I was thinking about entitling this post, “Is DirectiveGroup Your Perfect Digital Agency” when I realized this is more focused on thinking about who you are and what you need in your digital agency relationship… including things that folks don’t normally think about when making a buying decision. So I thought I’d stand with you in your shoes and look out from your eyes to try to think about some of the factors you might think important if you end up choosing an agency like DirectiveGroup.
It all started for us last year when the team here at DirectiveGroup was inspired to create our ‘Why’ statement after watching Simon Sinek’s great TEDx talk. It was actually a much more profound experience than I’d thought it might be, and I’ve since encouraged our clients to watch it and think about their own company’s reason for existence. More about this topic in another blog.
Nonetheless, that experience caused us to dig deeply into our (nearly) 10-year history, look at our work, look at our best … and worst … client experiences, and after some soul searching, we came back with a few critical factors that define the clients who most love working with us, and who we serve best. Some tangible but many intangible.
Let’s take a look:
- Are you driven to be a real ‘stand out’ in your industry? In other words, do you run faster, climb higher, deliver more value, or in some way seek a blue ocean that separates you from the pack? Is that where you are heading, in your heart and in guidance of your every thought and action?
- Relatedly, and more in this moment, do you see what is happening in the digital realm – in many ways caused by Amazon or a vision where Amazon might go next – as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain position or value during the ensuing industry scramble… if you do it right?
- How important is strategy to you? Not the generally useless strategic plan sense of the idea in which a binder is created annually and then slowly pushed to the back of the bookshelf… instead, one where there is a living type of strategy that informs and prepares you for iterative action that moves you into an ever strengthened position in your industry environment?
- Are you looking for an agency to take your vision and run, with full-bore enthusiasm bound only by the sharp precision of skillfulness that lies in the masters’ realm … or … do you just want someone to execute your fully developed ideas? Not quite a ‘Yes Man’ but not too far away from that either.
- Are you passionate about your vision… and do you dig other passionate folks who roll up their sleeves and just get it done? How happy would you be if someone pushed back – with a lot of passion – on your best ideas that you thought were just this side of pure genius and who asked you to zestfully do the same? Could you feel comfortable playing in the ring where the best of the best is really honed?
- How willing are you to trust – not blind, but reasonable and earned? Is this difficult for you to muster, especially in this day and age, when there is a whole lot of distrust in the general atmosphere? Can you create the space for a sincerely symbiotically trusting relationship to exist with those you pay to deliver on your marketing needs?
- Do ethics matter in who you are, and by extension, who you choose to work with? Not in the sense of answering, “well, of course” if brought up, but in the sense that it is actually a guiding principle for you and for your company? Is the culture that delivers consistent integrity and commitment to integrous business dealings something that you’ve put a stake in the ground around, and is a factor in who you choose to do business with?
- Are you zeroed on performance goals and do you let data speak the greatest truth? Are you curious and are you a learner who jumps headlong into getting smarter, as fast as you can? Or do you always ‘know the best way’ and facts be damned? Are you humble enough to fight for your best ideas and intuitions, and then look at whether your target market agrees? And are you looking for partners that balance that tension of humility and confidence?
If these ideas resonate with you, and define some of the intangibles that would make it fun and exciting to partner with such an agency, give us a call. I think you’d be pleasantly surprised about the character of an agency that thinks both great work and great values matter to their clients. You’d be in good company.
