Your relationship with an external vendor is not particularly different from a relationship with your employee. You expect high-quality work, respect, and honesty from both parties. But when it comes to client-agency relationships, the lack of communication is the biggest deal breaker.
In this episode of the You Should Talk To podcast, our host Daniel Weiner welcomes Natalie Cunningham, the CMO of Terminus. They talk about why having agency experience is a plus for employees, why it's important to always read the person you're working with, and the top things to look for in an external partner.
Guest-at-a-Glance
💡 Name: Natalie Cunningham, CMO of Terminus
💡 Noteworthy: Natalie is a versatile SaaS marketing executive with deep experience aligning go-to-market teams to achieve sustainable revenue growth. Before joining Terminus, she cut her chops in B2B marketing agencies and consulted with global Fortune 500 brands on ABM, demand generation, brand, PR, and digital.Â
💡 Where to find Natalie: LinkedIn
Key Insights :
âš¡Always read the person you're working with. Knowing how to read the person you're working with gives you an edge. That's why this skill is so valuable for client-agency relationships. Natalie explains, "Just remembering in agencies, in the sales process, and certainly in the account management process that you're working with different personas, you are working with people who have different levels of experience and want different things from you. And if you waste an executive's time trying to teach them something that they already know, you've lost my trust."
⚡Honesty comes first. Honesty is truly the best policy when it comes to client-agency relationships. Natalie says, "Let's assume it's a strategic agency partnership. I need you to be honest with me about what you're good at and what you're not. I know that you are not good at everything on your list of services. Just go into it knowing that I know that. Tell me what you're great at. Tell me why you're great at it, and give me some examples — like what makes you great, not just because you think you're great."
âš¡Poor communication is a deal breaker. It's a tale as old as time; if you want to build a successful partnership with someone, you need to put communication first. Natalie says, "I think the biggest thing across the board is communication. If you want to hit a pet peeve with me quickly, don't tell me that you are not going to hit a deadline. Just miss it entirely without communicating anything, and then show up for the next meeting and tell me you're still working on it. I will lose my ever-loving mind."
