I just read a great article from the HBR on what consumers really want. One of the points it makes is that shared values build relationships.

This struck me because of recent conversation with a brand manager at a large company. He has a lot of agencies at his disposal, dozens more knocking on his door, no doubt. When he asked me the classic closer question, “Why is your agency different?” I said, “Honestly? We’re really nice.”

“Nice?” My brain immediately yelled at me. “Nice? You pull rabbits out of hats, deliver amazing results for your clients, and what comes to mind is Nice?”  But as HBR showed, shared values build relationships. So yes, nice.

We’re nice to our clients: Sound simple? I guarantee you cannot get the right answer to the right question any other way. We work with our clients in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect, and as a result, we deliver amazing returns.

We’re nice to our vendors: We’re only as good as the people we work with. So we share our victories with them. We thanked the researchers who just made us look brilliant – and found out most agencies never even call them back after they get the reports. Really?

We’re nice to each other: As a Harvard professor put it, “Business is 15% numbers and 85% people.” My job as a manager is to identify the strengths and passions of the people I work with and support their growth and efforts in any way I can. Sound foolish? It’s actually given me 22 years of steady loyalty from the people I work with.

Do you want to work with an agency that shares your values? Get in touch. It’d be nice to hear from you.