CEO of Next PR, an award-winning, full-service public relations firm with offices across the U.S.
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In a world that prioritizes keeping up with trends, it can be easy to forget that there can be significant value and growth potential in sticking with what—or who—you know.
When it comes to agency-client partnerships, I’ve experienced this firsthand. I’ve been at Next PR since the late ’90s and have built client relationships lasting over 20 years. In fact, more than 10% of our current clients have been with us for over a decade. A key lesson I’ve learned from this: Clients who maintain long-term agency partnerships can lean back on a foundation of trust, feel empowered to try new strategies and consistently achieve their desired results.
After two decades in the industry, I’ve identified four practices to foster these enduring, more effective agency-client relationships.
Build A Personal Rapport
Your clients are human beings. They have kids to pick up from school, groceries to buy and doctor’s appointments to attend. Understanding and acknowledging this and being intentional in building human connections are key to successful long-term partnerships.
At the start of client meetings, take time to establish a personal rapport rather than jumping into business. Asking simple questions like, “How did your daughter’s recital go?” or “Doing anything fun this weekend?” can go a long way in showing that you care and are an invested partner.
Beyond a client’s personal life, show empathy for the stress of their work life. If they ignore a commentary request you shared, it’s easy to assume they don’t want to cooperate or partake. In reality, your request is just one of 17 things on their plate. Instead of sending more unanswered follow-ups, consider whether you can start drafting the commentary yourself, or offer to jump on a quick call to flesh out ideas together.
By working together and being empathetic toward their needs, you can preempt potential issues and show your value as a true partner.
Emphasize Transparency
The key to any healthy partnership, whether romantic, platonic or professional, is open communication. Once you’ve built that personal rapport, communication comes naturally.
It’s important to be transparent from the start. We always consider a prospective client’s alignment with our mission, values and culture. If we foresee conflict, we’ll make the hard decision and say no to the prospect so we can spend our resources prioritizing compatible current and prospective clients.
Clients with missions and values that align with your agency’s are more likely to be receptive to transparent conversations regarding what it takes for success, another key to fostering long-term relationships. Our team doesn’t promise things we know we can’t deliver, which helps us set reasonable expectations and achievable results. What’s the commitment from the client’s side? What do you need from them to help achieve their goals? By prioritizing these conversations, your team will develop stronger partnerships.
Be Intentional About Change
I’m a big proponent of change. Changes in account strategy or staffing can lead to fresh ideas and results. With any change, though, it’s important to have an open dialogue about the “why.”
As your relationship with a client evolves, check in and make sure you’re still speaking their language. It might be time to revisit your overall goals or how you communicate with their team. You may find that because you’ve established a personal rapport, they’re more comfortable sharing things like, “We’re feeling pressure from our CMO to explore other agencies’ offerings,” or “Some members of our leadership team aren’t happy with current results.”
Even if the client doesn’t bring up a change in strategy or team, you still need to regularly evaluate what’s working and what’s not. If you’re trying to boost brand awareness and your client’s CEO only cares about the sales funnel, you’re not going to look successful because the metrics for these goals are different. What can you do to pivot? Have a collaborative conversation about their goals, then adjust, iterate and improve.
When you handle change effectively, clients will notice. In the short term, it helps you retain the business by better meeting their needs. In the long term, it will prevent the partnership from growing stale and encourage a continued relationship.
Uplift Your Team
Having tenured staff on your team also yields long-term client success. They’re the ones who build connections and trust with client contacts.
Many of our team members have worked with us for over a decade, which is rare in the agency world. I see each team member as a unique individual who needs continued support to succeed. Work is where we spend the bulk of our time, so look for outlets—like one-on-one meetings or anonymized feedback forms—that allow team members to share feedback and help them feel supported.
It’s important to ensure that your clients see the full breadth of their account team, from the junior intern to the senior executive. Avoid having only one team member communicate with the client while everyone else sits quietly in the background. If you trust a team member to do the work, then trust them to communicate it to the client.
Due in large part to these established relationships, client contacts often come back after they move on to a new company—one of our current client contacts has been with us through three job changes. Each time she joins a new company, she recommends us as the PR agency of choice. Once someone views you as a trusted resource and knows the hard work and value you bring, they’ll be more likely to call you first for their PR needs.
I always encourage taking a human approach when it comes to agency-client relationships. My team works hard to build long-term partnerships, and there’s a sense of pride that comes from fostering these meaningful connections. You put in the effort to establish a foundation of trust. Then you grow together. You take risks together. Most important of all, you yield meaningful results together.
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