Speaking the right language
Sadly, after a month in France, my grasp of the French language is still limited.
My ability roughly covers everyday pleasantries, ordering food and asking for directions. Occasionally, I can stretch myself by talking about what I got up to on the weekend, but even then I’m pretty restricted to a handful of activities like shopping, swimming or fencing (for some strange reason, these have stuck in my head since Year 7 French classes).
Despite the number of awkward situations I’ve encountered as a result of this failing, I’ve discovered that when it comes to business, we do actually speak the same language as the French; it’s all about SIZE.
When trying to describe our position to clients and the rest of the market, we tend to measure ourselves in terms of mass — whether we are a big or small agency. And with this categorisation comes certain associations. Being a small agency is often linked to being agile and highly specialised; being big means that you have great buying power and long-standing relationships with key media owners. Sometimes we even try to straddle both sides to give the impression that we can satisfy all client needs, but are we doing ourselves a disservice by trying to occupy the middle ground? Can we really be all things to all men?
There is also confusion when it comes to our clients’ interpretation of an agency’s size. For example, many French clients tend to favour smaller agencies for performance marketing as they believe they are more specialised. However, in the UK, we tend to get intimidated by bigger agencies, especially when it comes to new business pitches. There is no one perception about what it means to be a big or small business.
During my time in Paris, I have met with some wonderfully talented people that work in a number of different subsidiaries and partners that all sit under the one Havas roof. Describing them in terms of size is almost redundant; in the majority of cases, they all have completely different specialisms and personalities, so the number of people that work in each area is almost irrelevant. What they consist of is talent, experience and skill. Should this not be the language we communicate in?
After all, what do clients really want from their agencies? The simplest answer: to hit their business objectives. And they want to employ people with the best skills to help them get there in the most efficient and effective way possible. So let’s start selling ourselves accordingly. The next time that Mr. Prospective Client asks us why we’re the agency for them, let’s speak about our experience and our talent.
The size of a company shouldn’t matter — it’s the people inside that count!
