Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Agencies Have Feelings Too

Agencies use freelancers all the time. It’s how they keep costs down and get expertise when they need it. What happens when a client abuses this practice?

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I recently pitched a prospect on developing a new business paradigm and subscription model for their video on demand business. To sweeten the deal and increase our prospects of winning, not to mention getting the solution right, I went out, sourced and engaged three information architects and interaction designers, with specific experience that was relevant to the client. In the agency business, using freelancers is standard practice. When there’s specific expertise that’s needed, we use people who have it. In some cases, we even sub-contract companies to take on a portion of the work. The reasons for this are many: one, specific expertise is not always used, so we couldn’t afford to keep them on the bench for too long; two, they make a heck of a lot more money doing this on their own. As per the prospect’s request, we provided information on who was agency staff and who were contractors. We were informed that we were one of two finalists in the pitch. And then, the most bizarre thing happened. The prospect came back at the end of the pitch process with a very unusual request. He liked the account management team at the competing agency, but preferred our design team. And so, he said he wanted to have the competing agency hire our freelancers. In his words, “What do you care, they’re freelancers anyway.” He offered us a finder’s fee of 5% of what the other agency would pay the freelancers. In a decade of being in the business, this is the absolute first time I’ve ever dealt with something like this. There is no specific code of ethics for businesses when dealing with agencies, but surely, this would be one of the no-nos? In a perfect world, these freelancers would be available to all, but part of an agency’s strengths lies in its ability to source talent—be it fulltime, or otherwise. After some internal debate, we decided to not oppose this transfer of talent, but the experience has me reeling a bit. Clients continuously require us to reduce prices, be up-front about contractors, and list personnel in our responses and proposals. A few years ago, providing specific names, resumes and contact details would be have been unthinkable; but now, if that information has the opportunity to be abused, where do we as agencies turn? How do we continue to protect our talent base? And more importantly, how do we do it while remaining service-centric? http://www.brutalclarity.com/index.php/46/
 

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