Darren Herman's Tips for Improving Agency Relationships with Vendors and Publishers

One of the less glamorous parts of my job is scheduling meetings with vendors and publishers. Some of the meetings are really interesting, while others I regret. And meanwhile there’s the frequent rescheduling – usually my fault, when I have to make time for a client demand that sprung up five minutes ago and must be done today. Yes, vendors, you come second.
Darren Herman, a fellow agency guy who I’ve had the pleasure on sitting on panels with at some events, has a great post today on how vendors can do a better job at landing agency meetings and making them productive. He starts from the vantage point of others accusing agencies of ‘not getting it’ (okay, it’s true, some of my peers don’t get it, no matter how you define ‘it’).
He has some great pointers that everyone pitching agencies must read. Really, please. Especially if you’re reading this blog just to make nice to me before you go and pitch me something – then you REALLY need to read his post.
Some are issues I’ve talked about at events. For instance, during the final round of questions at the Social Ad Summit in September, I summed up the one thing vendors can do to help agencies in three words: “Send case studies.” That’s number eight on Darren’s list. His focus on education and persistent but gentle follow-ups is also on the money.