Looking Ahead: Agency or In-house?

[00:00:18] Hello again everyone, I am Andy coming to you from the United Kingdom fresh back on these shores.

[00:00:27] And I am your other host Scott coming to you live from the land of Mickey Mouse. I'm in Orlando, Florida where it is nice and sunny today.

[00:00:36] That's very good. I noticed your mic is behind your head so we may have a bit of a funny sound at the moment.

[00:00:41] I'm not using that mic.

[00:00:43] Okay, well that would be why then.

[00:00:46] This is off camera.

[00:00:48] I see very good, very good.

[00:00:50] Well, this is the Tea and Timbits podcast where we are focused very much on the audio quality that we deliver to you every week.

[00:00:58] And we are focused on global perspectives on business development to help you prosper.

[00:01:03] And this week's topic we are returning to the theme of strategic planning as we had been doing for this month.

[00:01:10] And this week we'll be talking about the agency or in-house part of that.

[00:01:16] And before we get into that though, Scott does have a story for us.

[00:01:22] I do. I thought I would just sort of come back to something that I actually posted on LinkedIn recently because it was something that I really had to keep in mind as I'm down here at this trade show right now.

[00:01:33] We put together a brand new booth display set up for this show.

[00:01:39] I shipped down here two weeks ago and it is still not here.

[00:01:46] It's been desperately frustrating and I've had to rely on some backup methods.

[00:01:53] And I can tell the listeners that this has been so frustrating that it is a story I am already very familiar with.

[00:02:00] But I didn't post that story on LinkedIn.

[00:02:03] I was having a chat with another person in my network who does some coaching talking about mindset.

[00:02:10] And I know we talk about that a lot, but his coaching in that piece was about being above or below the line.

[00:02:20] And I have just had to keep that in mind, front of mind, quite a lot in the last week.

[00:02:27] And it really just, I thought I'd share it one more time.

[00:02:31] You know, it's so important even in these moments to do everything you can to stay above that line.

[00:02:37] And that really just means sort of even coming into difficult situations with a sense of ownership for what you can do to drive a positive outcome.

[00:02:49] It was desperately frustrating and incredibly disappointing, you know, and you can get really angry at the customer service representative from FedEx or you can realize that you need every ally you can find in this moment.

[00:03:05] Yeah, exactly.

[00:03:06] Exactly.

[00:03:06] Yeah.

[00:03:06] So I'm sure I have not always been my best self getting through this, but trying to keep that in mind is something that I have been doing to help get me through it.

[00:03:17] So I thought I'd just share that advice that seems to be something that I relied on lately.

[00:03:23] And has the trade show equipment actually made it there now or is it still held?

[00:03:29] It's still held up in customs.

[00:03:33] We got through that situation and it was supposed to be released and delivered the very next day.

[00:03:39] So I was supposed to have it here in Orlando three days ago.

[00:03:45] It's sitting in the FedEx hub in Memphis, Tennessee.

[00:03:51] And FedEx has, I hate to use the name of the shipping company, but that's who it is.

[00:03:59] They've escalated it.

[00:04:00] We now have a support tracing ticket.

[00:04:02] They don't know what's going on or why the package hasn't been in four days.

[00:04:07] It's a shame when these things happen.

[00:04:08] I mean, having worked in shipping and logistics for a good part of my life, I know that it does happen and it can be challenging.

[00:04:15] And the worst thing is it always seems to happen to the most important stuff.

[00:04:18] I mean, it's not like your bills that get delayed, is it?

[00:04:21] That's right.

[00:04:22] That's right.

[00:04:24] Oh, dear.

[00:04:25] We're making the best of it.

[00:04:27] The people that walk by the booth don't know that it should be better than it is.

[00:04:33] So it's only me.

[00:04:36] If we move into today's topic now, though, where we're talking about agency or in-house within the context of strategic planning,

[00:04:45] what is your desired outcome and expectations for the listeners to go away with?

[00:04:52] Sure.

[00:04:53] So I think anybody that's been a listener for a while knows I run an agency.

[00:04:58] And so I come into this with a bit of admitted bias.

[00:05:04] But I think I thought it was worth talking about because I admit that there are two sides to this coin.

[00:05:12] And I would like to just talk about what that looks like and some of the pros and cons of how to resource any initiative within your business using outside partners

[00:05:33] and what it means to do it that way versus to do it in-house.

[00:05:37] And so just to think about some of the benefits and potential pitfalls of one way or the other.

