4A’s Guidance: 4A’s Relationship Management Best Practices Guidance

Considering the time, energy and expense marketers spend conducting reviews—and that agencies spend on developing new business—it’s critical for both partners to ensure a long and fruitful relationship.

Having a powerful relationship-management program can help you get your relationship off to a good start and stay on track.

Relationship management is how you keep winning after you’ve won. 4A’s Relationship Management Best Practices Guidance is your new playbook.

Relationship management is a platform for discussing and building the value your agency brings to the client’s business at every step.

It’s a process that helps you and your client identify and review all key aspects of your relationship openly and regularly, so you can define success, clarify expectations, reveal issues, and optimize your working relationship.

Relationship management is all about communication and understanding:

•     the client organization and individual clients’ goals and aspirations.
•     how to address issues with respect—and get results.
•     when and how various individuals prefer to communicate:
•         phone, email, text, video conference, or in-person.
•         during office hours or after hours.
•     what’s urgent and what isn’t—and the right response and timing for each.

Above all, a relationship management program helps build the essential trust at every step of the agency-client relationship, starting with the pitch and through the new client transitioning and onboarding, the 100-day check-in, and beyond.