The business of design and marketing: Valuable advice from 5 agency owners at AIGA Raleigh

• Beverly Murray from R+M Agency (@BeverlyMurray)
• Deborah Loercher from Anoroc Agency (@AnorocAgency)
• Dylan Bost from Ulanguzi Creative Strategies (@DylanBost)
• Ed Collevecchio from Creative Associates
• Woody Holliman from Flywheel Design (@Flywheel_Design)

Here are 11 key business ideas for people at marketing agencies to consider:

1. Sales pitch: Ulanguzi tells prospective clients, “We don’t advertise. We spend those dollars on our clients.” (Dylan from Ulanguzi)
2. Hiring people who match the team: Find people who are “one of us.” Rather than finding cookie-cutter people, this can simultaneously mean a designer with gauges in his ears or an account manager wearing a suit. It’s about finding people who are right for your culture. (Ed from Creative Associates)
3. Finding the company that’s right for you: Find people who are passionate about working for your particular agency. If you want to work for his company, you should write Flywheel a “love letter.” (Woody from Flywheel)
4. RFPs and business development: Avoid RFPs, especially when they’re sending it to 16 agencies. Don’t respond if you don’t know the person on the other side of the RFP. (Beverly from R+M)
5. Key contract clause: In the past, some projects have died when a behind-the-curtain decisionmaker torpedoed everything at the last minute. Flywheel now includes a new clause in every contract — the agency must have direct access to anyone who can veto the project. (Woody from Flywheel)
6. Client red flags: Avoid prospects who say, “I would do what you do, if I had the time.” They don’t respect the art and science of design, and they won’t respect the business value of your work. (Deborah from Anoroc)
7. Adding value to your design presentations: You have to educate clients on the process that went into the design. Talk at length about the strengths and weaknesses to a particular design. Make it explicit to clients. Otherwise, they’ll think they can get the same result from a logo mill. (Woody from Flywheel)
8. Get the client contact to present the agency’s work: Coach your primary contact on presenting the project to their boss and other stakeholders. The higher-ups probably don’t trust the agency like your day-to-day contact does. Ultimately, if the client contact doesn’t “own” it (and can sell it to their managers), we lose our investment in the engagement. (Deborah from Anoroc and Beverly from R+M)
9. Not taking shady clients who offer big bucks: “Every bad client relationship is unprofitable in every way.” The big check doesn’t compensate for negative staff morale, endless revisions, and more. (Woody from Flywheel)
10. Breaking up with clients: Ideally, just say “we’re not a good fit,” and help them find a new agency. This is the right thing to do. It also creates a referral. (Dylan from Ulanguzi)
11. Differentiating your agency: When Ed moved to the Triangle from Atlanta, he joked that he considered calling his new agency “Ed’s Design and Donuts” — where the free donuts with each design or printing order would give him that extra edge in the buying decision. (Ed from Creative Associates)