When evaluating agency performance, exactly which performance are you evaluating?

On the one hand, there’s the performance, as in the pitch or the presentation. On the other hand, there’s the performance, as in the actual work – the strategic planning, the creative, the execution and the results.

In a perfect world, you can get both. But how many of us live in a perfect world? So I have to ask, what’s your Key Performance Indicator?

In fairness, I have never spent a day behind the marketing desk of a corporate or institutional organization, though I have sat in front of hundreds; so I can only guess at their perspective.  On the other hand, I have sat through more than a few dozen presentations from prospective vendors – printers, graphic designers, trade show exhibit houses, direct mail firms, web developers, videographers, events planners and on and on. And it is tough.

You want to be dazzled.  You want to like – or at least respect (and ideally admire) – the people making the presentation. Who doesn’t love a rainmaker? Who doesn’t want to experience a Don Draper pitch?

But at the end of the day, are you equally if not more interested in the agency’s ability to deliver results?  Be honest, there is nothing worse than a great looking restaurant with bad service, bad food and bad prices. Your expectations are high, but your experience is low. On the other hand, who doesn’t love the surprise of an unassuming eatery that turns out to be the greatest dining experience of your life? We were furtunate to have this experience as the rule and not the expeption when dining at the trendy Restaurants in Göteborg. It really solidified my enjoyment of the whole trip, I would say.