Our Insights

When was the last time you walked into a car dealership and walked out feeling like the salesperson was your trusted advisor? Some will greet you with a warm smile and a firm handshake. Others will tell you they are there to make this a smooth and quick process. A couple may even offer you a cappuccino while they “run the numbers.” But when you walk out with the keys to your new car, you feel exhausted, beaten down, and questioning if you made the right choice.

The car buying process is an obvious example of great lip service and no trust. While the car salesman may create good client rapport, there are hidden costs, inflexible packages, and time-consuming processes that add friction and prove they are just trying to sell you something. They’re not a trusted advisor.

By contrast, at Lewis Media, we have spent 28 years honing our skills and building our reputation. Our clients know that we’re their trusted advisors, not ad salespeople. Whether you're nurturing an existing partnership or trying to figure out how to choose a digital marketing agency in the first place, the foundation of a strong agency-client relationship comes down to a few core practices. Here are a few ways we embody the Lewis Media culture of trust with our clients.

1.   Understanding Our Clients

There is an art to understanding a client. Clients have to-do lists, meetings, business priorities, and a million other things swirling through their minds. Understanding that clients are busy is key to the successful management of client relationships. To help, we assess how critical our updates are and navigate the best way and time to provide them.

We’ve all been there; a vendor comes barging in with a critical-to-them-item that in the big scheme of things isn’t that important. It adds unnecessary stress and becomes another problem to solve. At Lewis Media, we don’t do that to our clients. We know they have enough on their plate already. We’ve spent time getting to know them and prioritize knowing what actually matters to them.

There’s no short cut here. There’s no Understanding Your Client for Dummies book to read, and Claude can’t give you the answers. It takes time, experience, and strong relationship-building skills.

2.   Sharing It All: Transparency Builds Strong Agency-Client Relationships

Everyone loves to talk about successes, strengths, and positives. The highlights that make a vendor look good are easy to discuss. But most vendors and agencies try to hide, downplay, or ignore any negatives, mistakes, and problems that prevent success. At Lewis Media, we never shy away from hard conversations. We face them head on with transparency and sincerity. Building and managing strong agency-client relationships is reliant on clear communication and consistently proving we are a media agency that our clients can trust to tell them the truth, even when things go wrong.

3.   Consistently Building Trust with New and Existing Clients

The moment you win a new client is not the time to start coasting, it’s the beginning of a marathon. Lewis Media is always geared up for the race knowing that every interaction, conversation, and deliverable is a moment to either build our relationship or slowly chip away at it. Are you showing up prepared? Keeping true to your word? Communicating proactively? These are seemingly small details but over time, they become what separates a vendor from a trusted advisor. At Lewis Media, we know that each detail is vital. No matter which of our services we provide, we always aim to be a true partner to each of our clients.

What to Look for When Choosing the Right Marketing Agency

If you're trying to figure out how to find the right digital marketing agency, here's what to look for based on what we've seen separate true partners from vendors over 28 years:

• Do they prioritize your time, or their agenda?
• Will they tell you the truth when something isn't working?
• Is their communication consistent, or does it taper off after the contract is signed?
• Do they treat the relationship as a partnership or a transaction?

If an agency can answer those questions with specifics, not generalities, you're likely looking at a true trusted advisor, not just another vendor.

Becoming a trusted advisor is not quick and easy. Reaching that level of trust takes time, dedication, and authenticity — you can’t phone it in. At Lewis Media, we’re committed every step of the way to becoming our clients’ trusted advisors and once we earn their trust it’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. Curious what working with a true trusted advisor looks like for your business? Get in touch with our team today.