Agency Rules

We thought we’d share some rules for hiring and working with agencies (us included) that we’ve developed over years from seeing some truly dysfunctional agency relationships.

1. Task few with thinking and many with doing.
2. Manage agencies directly, never letting an agency get between you and an agency.
3. Take the time to get clear; the clearer the input, the more efficient and effective the output.
4. Make measurable performance metrics and review those metrics regularly. (See rule 23)
5. If you are going to choose not to listen to them, then don’t bother hiring them.
6. When it no longer works, move on. Agencies are not marriage material.
7. Be of high value to the agency’s image or bottom line, or be fun and interesting to work with.
8. Make sure you are getting the nerds, geeks and weirdos; the “cool kids” are just for show.
9. Don’t pay double or triple or quadruple for entry-level talent, hire your own 23-year-old and have the agency tell them what to do.
10. Get your own references, not the ones they send you.
11. A worthy agency will push you to the edge of your comfort zone and show you the results of their recommendations, the good, bad and ugly.
12. If they treat their team like commodity labor, you will not get great work. You will get done work.
13. If it’s a lifestyle agency, designed for employment while playing in the mountains or ocean, you will never be their priority.
14. Provide them with challenges they need to solve, not solutions to execute.
15. Ask lots of questions in order to learn to fish, if not tactically then strategically.
16. They need to understand your business model (how you make and spend money) and how you operate.
17. You need to understand their business model (how they make and spend money) and how they operate.
18. The bigger, nicer and more prestigious their office, the less work you receive for every dollar you spend.
19. Don’t hire an agency when a good freelancer can do the work just as good, cheaper, and with better customer service (because you mean more to their reputation and bottom line).
20. Communicate as needed, not just weekly and at a set time.
21. Play devil’s advocate, -red team blue team- to understand solutions from all sides.
22. If they are doing work you and your team don’t understand, you need to get educated or get a second opinion to gain that understanding.
23. Good work is not just pretty work; it’s effective work. (see rule 4, but be careful what you measure)

Also published on Medium.