[00:05:45] Sounds good.

[00:05:45] And I think a key message is that you do actually do that planning, that you take those considerations.

[00:05:53] Yeah.

[00:05:54] And that you think about it and you know which way you're going to go.

[00:05:57] And maybe you don't know for sure until you do some evaluation and talk to some agencies or workshop it a little bit or whatnot internally.

[00:06:06] But yeah.

[00:06:08] If you so for people who aren't so familiar with, you know, the difference between taking care of things to do with their business and the growth of their business in-house or, you know, taking out to an agency.

[00:06:22] How would you how would you define that choice?

[00:06:26] You know, the difference between agency or in-house structure at a high level.

[00:06:30] Well, yeah, and I'll come back to what you just said for a moment to qualify this, that we're talking about growth in this, in the context of this conversation.

[00:06:41] We're not talking about executing sort of the tactics of what you've always done.

[00:06:52] So this is not meant to be how to evaluate the partners that you already have or how to evaluate your team's past success and whether you should change that.

[00:07:03] I mean, it's probably a transferable consideration.

[00:07:06] But we're talking about growth and we're talking, therefore, about doing something new or doing something bigger or different in some sort.

[00:07:23] And so I think that that lens, that frame of reference shifts your thinking a bit in terms of this topic.

[00:07:32] That was very important.

[00:07:34] Very important to add that context in.

[00:07:37] Yeah.

[00:07:38] So your question was, you know, what does it mean to, you know, quote unquote, go with an agency?

[00:07:44] And so I guess at its simplest is, am I using an outside resource to deliver, you know, on my need to solve my problem?

[00:08:02] Am I hiring another company?

[00:08:07] And I think we've been using the word agency as a stand in here.

[00:08:13] I think it is a little bit different than just hiring a contractor or a freelancer or temporary resources to augment what you're doing.

[00:08:22] I think quite specifically by using the label agency, we're talking about looking for a service provider who is set up with a defined service,

[00:08:37] a wholesome delivery to address the gap that you're trying to close.

[00:08:45] And so that means that they don't just have one person that knows something about what you need done.

[00:08:53] I mean, maybe it's a one person agency because the difference is that a contractor or freelancer has a specific skill and they're kind of augmenting your team in a way.

[00:09:02] And maybe they come forward with a little bit more than that.

[00:09:04] But by using the term agency, I really do imply that they come in with a way of doing things and a path to success that they can define.

[00:09:17] And typically, and I think when I was thinking about this, it meant a roster of resources, a team to add depth and reliability and capacity and scalability.

[00:09:36] Yeah, yeah, that does make a lot of sense.

[00:09:39] And so it's essentially, you know, you either have a team in your own organization focused on the growth and development,

[00:09:45] or you have an external team that have got some sort of specialized expertise and broader industry exposure that they can bring and do that over the longer term to help you to deliver that thing.

[00:09:57] However, is it right that a company can then, you know, hire an agency and go, right, you guys take care of this, and then they step back and do nothing?

[00:10:08] Or is it the case that they constantly have to be monitoring that and guiding the agency?

[00:10:15] How does it work from your perspective?

[00:10:17] Yeah, and I'll again just kind of come back and take your question in parts.

[00:10:25] When you're considering it against the internal resourcing of solving for your situation, I don't think it's because you, if you have a team at the ready,

[00:10:39] if you have a team unotherwise allocated to other work who is at the ready to dive into this problem, then yeah, sure.

[00:10:49] That's what I'm saying in the comparison here is if you have that internally and it's established and it has capacity and it has availability, go for it internally.

[00:11:01] This isn't even a question.

[00:11:03] Yeah, it makes sense.

[00:11:04] If you have an internal team that has the skill set but doesn't have capacity.

[00:11:08] If you have this, an internal team that has capacity but not the skill set, like it has to be that you have the resources, you have the skills, and they're available.

[00:11:21] Or you can make them available.

[00:11:23] Yeah.

[00:11:25] Yeah.

[00:11:26] Yeah.

[00:11:26] And then I don't remember the rest of your question.

[00:11:32] Essentially, are you handing over the task?

[00:11:36] Right.

[00:11:37] Are you handing it over and being like, let us know when you're done?

[00:11:40] So I think it probably depends, but I think that most of the time you still do need internal participation.

[00:11:52] We would absolutely require that in the kind of services and work that we do.

[00:11:58] Sort of the tasks that require the sort of deep industry and product knowledge, for example.

