AMP 236: How One Agency is Fixing Client Relationships (And How Yours Can Too) With Tyler Elliston From Right Side Up

Are you frustrated being on an in-house marketing team working with external agencies? And vice versa? Client and agency relationships can turn sour for several different reasons, such as unreasonable expectations, misaligned objectives, overselling capabilities, or poor communication of needs.

Today’s guest is Tyler Elliston, founder of Right Side Up. Tyler talks about how his company is structured to set up client relationships for mutual success using basic philosophical and strategic approaches. Actual measures and practical guidance can prevent and avoid problems from starting in the first place. 

 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Right Side Up: What goes wrong and what should be done
• Both Sides: Tyler was a marketer and one of those difficult clients to work with
• Differentiators: Pricing, in-house staffing support, and indexing individual talent
• Wrong Workarounds: Use agencies as transactional vendors, hire/fire managers
• Control and Commitment: Lack of ownership mentality and product/market fit
• Radical Transparency: Figuring out frustration and honest about what’s needed
• Challenges: Starting business and building systems without sacrificing quality
• Solution: Hire great people to help solve problems and scale business
• Structure: If not aligned with client’s desires/interests, it’s not the individual’s fault
• Customer Satisfaction: Apply client mindset and treat business as if it’s your own
• Difficult to deal with?
  • Apply high standards
  • Set clear expectations
  • Deliver on and strive to exceed them
  • Treat people like people

 

Links:

• Tyler Elliston on LinkedIn
• Right Side Up
• Ben Sailer on LinkedIn
• CoSchedule

 

Quotes from Tyler Elliston:

“Ultimately, our goal is to help them build a best-in-class organization that consists of full-time people, agencies (not us - Right Side Up), whatever sort of makes sense for their business. So, we try to take a more kind of holistic approach to their success.”

“We really index on individual talent. We really believe that great marketing comes from great marketers.”

“I felt like I had relatively little control over the talent I was working with.”

“In a lot of cases, the problem is not the person. A lot of times, the problem is the structure that the person is in.”