We’ve won and lost our share of clients in the pitch process over the years, and I can say with confidence that the best decisions that lead to the longest partnerships don’t come down to which agency is the best (which is almost impossible to determine) but come down to which agency is the best fit for your brand.

At DMi Partners, we anticipate the questions brand will (and should!) ask in the RFP process. Whether brands ask these questions or not, we proactively address them to guide brands towards making a better decision. Our approach to client service is designed to align with the answers that define a truly great partnership.

Here are some of the key questions your brand should consider:

• Is the agency aligned with our business goals?
• What kind of brand experience does the agency have with similar goals and growth challenges?
• Will the agency be flexible as my brand’s business challenges and goals evolve?
• Does the agency have good team continuity?
• Will the agency be worth its fees?
• What intangibles can the agency offer that will make it a great partner?

You should ask these questions when evaluating potential partners to ensure the agency’s marketing framework aligns with your needs, from the initial RFP process through the entire engagement.

1. Is the agency aligned with our business goals?

First, an agency needs to be thorough in establishing an understanding of the business goals you’re looking to address within the partnership (more on that in a bit). From there, don’t accept staffing and forecasting projections at face value without asking follow-ups questions like:

• How will each resource be working to address our business goals?
• What kind of process and methodology are the agency’s forecasts built on?
• How is each channel in scope projected to help meet or exceed our business goals?
• And what kind of reporting can we expect to see to make sure our goals are always the focus of each initiative?

Dive deeper into the agency’s approach to uncover and address any potential weaknesses in executing strategy.

2. What kind of brand experience does the agency have with similar goals and growth challenges?

Most brands ask about experience in their vertical, but while that can be important, we’ve learned throughout our 23 years in business that the more relevant question is whether the agency has a good track record solving similar challenges facing brands at similar stages of maturity.

For example, an agency that has successfully built a full-funnel affiliate program to accelerate customer acquisition is a far more capable partner for a fashion brand with that specific performance goal than an agency with numerous fashion case studies but no proven track record in meeting that goal.

Therefore, prioritize evaluating an agency’s proven ability to solve your specific business challenges, as this is a far more accurate predictor of a successful partnership than industry experience alone.

3. Will the agency be flexible as my brand’s business challenges and goals evolve?

You can get a good read on this right from the RFP process. An agency willing to adapt its fee structures, staffing resources, and scope if needed as the RFP process evolves gives you the best signal that it will be willing and able to adapt with you over the course of an engagement.

4. Does the agency have good team continuity?

One common reason brands leave their agencies is out of frustration with team turnover; it’s a thankless task to re-educate new teams frequently on business goals, strengths, and weaknesses.

There are several ways brands can research an agency’s turnover – Glassdoor is probably the most popular. But make sure your brand pays attention to secondary elements like culture pages, awards, and LinkedIn engagement from team members. Many agencies can sound great on their own website, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily living up to their values from the top down.

At DMi Partners, when we apply for workforce-based awards, we pick the ones based entirely on surveys distributed to the team. Our track record with AdAge, Inc.com, Gallup, and the Philly Inquirer is one that we’re very proud of, since they’re determined on feedback from our team members.

5. Will the agency be worth its fees?

You’ll never truly know if an agency is worth their fee until the engagement is underway, but you can and should ask questions that dig deeper into KPIs like CPA and revenue. Net-new customers tend to be much more valuable (and expensive) than repeat customers, so ask about the ratio of new customers whenever an agency doesn’t volunteer that information.

Ditto incrementality – if an agency can tell you how much incremental growth they drove (not just the revenue it drove), that’s a good sign that it will be worth the fees they’re charging.

6. What intangibles can the agency offer that will make it a great partner?

This question can be broken down into a series of smaller, more specific questions:

• Does the agency offer proactive recommendations that go beyond the questions in RFP?
  
• Does the agency describe the process it takes to get the results it cites to try to win your business?
  
• Does the agency ask questions that help it get a better understanding of your goals and challenges?
• Does the agency explain how its recommendations will address your business goals?
• “Yes” answers to all these questions indicate the agency has strong qualities that bode well for a long, fruitful partnership.

You’ll notice that these questions aren’t necessarily weighted towards the biggest, best-known agencies, and there’s good reason for that. Bigger agencies might seem to carry less risk (kind of like the “no one ever got fired for buying IBM” analogy), but that’s not the same as being the best fit for a particular brand with unique goals and challenges.

If you’re ready to partner with an agency that anticipates your needs, answers the questions you didn’t even know to ask, and delivers results that exceed expectations, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line at info@dmipartners.com to start the conversation – no pressure, just straight talk and solutions tailored to your brand’s goals.