Why Smart Agency Founders Stopped Hiring and Started Partnering

A client requesting more service support should usually be great news, until that request lands way outside your team’s expertise. Well, you can’t just say no. Winning the work is great for business, but it’s only a triumph if you can actually do it – and do it well.

Most agencies with a budget to spare hire talent to cover competency gaps, but is all that justified for one budding project? Before you add on a salary, it’s worth asking whether specialist support might be a better fit.

Cue the delivery partner: an external provider that handles the specialty side-quests, while your agency nurtures the client relationship. You don’t have to be a jack-of-all-trades, but you do remain master of some major ones, like quality, coordination, and expectations.

You see how that’s made partnering all too feasible for agency founders? It all started with how much work they actually needed covered.

The Actual Work Didn’t Justify A Permanent Hire

New project lands in your inbox with high-end specifics, and it’s helter-skelter finding a reliable job listing. Patience. Look at the task, requirements and all; now think: How often will you need this skill? What’s the hire going to do once this project/assignment’s handed off?

Let’s posit a scenario. A client emails requesting technical SEO, but you don’t do SEO… yet. You know that needs a resource that can run a site audit, spruce up a report, and address agreed issues. It’s a requirement, but does it need a permanent specialist?

Recruiting, interviews, onboarding, and ongoing management are budget-intensive, so the decision needs more mulling over than the fact that you have one more service request on the roster. Unless you have a barrage of requests booking the same service, hiring might not be too ROI-friendly in hindsight.

Occasional or narrowly specialized/complex service requests are worth the partnership effort.

New Mantra: More Offerings. Leaner Departments.

What’s the adage? ‘Customer is King’. Your client’s needs won’t always fit the service list. But a specialist partner gives you room to deliver without straining recruitment for every service request that comes knocking.

Build ‘Expertise’ into Existing Client Needs

Your agency’s good at web design. You just successfully launched a client’s website. Now they’re asking about ongoing SEO. They’re the only ones asking. You’re familiar with their business, but your team’s core competencies lie in design and development.

But you’re smart, so you get a white-label digital marketing team to handle the tricky SEO aspect of the request under your brand. Your team does the QA, and then it’s released to the client.

Give Your Offers Healthy Boundaries

Granted, the partnership introduces a safety net of expertise that you haven’t built internally, but it doesn’t mean your service menu shows that too. Keep to those strengths that complement your current offerings, as it gives the client a solid reason to keep working with your agency.

While a specialized provider such as White Label Partner can offer SEO, custom web development, and myriad more, your agency gets to pick what the client needs and what your team can confidently manage.

Specialist Delivery Allows More Time For Client Relationships

Juggling specialist tasks hardly frees up time for anything else. But shared load with a partner simplifies things as long as the roles are well-defined across teams. That means:

Your Agency Holds The Reins

You own client goals, business context, scope, contacts, and client expectations. When scouting an outsource SEO agency, all you need to know is how they manage questions, approvals, and updates on tasks. When you know the work is in capable hands, you can allocate more time to enriched client conversations.

Your Partner Takes Direction

The delivery partner fulfills their end of the deal, explains the findings, and flags issues/obstacles early. Meanwhile, you stay informed without having to handle every specialist task yourself.

Coming back to the earlier web design client:

An SEO audit might uncover redirect issues, but that doesn’t mean fixing it is on the table. Decide early who deals with the issue; or you might end up in the worst-case scenario where both teams assume it’s the other’s job, leaving the client waiting. No one wants a scathing follow-up over a lapse in task delegation.

It’s all good on time-well-saved when both teams know who’s doing what.

A Test Task Makes Service Expansion Accessible

Always test the waters instead of taking a leap of faith – because the service ratings said so. Having a provider take on an initial assignment gives you insight into how the relationship works before assigning a heavier workload (or clients).

Gauge The Working Relationship

An SEO audit with a clearly defined plan gives both teams concrete steps to work through. Once again, put heads together and decide on the audit’s scope, what the reporting needs to deliver, and especially when it’s due. You’re all set.

Once the report’s handed over to you, if it’s been handed over look beyond. Are the audit findings relevant to the website? Does your team comprehend what needs attention first? Also notice how the partner handles revisions and queries.

Lastly, be realistic. The partner may understand their way around an audit, but that doesn’t guarantee those search rankings will shoot up overnight.

Track Everything; Because Time Is Money

The most tempting of quotes can turn dour if your team has to chase updates or run corrections. Since the client fee covers the partner’s invoice alongside your account management, coordination efforts, reviews, and revisions, the test assignment helps you assess the workable margin after your agency puts in its efforts.

With delivery holding up and the numbers making sense, you have all the more reason to accept and partner up for larger projects. The partnership can now support the work that helps your portfolio expand.

And that brings us back to why smart agency founders started partnering up with specialist delivery partners, because they realized…

They Could Grow Without Hiring For Every New Service

No one’s saying hiring is an obsolete notion; it makes sense when the client demand supports it long-term. You don’t have to turn every specialized or niche service request into a recruitment exercise.

A proven delivery arrangement is the biggest boon of considering a partnership over panic hiring. It gives your agency a cost-effective but competent way to take on work. You can expand relevant services while maintaining a hold on your service strengths, the agency’s growth, and client relationships.

Start with a clear gap, test the outsourced service support, and let the outcomes guide how far the relationship grows. Take it from the founders.