Agencies Will Work Like Hair Salons

Interesting article. Thank you for taking the time to write it.

Regards,

Zee Mathews
The Salon Mangers Academy

The lessons seem to apply to any professional service business where it is not uncommon to see specific individuals or the "A team" listed by name in the service agreement. An agency may become more like an airplane - a collection of 60,000 parts flying in close formation - than a rigid structure with a pre-defined model for producing work.

Great post, as always!

My thoughts are going to come from a different angle because my first job my four years of high school was as a receptionist at a hair salon...and I am actually addicted to getting my hair cut...haha

So...while there is the whole "do I go with someone I know has done a good job before or do I take the next available?" you have to remember that 9 times out of ten the first time you (or the person who suggested that preferred hair stylist to you) originally had that hair stylist you were waiting for the next available.

And I'll throw you a 3rd scenario...you're waiting to get your hair cut with the next available employee and you see a stylist doing a kick-ass job on someone else's hair and say "I want to wait on her" instead of taking the next available.

Sometimes seeing is believing.

That being said - you say "The best, hardest working employees, that have established a strong personal brand, will be the ones that receive the opportunities." but I say that sometimes it's the ones who are *given* the opportunities who will be able to establish the best personal brand.

does that makes sense?
@goktgo

It's the same in corporate. Like I always say, it's not about you, it's about the brand. In this field, you have to be willing to take the backseat, and accept the praise from your peers. You won't get the spotlight.

Personal brands, IMO, shouldn't have a big role in the corporate brand. Your personal brand should already reflect the corporate brand when you're working.

Having worked on both agency and corporate - When you're in the professional realm, the corporate brand defines your personal brand, not vice versa. In this case, agencies are the corporate brand. Your ideas are valued, but you can't let your personal brand rule the corporate side.

Interesting analogy, David.

Part of the value an agency brings to the table is the depth and breadth of experience. Instead of just getting one person, the client has access to a full team of people. The client typically has one central point of contact, but that's certainly not the only person working on the account. I've heard this strange analogy used when discussing "behind the scenes" of agency life -- clients don't want to know how sausage is made. Clients really are just concerned with the end product and the results generated. With that in mind, here are just a few questions to further the discussion:

Will clients pick their whole team, or just the primary person? (My thought: Clients don't normally know, or care, about the skill sets of the supporting cast at an agency. The agency management is best suited to make those staffing decisions, from a cost and talent perspective.)

What happens if that person doesn't have the capacity available to be the project lead, but could still support the effort?

What happens when that person bills out at an hourly rate that doesn't align with the client's budget needs? But, other people in the agency are just as well-equipped to get the job done, and within the budget requirements?

It's a very interesting concept. While the notion of personal branding is changing business development, we should remember that people have always had personal brands. These online tools simply allow those brands to have more reach. But, even in the olden days, clients often picked agencies because they had a relationship with someone there, or because they were referred by someone else who had a positive experience with that agency. While social media eliminates geographical constraints (a good thing), we should remember that clients have been choosing agencies based on reputation since the beginning.

Just my two cents. Sorry it got so long. Excellent topic!

Heather (prtini)

I think this is a very interesting business model concept for branding and marketing agencies. It will be interesting to see, if this becomes a reality, what the impact on timeliness will be.

Will clients be willing to wait months before they're project is started, just because they chose a specific consultant? A lot of that, of course, is going to depend on how good that specific consultant is, and how urgent the marketing project is. I could definitely see some clients being willing to do so, though.

Great point. Actually, originally I thought about it in terms of a financial consultancy, where each individual is responsible for finding clients, and maintaining those accounts. Obviously, given the service, it can't work exactly like a financial consultancy.

The thing is, I see the importance and acceptance of personal brands growing, quickly, inside and outside of the office. I think it's inevitable that these personal brands will start to play a larger role in how agencies function. We're not going to see a full switch over to this sort of system, although over time, I think we'll start to see some changes.

Will definitely have to continue at blogworld. Although on Stuart's tab, I don't know that I'll be functioning by the time you arrive ;)

David

Very interesting angle and analogy. While I think there is great merit to the idea, what about the other side of the coin -- employees/agency from a cost structure perspective. In that salon, those stylists are "renting" that chair and the styling of hair takes a fraction of time vs managing a brand. So will the economics work? Will employees basically become perma tempts to their agency networks? Would that reduce agencies to something akin to talent agencies in Hollywood. Will we all have our own Ari or Loyd watching out for our next project?

I think this is a great conversation but to realistically have it, you have to start with the cost side not client side of the equation. If you can sustain it financially then it's never got a chance of happening IMHO.

Thanks for starting the convo, maybe we'll carry it on over beers at BlogWorld. Remember Stuart is buying.
@TomMartin

This is in effect happening now at shops with superstars that play the visibility game well...ahem...Alex Bogusky. Agencies play this game with talent all the time -- carefully measuring visibility of the individual versus agency visibility. Of course what you are talking about is not necessarily agency principals, but superstar AEs and ACDs, etc. It's not as well delivered as you have done here in this analogy, but it is already happening. The talent that is fast-tracked are the ones in demand -- the ones clients desire. The wrinkle, I think, is that now with social media, the personal brand is more accessible to the client. Nice visual. And important reminder about our voice and personal place in the

This is the best analysis of how personal branding will affect the agency world that I have read thus far.

Kick ass dude. Makes total sense and the use of an existent model to illustrate the point only furthers my faith in the conclusion. Good stuff.