Why our strategy team took a stroll in the shoes of our account team

As strategists, we are stewards of our audience. Our job is to conduct research to understand other people’s points of view. We put ourselves in the audience’s shoes to explore their wants, needs, and motivations and make our creative work align with those. While most of the target audience research we do is for our clients, recently, our strategy team decided to take a stroll in the shoes of our account partners by reading The Art of Client Service by Robert Solomon. 

We know what you might be thinking: Why would Mythic’s strategy team read a book that focuses on many of the basic principles of account service? Well, rest assured, it’s not because we napped through that class in college. At Mythic, we believe in moving as one, meaning it’s essential that account, strategy, and creative understand each other’s roles and responsibilities. This is not to say that our strategy team didn’t have a clue what our account partners do to build strong, enduring relationships with Mythic’s clients before reading this book. We work hand-in-hand with our account teams every day, and because of that, we felt there was an opportunity to take a closer look at the reality of their roles so we can be better partners and, therefore, better stewards of the work our agency produces. 

Within agencies, a common misperception is that because the account team is most often the voice of the client, and strategists channel the audience, there’s a constant tension between the two. However, despite our seemingly differing priorities, we are all on one team, and ultimately, it's the merger of these two viewpoints that helps us deliver the best possible work and results for our clients.

In the book, Solomon quotes author Simon Sinek saying, “Business is human,” underscoring the importance of building relationships, both internally and externally. As with any good relationship, the partnership between account and strategy should be built from a foundation of trust and mutual understanding. While some, if not most, of this book, is more of an account service 101, for our strategy team, it was valuable to revisit those core foundational elements that aren’t as present in a planner’s day-to-day. It was a reminder that some of the responsibilities we may see as falling under the account team’s umbrella, we can also contribute to in a way that strengthens the agency's relationship with our clients. 

A few of these responsibilities included: 

• Client relationship building and establishing trust: Solomon explains that when he refers to client relationship building, he’s talking about more than just “doing lunch.” Rather, he explains that relationship building begins with establishing trust by “Listening. Asking the right questions. Anticipating and solving problems. Meeting commitments. Managing expectations. Eliminating unexpected surprises. Taking ownership. Acting with integrity.” As planners, we do a deep dive into the client’s business through our discovery process — looking at the brand, target audience, category and competitors. While the account team knows the client’s business inside and out, we know the target audience just as intimately and can play a significant role by asking the right questions and anticipating and solving problems based on that knowledge. 

• Living the client’s brand: This, according to Solomon, can be a key differentiator among agencies, and at Mythic, living the client’s brand is something we pride ourselves on doing well. Solomon describes a scenario where the agency he was working for at the time was one of three agencies sharing a significant financial services account. His agency wasn’t the flashiest and didn’t have the most street cred, but they “… dug deeply into issues and worked relentlessly to uncover insights that would help the client grow its business.” By taking the time to truly school themselves in the client’s business, when it came time to consolidate the work and hand it over to one agency instead of three, the client chose Solomon’s agency. Taking a page from Solomon’s book, quite literally, we can all live the client’s brand by keeping our finger on the pulse of what’s happening in their world. As planners, we can serve our clients better by being their eyes and ears — knowing everything from market trends to what competitors are doing. 

• Building bridges, not barriers: As with every agency-client relationship, difficult conversations and expectation management are a part of doing business. In the book, Solomon provides a snapshot of a difficult situation he faced as a young account executive. His client was pushing for a two-day creative turn around, one Solomon knew the agency couldn’t deliver on. Rather than saying “yes” immediately, he talked to his team and came back to the client with a four-day timeline. While the client wasn’t thrilled, and neither was the agency team, Solomon brokered a feasible solution and walked away with an important lesson: “make no commitment without consultation.” To his point, this rule of thumb applies to everyone within the agency, because it demonstrates a mutual respect for the client, the creative process and your colleagues. We can all build bridges by collaborating to find solutions that meet the needs of everyone involved. 

Ultimately, for our strategy team, The Art of Client Service was a great reminder that we’re all on team Mythic, and the more we can support one another internally, the better the work we can produce for our clients. Even more importantly, it served as a conversation starter and gave our team a chance to discuss the best practices we have in place with different account teams. We believe internal relationship building is an ongoing process, and one that helps us all be more.