[00:12:02] That's right.

[00:12:02] That's right.

[00:12:03] I mean, it has to be led and guided by you as the client, your objectives, what outcome you want to see, what brand, what we need to align with from a branding perspective, communications perspective, workflow perspective.

[00:12:20] We need to understand people, processes, systems.

[00:12:24] And there is a lot of discovery work that you do have to be ready.

[00:12:28] So that, okay.

[00:12:29] So now we're getting into like the difference, right?

[00:12:31] If you have an internal team that's at the ready, they probably already know all that.

[00:12:34] So you don't have to go through the process of onboarding, briefing, and supporting an agency through that discovery process.

[00:12:43] And some people think that, well, discovery is annoying or unnecessary.

[00:12:51] If you were actually a good agency, you would already know this stuff.

[00:12:55] But I mean, it's just like we do run into that like time and time again.

[00:12:58] And you're like, fine.

[00:13:00] If you would like the exact solution we implemented when we learned something from a different business, we'll give it to you.

[00:13:05] We can guarantee you it's not going to fit your circumstance and your situation.

[00:13:12] So, yes, you still need to be involved.

[00:13:15] But obviously with intention, with dedication, with commitment.

[00:13:23] But you don't have to manage the project.

[00:13:26] You don't have to execute it yourself.

[00:13:27] That gets done behind the curtain.

[00:13:30] And so in terms, because I think a lot of people are hesitant on going for the agency route because they're worried about the cost of doing so.

[00:13:39] In my experience, and this is just my experience, and I like your perspective on it as well, is that when you actually do that comparison of, you know, I want to achieve a certain task.

[00:13:50] And it's usually a big change project that is outside of the normal day-to-day stuff of the business.

[00:14:00] If you're going to do that, you're going to then have to resource for that.

[00:14:04] And that means you've got time and, you know, people that you're having to put into those particular tasks and do things that way.

[00:14:12] And whereas if you've got an agency, you bring them in to do that particular thing and then they're, you know, they're gone again.

[00:14:20] So, I mean, it does depend on the scale of the project, of course.

[00:14:24] But I think, you know, when I've done those, you know, comparisons, actual comparisons, because you look at the number first of all, you go, oh, that's very expensive.

[00:14:31] We can get a few people to do that.

[00:14:33] When you look at the overall cost of, you know, actually hiring and firing and, you know, scaling up a team versus getting in a, you know, an external team to come in and do the project, then it actually doesn't always work out more expensive.

[00:14:48] Yeah, that's a good point.

[00:14:50] And I think the question is also, are you comparing against, you know, reallocating existing resources to do this, which means taking away from something else, which means a cost to an opportunity cost lost by them not doing that other work or then shifting the cost to then needing to find an external or a different resource for that.

[00:15:17] For the other thing that you've taken away from.

[00:15:19] Yeah.

[00:15:19] Yeah.

[00:15:20] Yeah.

[00:15:21] Or you're building out your own team.

[00:15:24] And in fact, that did just happen to us recently where a prospect decided to go that route instead.

[00:15:34] And knowing the size and scope of what they were talking about trying to do, it was a bit confusing why they had opted for that option.

[00:15:45] Because you're right.

[00:15:46] It's salaries, it's hiring, it's firing, it's managing, it's benefits, training, culture.

[00:15:55] You still have to train all those new people on your internal process and all that kind of stuff.

[00:16:03] And honestly, you can do that kind of a comparison.

[00:16:08] You can do a cost-based comparison or you can do an opportunity-based evaluation.

[00:16:15] Regardless of what the cost is, if my agency is going to cost X, but the economic opportunity is Y and it is greater than that cost, what improvement factor, what ROI do I feel is reasonable to justify that outside investment?

[00:16:39] And if it's a clear gap, then you might be splitting hairs.

[00:16:46] Yeah, exactly.

[00:16:47] Yeah, exactly.

[00:16:47] And I think when you start to go into the longer term, then it becomes a little bit harder to justify the external.

[00:16:55] If it's something that's an ongoing requirement within an organization, it can often make more sense to then actually have an in-house resource that you've done.

[00:17:03] But typically, we're talking quite long-term to do that.

[00:17:09] Yeah.

[00:17:10] Now, listen, I mean, we have experience, you know, so, yeah.

[00:17:13] And I was going to say, we haven't really talked about the other side of this equation is, you know, when does it make sense to go internal?

