UnicornyHow to create valueThese episodes are honest about why agency-client relationships fail - misaligned incentives, departmental myopia, the pressure to look efficient rather than be effective - and specific about what changes when they don't. Moving from output-based briefs to outcome-based partnerships. Managing the internal trade-offs that push agencies toward caution when boldness is what the client actually needs. If you're a CMO managing an agency roster, or an agency leader trying to build relationships that last, these are the conversations worth having.
In this second part of our discussion with Blair Enns, we explore the internal dynamics that influence agency-client relationships. Host Dom Hawes and Blair continue to discuss balancing efficiency and innovation, focusing on how departmental goals can…
Today's episode of Unicorny tackles the complex dynamics between brand marketers and creative agencies, focusing on the dysfunctional commercial relationships that have emerged over recent years. Host Dom Hawes is joined by Blair Enns, founder of “Win Without…
Blair Enns suggests agencies make routine, high-volume tactical work as cheap as possible, through offshoring, automation, AI or freelancers, and work with procurement to cut its cost. In return, clients should pay properly for strategic and creative thinking and allow time to experiment. Today's blended rates overcharge for low-value tactical work and undercharge for the thinking that creates value, and timesheets encourage selling thinking by the hour. Hear the full discussion in episode 73
Blair Enns says the main mistake is thinking there is one right way to price; agencies need more creative commercial models that work for both sides. Agencies and clients are stuck selling and buying inputs like time and materials rather than value created, and AI makes this worse because clients expect faster output to mean lower prices. Procurement, rewarded for cutting costs, often buys something different from what the marketer wanted, as in one contract that took 14 months to agree. Hear the full discussion in episode 72
Blair's inofficiency principle states that innovation and efficiency sit at opposite ends of one spectrum: you cannot increase one without reducing the other, because innovation needs slack in time, money and freedom to fail. The problem is not knowing this and expecting both. As organisations grow, efficiency-minded 'optimisers' outnumber 'innovators', pushing creative people out, so a CEO who demands innovation while procurement drives out cost gets neither. Hear the full discussion in episode 72
His model breaks a sale into the probative conversation, the qualifying conversation, the value conversation and the closing conversation, each with its own objective and framework. There is no pitch conversation; the frameworks focus on the questions to ask. In qualifying, both sides vet each other against clear criteria, unlike agencies that present long credentials decks without asking about the client's business. Hear the full discussion in episode 73
Blair says 'bounded rationality' means individuals in large organisations cannot see the whole business, so they optimise for their department's goals; only the CEO is truly optimised for the organisation. Marketing sits nearer the innovation end and procurement near the efficiency end, so they pull in opposite directions. He believes the fix must come from CEOs who understand the trade-off, and Dom notes siloed departments confuse customers. Hear the full discussion in episode 72
Blair says the sale is a sample of the engagement: if an agency behaves as a compliant rule-follower waiting for briefs and RFPs, the client will expect that in the work too, which limits its ability to push for what good work needs. As he puts it, the prospect's mind is malleable but the client's mind is fixed. Agencies that give away power during the sale cannot easily win it back from procurement years later. Hear the full discussion in episode 73