Engaging Procurement and Revamping the Agency-Client Compensation Dialogue

The significant involvement of the procurement function in shaping the business relationship between clients and their marketing service providers is a relatively recent phenomenon, emerging as a common factor in marketing service negotiations in just the last twenty years.

Today’s agencies typically face imposing challenges and questions in understanding the role of procurement in the agency-client relationship:  

• What is the relationship between procurement and marketing in the client organization?  
• Who’s the face of procurement and what’s their level of experience with marketing services?  
• Who ultimately makes the decisions regarding what services are to be provided at what price?

  All of the questions above impact the agency’s approach in the negotiation of its responsibilities and compensation.

Successful engagement with procurement requires a well thought out approach that includes careful consideration of who is on the other side of the table, the ability to define your own value and what you’re selling, and a creative professional pricing strategy.   

Join Steve Koskela as he provides a current overview of the role of procurement in the client-agency relationship and steps that agencies can take to improve their approach to pricing negotiations and the compensation dialogue. 

Key takeaways:

•  Procurement Defined – Its Many Shapes and Forms
• A Few Fundamental Dos and Don’ts   
• Having the Right Conversation:  Value vs. Costs
• Using Creative Pricing as a Winning Tool
• The Power of ‘No.’

 Who should attend:  

Agency CEOs, COOs, financial leaders, brand/account managers, and others involved in navigating the agency-client financial rules of engagement, determining the pricing of services, and representing the agency’s financial interest in its business relationship with client procurement and/or marketing personnel.

About Steve Koskela:

Steve Koskela has more than 30 years of executive level financial management experience in the marketing communications industry with both independent and global scale publicly held agency organizations.  A CPA with a Big Four background, Steve has held executive positions with prestigious advertising agencies and marketing service firms.  

In 1996, he founded sjk advisory group, a specialized financial consulting boutique that serves as an independent consultant to advertising and marketing firms across North America.  Steve is a leading advocate for the adoption of alternative pricing and intellectual property ownership practices for the advertising industry.