2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns
Conversations on the art of creative entrepreneurship with David C. Baker and Blair Enns
Episodes
Blair thinks too many design firms and other service providers are trying too hard to raise prices by presenting themselves as more “strategic.” Both he and David see these agencies losing more and more work to competitors moving to off-shore teams and AI centered services.
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Blair’s “What Is Strategy?” episode of the Ditching Hourly podcast with Jonathan Stark
David definitely doesn’t want anyone to be like tech bros, but he has recognized a few things creative agencies might be able to learn from them.
Blair has five steps creative agency leaders can take to turn their account managers, project managers, developers, engineers, and advisors into a source of instant scale to their sales efforts.
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“Turning Your Delivery Team Into a Sales Team” article by Blair on WinWithoutPitching.com
Whether you call yourself an advisor or consultant (or not), David has seven core ethical principles that should govern advisory work.
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The fact that sales people tend to talk too much is nothing new, but Blair has observed in recent client work just how profound of an effect this pervasive problem has on sales outcomes.
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When it comes to qualifications for ideal clients, David doesn’t hear anyone talking about how agencies can benefit when the person across the table is someone who presses boundaries and ethically skirts the rules within their own organization.
As Blair is finishing his new book that drops later this year, he comes to the realization that pretty much everything he does comes down to the fundamental issue that experts think they need to show up as a different person during the sale: pitching, persuading, and convincing instead of as the leader their prospective clients need them to be.
While discussing eight ways creative firms can do pro bono work better based on an article David wrote recently, both he and Blair discover a couple new profound insights together.
LINKS
“Maximizing Your Pro-Bono Contributions” by David C. Baker at Punctuation.com
Blair recognizes how a Confucius quote is really bad business advice, but is still moved by how a highly principled creative firm in New Zealand continues to thrive by prioritizing their creative practices and client fit over new business strategy.
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"Attending the Way" article by Blair on WinWithoutPitching.com
David frequently gets hired to help resolve issues at firms between multiple principles when it comes to who does what and how much each should get paid, so he’s come up with a 7-point framework he can use in each unique scenario.
David interviews Blair about his recent article in which he takes a lesson from investing with compound interest to understand the increasing returns we can receive from our relentless pursuit of knowledge over time.
Links
“The Time Value of Knowledge” article on WinWithoutPitching.com
David looks at the current data and weighs all the pros and cons of continuing to have staff who work from home in our post-pandemic economy, which makes Blair wonder if he would even survive if he was starting out in his profession today.
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Blair sees too many creative firms talking at prospective clients using sales scripts instead of having a series of wide ranging conversations on their unique issues and objectives that set the tone for the potential long-term engagement.
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Blair’s latest obsession is bounded rationality, in which he sees too many creative firms failing to make “rational” decisions because they choose to bind their businesses with outdated and overly-constraining ideals like the 80/20 principle.
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“The Great Convergence is Upon Us” by Blair Enns for Win Without Pitching
Award-winning “Unapologetically Human” ad campaign by Kruger and BHLA
David shares his thoughts on some bad advice he hears involving the focus on pursuing personal passions in business.
Blair weighs in on this year's Forrester report, which shows the ridiculous amount of money agencies have been wasting on pitches.
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"Are These the Last Days of the Pitch?" by Blair Enns for Win Without Pitching
"A New Forrester Report Urges Brands and Agencies to 'Ditch the Pitch'" by Olivia Morley for AdWeek published on 4 A's
David addresses another frequently asked question, looking at what creative firms should budget in terms of both money and time for their website, SaaS/automation, PR, content creation, and social media.
Blair identifies the differences between the ethics of selling expertise and the three schools of bargaining ethics, and what happens when we don’t adapt our bargaining approach to match our opponents in the game of negotiation.
Links
“The Conflicting Ethics of Selling & Negotiating” article by Blair Enns on WinWithoutPitching.com
In an era of rapid turnover and remote working arrangements, developing a structured onboarding process for new staff is more important than ever. David has a checklist to help agencies get their new employees up to speed as quickly as possible.
Blair sees non-standard payment terms as a two-sided issue, where agencies should be creatively leveraging terms more to their own benefit as opposed to just defending themselves against procurement departments who impose onerous terms.
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