This week, leaders from small agencies located across the U.S. and beyond gathered for the Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards. They spoke openly about issues they’re facing, including staff retention and competing against bigger industry players, and listened keenly to discussions on topics including the pitch process, building and maintaining strong client relationships and diversity and branding issues—including for the industry itself.

Here, Ad Age recaps some of the highlights from this year’s event, which was held at The Escape Pod, a small agency located in Chicago.

Speak your client’s language

When measuring campaigns—and selling the work to clients—agencies should not fixate on soft metrics such as brand awareness, said Brent Hodgins, managing director, Mirren Business Development, an agency training firm. Rather, shops should learn the business language of their clients, including category-specific key performance indicators, such as direct bookings or occupancy rates for the hospitality sector.

“Clients are focused on growth and revenue and most agencies are focusing on brand reputation and positioning,” Hodgins said. “And that is a gap.” Awareness “in and of itself is not an end benefit,” he said, because you can grow awareness and still not move one product off the shelf.” He added: “When you don’t use the language of your client … it’s like you are an outsider trying to be an insider.”

Agencies have a branding problem

During a keynote address, Kristen Cavallo, CEO of The Martin Agency, gave a blunt assessment of how agencies are not doing enough to differentiate themselves.

“The ad industry has a branding problem,” Cavallo said. She showed a slide revealing multiple agencies using generic and similar-sounding mission statements, all using the word “meaningful”—and contrasted that with precise, and highly differentiated mission statements of several brands, including Patagonia, Nike, Yeti and JetBlue. But not all shops are falling short on branding. She then shared a list of agencies that, in her opinion, are getting their branding right: Fig, We Believers, Opinionated, Sweat + Co., Erich and Kallman and Convicts, whose mantra is “troublemakers for a better world.”

Get serious about your capabilities—and your website

One mistake agencies make is by being too broad when listing capabilities.

“What makes you different? If you don't help us with that, there is a pretty good chance you won't get considered,” said Deb Giampoli, co-founder of Stone Soup Consultants, whose services include agency searches. She advised shops to focus on their “superpower” rather than trying to be all things to all clients.

Steve Boehler, founder of Mercer Island Group, a management consultancy whose services include agency searches, advised shops to keep search consultants abreast of key developments. “Important news is what we want to hear about—so you’ve got a big hire, you’ve got a new capability, you’ve won a big new client—we want to know that kind of stuff. I don't think it’s the frequency as much as the relevance of the information that you are sharing.”

“Find a way to be unavoidable as an agency,” he said.

When it comes to agency websites, simple is better. “It’s great that your website is pretty and fancy … but it better have the facts,” said Melissa Lea, founder and director of Muster Consulting, during a panel discussion with agency search consultants. She advised shops to include the basics, such as the number of people employed and office locations. When listing key employees include serious bios, not just a picture of their dog or other frivolities. 

Prioritize finding culture–and finding people who fit it

“Your culture is the most attractive thing you can offer someone and also the stickiest thing” to help keep people, said Pedro Lerma, CEO and founder of Lerma, during a panel discussion on finding and investing in talent.

Decisions about when to come into the office are case by case for Orchard, according to Laura Janness, its co-founder and chief strategy officer. “You can Zoom from Mars, but I have expectations for you,” she said, adding that those who work from home have to put in the effort to sustain trust and relationships.

Find the red flags

Pitches often have warning signs that an account might not actually be as desirable as it sounds, executives shared during a panel discussion focused on the pitch process. One example is when an agency receives a request for information, or RFI, according to Lindsey Slaby, founder of Sunday Dinner, who often works with marketers to help them find the right agency partner. 

“I've never seen one of my clients read them and we don't use them, Slaby said. “That means that they're not taking enough time to actually learn about you and no one has pre-vetted you. So you're just getting an RFP that everybody else got.”

Another red flag mentioned is if a chief marketing officer isn’t available during a process. “If they're not available now they're not going to be available later and it’s going to be a nightmare to get work through.”

A third red flag mentioned was if a client isn’t upfront about their budget, with one potential caveat. “We know how much money we have, although production could be iffy, that changes sometimes,” Slaby said.

Get your legal affairs in order—and also take a vacation

Jeff Sweat, owner of PR agency Sweat + Co., discussed how his agency kept running during his battle with COVID-19, which included three weeks of being intubated. His team faced details Sweat had never thought of previously. His wife had to navigate the challenge of getting the company’s LLC documents signed while Sweat was hospitalized so that staffers would be able to receive paychecks.

Sweat offered frank advice to agency owners, including making sure that their agencies can run without them. Think ahead about the details, he said, such as establishing corporate officers who can sign off on payroll—that’s why his wife needed to get those legal documents squared away.

Also, go away on a real vacation, he said, and don’t wait for a crisis.

“People generally work better when you’re not around,” Sweat said, adding that a company leader’s job should come down to “training and coaching people to be the one to take charge” when you aren’t there.