[00:17:23] And we've kind of, you know, biased the conversation so far, I think, anyway, sort of towards the agency argument.

[00:17:31] But there might be some internal benefit to pulling resources off something else they were doing.

[00:17:36] I mean, sometimes, you know, if you just get somebody to stop what they used to be doing, you might not miss the delivery of that activity.

[00:17:45] Or you might realize it wasn't being done as efficiently.

[00:17:48] And there might be some benefit in shaking things up.

[00:17:52] And you might be able to get more productivity out of your existing resources just by asking them to take on something additional.

[00:18:03] You do have direct control over the execution, the pace, the balance, the prioritization.

[00:18:13] Sure, right.

[00:18:14] Yeah.

[00:18:15] You can also potentially be less structured about your project delivery, which might sound like a benefit, like sort of a false benefit.

[00:18:32] But sometimes when you're unsure about the path you want to take and you need to iterate through the creation or the evaluation of what you're building to be able to have an in.

[00:18:48] I mean, a lot of agencies are set up to do rapid iterations.

[00:18:51] But, you know, potentially internally, you can try, you can pause, you can try again, you can validate, you can wait.

[00:19:03] Yeah, exactly.

[00:19:04] There's some scenarios where having it done internally, if I were to put on that hat, is a compelling consideration.

[00:19:14] Yeah, I mean, again, from my own perspective, I mean, you certainly tend to find an easier collaboration across departments if you've got an in-house setup for a project.

[00:19:26] But that, you know, and I'm just going to counter it as well, is that but sometimes internal resources telling other departments what to do or how to change or how to contribute to something and relying on them can often meet a lot of resistance.

[00:19:40] Because people are going, oh, why are you telling me what to do? You don't know what I'm doing.

[00:19:43] And so an external saying, we need your department to do this, can often actually bridge that gap.

[00:19:49] So sometimes a hybrid model can work.

[00:19:50] And that's what we were kind of talking about at the beginning.

[00:19:52] You still need those internal resources to sort of project manage just to make sure that it flows smoothly.

[00:19:58] But again, with another sort of in-house pro is you've got that, I suppose, I think you said it as well, the immediate availability and alignment with the company culture.

[00:20:09] Because, of course, you've got that full control over the process and the procedures and so on in-house.

[00:20:16] But having the access to the sort of, you know, the modern tools and an outsider's perspective and, you know, the fact is you can actually switch on and switch off an agency if you do decide that it's not working.

[00:20:28] You can just replace them with someone else, which you can't do with internal staff so easily.

[00:20:34] Yeah.

[00:20:34] That's a really good point.

[00:20:36] Yeah, for sure.

[00:20:38] Yeah.

[00:20:39] It's, you know, I think there's no right or wrong way around this.

[00:20:44] And that's what makes it a bit of a challenging discussion.

[00:20:47] But I think what is important and what is definitely worth doing is actually having that, you know, that pros and cons list for your particular project in your company and looking at everything in real life and not just going with, oh, that's too expensive to outsource it.

[00:21:03] We'll do it in-house.

[00:21:04] That's right.

[00:21:04] You know, considering the overall cost and the overall impact and the success of the project is also an important thing and does have a cost element to it as well.

[00:21:13] Yeah, you got it.

[00:21:16] Cool.

[00:21:16] Well, I think we've summed that one up quite nicely.

[00:21:20] Do you think we covered everything and reached your desired outcome there?

[00:21:26] Yeah.

[00:21:27] Yeah.

[00:21:27] You know, we were mentioned, like, just sort of giving some perspectives on what those pros and cons are.

[00:21:35] And I think it's also, now that we've had the conversation, hoping people also took away the fact that there is, like, some nuance to the consideration.

[00:21:44] There's some depth.

[00:21:46] And it's not just a simple, it's not too complicated, but it's not just a single factor that you're considering here.

[00:21:55] There's a few more movie parts.

[00:21:56] So, hopefully, we've touched on that to bring them forward in your mind.

[00:22:00] Yeah.

[00:22:00] Or just made things a lot more confusing for everyone going, you know, these are all the options that you need to consider as well.

[00:22:06] I knew it was.

[00:22:08] That's right.

[00:22:09] But if you want to find out more about this or get in touch with us at all, go to tntimbits.com, where you can find many ways to get in touch and to listen to us talking about other topics as well.

[00:22:23] So, thank you very much, Scott.

[00:22:26] Thanks, Andy.

[00:22:26] Thanks, everybody.