Well, talk about a productive first day on the job! If President Barack Obama was working in a PR agency, he’d have a banner first day of great billable hours. No long lunches for this guy on his first day in the White House. He put pen to paper from the get go.
And speaking of productivity, agencies talk a lot about billable hours, simply because staff are the primary revenue streams for the agency. At my agency, I review billable hours and capacity levels weekly against client budgets. Not my favourite part of the biz but if there is a part of the engine not functioning properly, we flag it early. As a general rule, most agencies don’t carry around extra baggage in the staff department.
But what happens in an economic climate like a recession when clients start to cut back budgets or worse, halt work altogether and it starts to cut into your personal billability levels?
If you’re worried about your billability, don’t be too worried sick over it. There are other ways to recession proof your job at your agency.
Here are five things your boss is looking at besides your billability level:
5. Special skill set. Ok, this one is key if you have a special skill you bring to the agency that is needed time again. Perhaps it’s a strong second language skill, or you’re the best editor in the place or better yet, you’re the social media guru. Your boss may find it hard to replace these special skills and keep you on staff.
4. Your a new biz “whiz kid.” If your hours are lower than normal but you’re a cracker jack at developing presentations, RFPs, research etc. Stay calm, your boss will recognize that new business development is expertise that is much needed in a recession. You’ll be safe for now.
3. Volunteer for special projects: Don’t be out of sight in tough times, don’t close the door to your office too much. Be visible. Be heard. Volunteer for internal events, develop new content for the web site, write new cases studies, work on pro bono clients etc. Show a meaningful contribution to the agency in other ways.
2. Seniority and track record: This one is a no-brainer. If you have more than five years in the agency (some consider that a “lifer’) and your track record has been impeccable for most of it, I can safely say your job is not in peril. You’re a seasoned practitioner to the agency and once things pick up, you’ll be the first to be billing up a storm and contributing to the bottom-line once again.
1. The boss likes you! Now some of you might be rolling your eyes at this one, but if you and the boss have a unique or special relationship – you both love to sail, have a lot in common, kids have play dates together .... it will be tougher for your manager to axe you because your billables are a little lower. But don’t suck up to your boss at this time either, he’ll see through that little game. Just stay in his face and keep it business as usual and don’t show any fear.
Hopefully some of you will sleep better tonight.
If anyone has other points, please share them, I know this is an important discussion for some of you out there.
Showing posts with label Budgets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budgets. Show all posts
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Friday, February 23, 2007
Let’s talk money ... upfront, please!
I don’t get it. Why do prospective clients go to great lengths not to offer up their potential PR agencies any indication of their PR budget?
You all know the drill. You meet the prospect, do your creds, give them insight into your company and how you can turn them into a household name. They love what they hear and say, "Sure, sounds great. Go off and prepare a presentation for the rest of our executives." "Oh, and make sure you tell us how much this is all going to cost." So off you go, spending hours drumming up a fabulous strategic plan against some hypothetical business case they will likely never execute anyway. You love it and, thankfully, they love it too – except for your pricetag.
Ah, but there’s the catch. At that very first meeting, the prospect didn’t give you any indication of budget. Why? Well, I think that for some crazy reason clients want to see if you will give them the sun, moon and stars for half the price they had in mind.
Okay, here’s the real truth: most prospects do have a budget in mind. They all do. But some prospects like the sport of "You go high and I’ll go low." We PR agency types, though, get really frustrated by this game of Deal or No Deal. C’,mon, we’re professionals. We pitch new business regularly. So if we come in too high on a budget or it’s totally off the Richter scale, it’s probably cuz we weren’t briefed properly. Period. The last thing an agency wants to do is price themselves out of the running (unless they really don’t want the business in the first place). Agencies want to work within client budgets and give the best strategic counsel and execution ideas based on a realistic budget framework.
The best client assignments are the ones that fully disclose budget parameters, and so I applaud those prospects who are honest and upfront from the get-go. As agencies, we should demand budget boundaries at that very first meeting so we can avoid Houdini-like budget exercises that keep us up all night. The prospect should disclose fully the amount of PR dollars they want to spend. No one should be wasting any time on a fact-finding mission dubbed “How Much is This Client Willing to Spend?” Even a budget range would give us some wiggle room in preparing our submissions and creative presentations.
If budgets are disclosed to all agencies, the prospect can really compare their potential agencies’ value, ideas and execution costs. While cost is certainly not the deciding factor in any agency decision, upfront disclosure evens out the playing field so potential agencies can be benchmarked against each other using the same yardstick.
So next time you’ve got a prospect sitting across the table from you, put it to them this way: You open up the kimono, and we promise not to laugh. With some creative tailoring, we’ll help you look your finest in no time and of course … on budget.
You all know the drill. You meet the prospect, do your creds, give them insight into your company and how you can turn them into a household name. They love what they hear and say, "Sure, sounds great. Go off and prepare a presentation for the rest of our executives." "Oh, and make sure you tell us how much this is all going to cost." So off you go, spending hours drumming up a fabulous strategic plan against some hypothetical business case they will likely never execute anyway. You love it and, thankfully, they love it too – except for your pricetag.
Ah, but there’s the catch. At that very first meeting, the prospect didn’t give you any indication of budget. Why? Well, I think that for some crazy reason clients want to see if you will give them the sun, moon and stars for half the price they had in mind.
Okay, here’s the real truth: most prospects do have a budget in mind. They all do. But some prospects like the sport of "You go high and I’ll go low." We PR agency types, though, get really frustrated by this game of Deal or No Deal. C’,mon, we’re professionals. We pitch new business regularly. So if we come in too high on a budget or it’s totally off the Richter scale, it’s probably cuz we weren’t briefed properly. Period. The last thing an agency wants to do is price themselves out of the running (unless they really don’t want the business in the first place). Agencies want to work within client budgets and give the best strategic counsel and execution ideas based on a realistic budget framework.
The best client assignments are the ones that fully disclose budget parameters, and so I applaud those prospects who are honest and upfront from the get-go. As agencies, we should demand budget boundaries at that very first meeting so we can avoid Houdini-like budget exercises that keep us up all night. The prospect should disclose fully the amount of PR dollars they want to spend. No one should be wasting any time on a fact-finding mission dubbed “How Much is This Client Willing to Spend?” Even a budget range would give us some wiggle room in preparing our submissions and creative presentations.
If budgets are disclosed to all agencies, the prospect can really compare their potential agencies’ value, ideas and execution costs. While cost is certainly not the deciding factor in any agency decision, upfront disclosure evens out the playing field so potential agencies can be benchmarked against each other using the same yardstick.
So next time you’ve got a prospect sitting across the table from you, put it to them this way: You open up the kimono, and we promise not to laugh. With some creative tailoring, we’ll help you look your finest in no time and of course … on budget.
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