say I have found Lindy.ai to be amazing. It has helped me build all of these agents, (SalesOS CallLab™, SalesOS DiscoveryLab™ (I really like DiscoveryLab), DemandOS AngleLab™ & soon DemandOS ContentLab™ - plus it has helped me build a 90% automated daily newsletter about B2B GTM tech - GoToMarket.wtf, which is kind of freaking cool. But I am focused on these agents because it takes away the excuse to not be prepared. It takes away the excuse to do the easy and obvious thing. These AI agents, and I really do want you to check them out because I think they are pretty good. They drive rigor into your process without you having to invest in a lot of discipline. It is kind of a cheat code, and I hope you will find it useful.
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