What A Mess: The Changing Role of Agencies in B2B

What a mess we marketers have created for ourselves. After all, we are the ones advancing marketing technology. We are connecting our prospects to each other, automating the marketing process, and as such requiring ourselves to be more relevant, more 1-1, in our communications. Content is the new creative, and our brands are more defined by what ‘she’ has to say than what we do. We’ve moved sales to being a function at the end of the proverbial funnel, placing more responsibility on ourselves to be the ones to not only attract buyers but to keep them ‘engaged in the conversation’ until they are basically ready to buy.

It’s exhausting. Yet exhilarating. Depending on your perspective. And it has changed the role of the agency as we know it.

Yesterday: Your agency knows your brand inside and out. Follows your brand guide to a T. Understands how to impress your CMO, wants as much of your business as possible and will sell you more of what they do best, while guiding you away from opportunities that don’t suit them. You rely heavily on your agency to have your best interest at heart, to do what you want to be done. You rely on them for the big idea that is going to make your brand ‘stand out’ in the market. Then rely on them for the media plan to bring that idea to life.

Today: Your agency still knows your brand inside and out. Follows your brand guide to a T. But your agency focuses on what is going to impress your customers, your prospects. They create personas focused on your buyer’s thought process, his challenges and motivations. His reasons for choosing to be a leader in a time of chaotic change. And your agency quickly gets down to the conversations necessary to help your customer help his business. To make the decisions that enable his business to thrive. And your agency treats content as the new creative in order to get him there. They replace the big idea with a million little ones and have the strategic chops to integrate them all into a cohesive plan that is accountable, in real-time.

 It’s a mouthful. But this is the era of marketing we live in, and the pressure on CMOs to ‘perform’ is greater than ever. We don’t need to tell you that. But we, as an agency, do need to understand what that means and how to help. Our new role is to connect buyers to business, not the other way around.

Agencies today must be invigorated by our clients’ challenge of taking control of a complex B2B buying process — and thrive on finding solutions. We must partner with our clients, to help them make sense of the new role of agencies and in-house talent. To ensure they have an accurate picture of who they need to talk to and what they need to talk about. To sort through how to manage content when the B2B decision-making process has become so much more involved. Ultimately — to help them unravel this glorious mess we’ve made for ourselves.

Challenge your agency to do it differently....