Agency leader Jared Belsky is out with another book, this one titled "You Get The Agency You Deserve: 20 Practical And Emotional Lessons To Maximize Your Agency And Partner Relationship." The publisher is Ripples Media and it became available on Amazon earlier this month. 

The title is a mouthful, but the content is very readable with a lot of interesting takeaways, as you’d expect from a veteran agency founder and CEO. Belsky was with Dentsu agency 360i for 12 years, the last three as CEO before departing in 2021 to create a new marketing agency with co-founder Sean Belnick called Acadia. Earlier he worked at Coca-Cola and agency Avenue A.  

The first “practical lesson” Belski discusses is what he calls the “normal RFP process” and why brands should “dump” it in favor of alternatives.  

Most RFPs focus on skill sets, Belski reminds his readers. And that’s a problem because agency client relationships depend on many other factors that are usually under-scrutinized such as culture, process, “DNA”, transparency and the actual team the client will work with day-to-day. Also critical and often overlooked during a pitch are qualities like the ability to listen to feedback and take direction. 

“Understand what the leadership of the agency is about and stands for,” Belski stresses. Is it a cohesive team that’s been together a while or more like a revolving door, which probably says something about the rest of the agency as well.  

He also urges prospective clients to understand the core values of an agency and whether those values are embraced by the agency with gusto or whether those values are essentially lip service and not much more.  

In lieu of providing an agency a test case study to work on back at the office, Belsky urges brands to do a joint problem-solving session live, to get a better read on the agency team’s ability to solve problems, listen and ideate on the fly. “In all my years on the agency side, I have only seen this done expertly once,” Belsky writes. And it resulted in setting the tone for a “great and trusting relationship.” 

One of the “emotional lessons” Belsky discusses is the turf war often waged by roster agencies. More often than not, he argues, that’s due to poor management by the client, not the agencies.  

Overlapping remits, frequent “jump ball” project assignments and other “Shark Tank”-like dynamics set by the client often contribute to agencies not playing well together, Belsky opines.  

The best solution for fostering productive interagency collaboration, Belsky writes, is clear communication. He tips his hat to a former client, Steve Provost, who he says was “incredible at creating good-spirited cooperation via clarity...there was an expectation of data- and insight-sharing and there was genuine cooperation.” With Provost, he added, agencies knew that attempted land grabs “under cover of darkness” were not going to be rewarded. 

The book touches on many other topics like inspiring great work, avoiding a “divorce” when the relationship gets rocky, winning with kindness, providing effective feedback and more.  

"You Get The Agency You Deserve" is Belsky’s second book. The first, published in 2019 was "The Great Client Partner: How Soft Skills Are the True Currency in Client Relationships," also available on Amazon.