Who on your team should sweat the details?

Details are the difference in our (or any) business. A simple punctuation in a copy line can ruin it or make it sing. A string of code incorrectly written on a website can turn disastrous. An incorrect phone number in an ad can get your agency fired. A simple change in daypart mix can make your media buy more (or less) effective.

Not getting the small details right is without a doubt what keeps managers up at night. You've got so much that could go wrong. Your fears and anxieties about missed details have a direct effect on the type of people you hire and the way you lead your team.

I've learned two key lessons about leading teams and details:
1) You personally can't possibly check all of the details
2) Make sure your team collectively will

There are elements you will always remember to check for to ensure quality control. There will invariably be things you don't think to check for. That's where hiring people who you trust to do their jobs and take initiative to sweat details is so critical.

Everyone should sweat their own details, and someone else should know another's job well enough to double check for them. Individually, nobody is going to remember everything. Collectively, no detail should be left to chance.

A good exercise to foster intra-agency collaboration

A sports analogy for you...a lot of good wide receivers in college and pro football used to play quarterback. Obviously innate talent has something to do with how good they are, but what also contributes is their understanding of the QB's perspective. They know how he approaches his job and what he needs from his receivers to be successful. Thinking about this brought up an exercise I recommend trying within your agency.

As someone on the account side, it's your job to (at the very least) have a basic understanding of what someone from the creative, planning, media or interactive disciplines needs to do their jobs. At the end of one of your briefings, everyone has the specific information they need to move forward. If your agency's goal is improved integration, why not give a few instances where a creative briefs the media team about the project, or a media member briefs the creative team about a project (and so on)?

By compiling a project brief, gaining unique perspective of what other departments need not only helps them do their jobs better within their own discipline, it will provide different jumping off points for brainstorming, concept development, media planning, or simply finding different approaches to solving age-old marketing challenges. As an account person, you can make sure things are steered in the right direction, but make sure whoever is doing the briefing takes the time to complete the brief with some help from you, but with a lot of collaborative conversation.

Just a thought. I'm curious to hear yours...

Eating at the Agency Big Kids Table (when you're "little")

I loved reading Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker column detailing the frequency in which we see David vs. Goliath stories in history, and how we can predict potentially success outcomes in these situations.

Having been at a large agency (and now at a small one), I can appreciate his insights. When it applies to new business pitches, you don't often see smaller agencies getting the chance to pitch against the big boys. Most client reviews include agencies of relatively similar size and capabilities, as they give their search consultants specific criteria upfront. Occasionally, you do see other agencies get in on the pitch, but it normally happens through unique circumstances (Current Network's RFP via Twitter is a good example).

For those with smaller agencies, some key points for you to remember as an account executive when pitching new business against larger agencies....

-Understand what got you in the review in the first place. The client included you in the RFP for a specific reason, and it wasn't because of how much you had in billings the prior year or how many hundreds of people you have on staff. Whether it's talking to the search consultant or the client themselves, understand what it was about your agency that attracted them to you and leverage the hell out of it in your pitch.

-Understand how your agency fits the operational requirements to service the account. For example, if the pitch is for a packaged goods branding assignment, operations would be fairly simple. If the pitch is for national branding and local execution for a QSR client, the needs change dramatically. The greater the operational demand, the more challenges you're going to face in the eyes of your client vs. larger agencies who have greater built-in resources to handle the business.

-Good ideas can come from anywhere, but execution is the result of detail-oriented people and organized process. Big agencies can throw more bodies in to solve execution problems (especially related to volume). Small agencies don't have that luxury...and that's a positive. You aren't constrained by existing structure or obsolete process...you can much more easily tailor a process that gets your executional needs with little waster. Don't forget to point that out.

-Take a risk...you "aren't supposed to be" in these kinds of pitches...don't waste the chance by playing it safe. What's the most unique (but still appropriate) way you can communicate your most compelling reason to be hired?

-Act like you belong. Don't embellish the idea that it's so great the prospect is giving a smaller agency a chance. It looks defensive and unconfident.

- If you don't have the chops,...get out. don't set yourself up for failure and embarassment for your agency that would tarnish your reputation in the marketplace.

-Above all, approach the challenge differently than your larger competitors would. Trying to play on their level (big agency solutions) is going to get you beat almost every time. Your chances for winning go up significantly when you redefine the terms and fight the battle on your level. Take general assumptions about the way things have to work and challenge them...innovation only comes through being forced to find other options.

I'd be curious to hear thoughts from others on how a smaller agency can successfully approach pitches against the big boys.