CHAPTER 1 |HOW DO I GET WHAT I WANT WHEN I DON’T KNOW WHAT I NEED?

From a human or marketing strategy perspective, it’s a conundrum, isn't it?

Let’s talk about marketing strategy for now. Human strategy… Well, happy to video chat over a coffee or cocktail.

First, GRACE.

As a CEO, a CMO, marketing director, or a founder, it’s not necessarily your job to always know what you need.

Nine out of ten times the first answer in your head is “more clients/sales/leads.”

OK, but honestly, that is usually a quick drink of water as you walk the desert in circles, hallucinating about the future.

Someone has to have the grit to challenge you, but not in tired, old-fashioned ways.

That’s why agency partners exist. If they’re not doing that – challenging you, making things overall better, faster, stronger – they’re not doing their jobs.

So you think about an agency review.

Over the decades, here are some gambits that agencies have used to begin their pitches to prospective clients:

“What’s your WHY?”

“What’s your brand story?”

“What keeps you up at night?”

“Who is your biggest competitor?”

“What is your ‘est’ (best, biggest, etc)?

“What problem haven’t you solved yet?

“What has been your greatest challenge?”

“What’s your mission? What’s your vision?”

Oh, goodness, secrets, like how the rabbit jumps out of the hat. The questions are designed to feed the content back to you so you think the agency is really smart. Sorry agency friends, but it's true.

Brand folk, what prevents you from asking yourselves these questions, if what agencies do is so formulaic?

Experience with 100s and 100s of clients, reading 100s of case studies, and spending 100 percent of your time working on the craft of futurism+marketing.

That’s what’s different about agencies.

Agencies know things that are not your job to know.