I consider myself someone who is in the latter half of my career as a marketing professional. If you are my age, do you regularly check in and ask yourself, Is this the best work that I can do? For me, the answer is no —I could and want to do better. I want to do the best. To do the best, I realize that I need to be the right partner for you. In return, I want you to be the right partner for me.
Based on my experience, the following is what I look for in a great partner and how we produce the best work possible.
Honesty
We are always up front about what is working and what is not. We are not afraid of difficult conversations that we need to have with each other or with our clients.
More Than Money
Our objective isn’t quite aligned if we are preoccupied with billables. It’s about making sure that we are proud of our work. Sometimes we need to spend some unbillable time to make a project better. Sometimes we need to research something to deliver something unique. The money comes after. It always does. The opportunity to do our best work? That’s harder to come by.
Communication
It’s cliché to say and should be a given in our line of work, but we have to ask questions of each other, send back incomplete briefs, challenge assumptions, and get all the details to do our jobs.
Integrity
This means when we agree on something or make a promise, we stick to it. A whole bunch of other things rely on you and me to be successful. To keep this ship upright and moving forward, we need to be paddling in the same direction.
Should We Work Together?
We’re always looking for fun, talented, creative designers, writers, campaign assistants, photographers, videographers…the list goes on an on. Do we share the same values?
