Why do one trick ponies get shot?

How agencies and other B2B service businesses can avoid a fatal trap

I've been following Ian Lurie of digital agency Portent, Inc for a few years now, enjoying learning from the type of actionable insights around content marketing, SEO and broader Digital Marketing Strategy that I aspire to. So, I was intrigued to see what One Trick Ponies Get Shot was about - particularly since his new book offers the type of contrarian thinking that is all too rare in our Internet marketing echo-chamber. Certainly packed full of original thinking and advice which can change your approach as this interview shows.

Our interview is directly relevant to agencies owners and new biz dev folk, but his analysis will resonate with many and is also relevant for other types of professional B2B service businesses. Thanks for the interview Ian - I like your style!

Q1. Who are the 'One-trick Ponies' in the title of your book Ian? What types of business is the book relevant for?

I'm the original one-trick pony. In the first 5 years of my career, I'd walk into clients' offices and offer very tactical advice. My average relationship with a client lasted about a year. Then I clued in and got better at testing and basing tactical decisions on strategic goals and the numbers associated with those goals. Now, our average client relationship is closer to 3 years.

The book is relevant for any B2B organization selling a service. If you're frustrated about losing clients after doing a good job, the book talks about one possible solution.

Q2. What inspired you to write the book?

Double frustration.

In our business client-agency relationships average 1-2 years. They often end something like this:

• Your stakeholder contact changes jobs, or something goes wrong.
• They ask you to show them the work you've been doing and justify that work hour-by-hour, dollar-by-dollar.
• You're fired.

It's exhausting. Given how often it happens, I know it's not the clients. It's us. My team has some of the best experts in our industry - yes, I tend to brag about them - but we still see the same cycle play itself out.

We've been able to adjust our approach and reduce the number of times relationships follow that same downward spiral or at least extend positive client relationships.

What finally solidified the idea for me, though, was Portent's own experience with the companies that serve us. I've gotten frustrated with some of the services companies we hire: Accounting, IT, law, etc. all provide a service. So, I looked as those relationships: After a while, our providers go through the same kind of decline. They just go through the motions. I'll sometimes go to them and point out a new solution/idea. They'll say 'Oh, yeah, we should do that.' I walk away thinking 'I just had to point out a new solution to my vendor. What do I pay them for?'

I started writing down why I let our service providers go and realized we were all battling the same problem.

I first presented the idea in an article that did really well - www.portent.com/onetrick - and decided to write the book after that.

Q3. Which lessons are most relevant for delivery of digital marketing services by agencies?

Connect strategy to tactics to real dollars. If you don't do that, you become a kind of tactical vending machine: You provide design, SEO, PPC, etc. As long as the client likes how you do the day-to-day work, you'll stick around. You're a good vending machine.

But no one remembers the kind of vending machine they used. Think about it - last time you bought a can of pop, what brand of vending machine did you use? What did it even look like? 99% of the time you won't remember.

So, when the client decides they don't like your tactical work often because of factors far beyond your control, or goes looking for a lower price, they move on to the next vending machine. Even if they hate the next vendor, they won't remember you. They'll just keep moving down the line.

Connect strategy to tactics to real dollars, then use that connection to broaden recommendations to related but different tactics. For example, if a client hires you to do SEO and you know their broader business goal, you might suggest a new PPC campaign. Explain to the client how it will help them achieve that goal. Even if they hand that to a different provider, you just demonstrated real value.

But, don't think this means you have to present a spreadsheet. Show how the idea will help move the client towards their goal in a meaningful way supported by numbers. You don't have to provide dollars-and-cents guarantees - just 'If this works even a little, we'll add $X to our bottom line, so we should do it.'

Q4. How do you prioritise the ideas to avoid being a 'one trick'?

There's one idea: Be a real strategic partner. Know your client's business and present tactics that connect to strategy and dollars. Even if the client executes on the idea themselves, or doesn't execute at all, it's good for your work together. If they don't remember, no harm done. If they do remember, you've just cemented the relationship - they're more likely to come to you for help and recognize your real value..

Q5. You suggest service businesses need to add value to their clients by strategic recommendations. Could you give some examples from Portent where your recommendations go beyond the tactics of running digital marketing activities?

It's not that our recommendations go beyond tactics. This approach broadens tactical recommendations beyond your own 'silo.' For example: We work with one client on 'content strategy.' We noticed some technical SEO issues and presented those. We got hired to do SEO and, more important, are still working with that client years later.

A client hired us for an analytics audit. During the audit, we found big problems with their PPC and SEO campaigns: The client's business goals focused on ROI, but their PPC campaigns barely broke even, and major technical issues killed their SEO opportunities. We recommended tactics to them without a sales pitch. We helped with an SEO replatforming and five years later, we still handle their PPC.