Every agency wants to get paid and most agencies send invoices to trigger payments from clients.
Unfortunately, some agencies can be triggering in more than one way.
While an invoice is primarily a billing document, it also plays a role in client service and business development, so you need to think about how they are structured.
In particular, you don’t want to allow your invoice to become something that unnecessarily irritates your client.
I’ll explore this idea a bit later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s take a peek at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
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- Webinar: How SAGA helps small agencies grow (December 4)
Latest from SAGA
- What to do when clients don’t get your agency what it needs to succeed (Agency Leadership Podcast)
- Webinar replay: Step-by-step guide to starting a podcast for your agency
Weekly Roundup
Below are some articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that we came across during the past week or so that provide useful perspective and information for PR and marketing agency owners. While we don’t necessarily endorse all of the views expressed in these links, we think they are worth your time.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Articles & Blog Posts
- Is Your Agency New Business Plan Holding You Back? (The Sutter Company)
- Admit Your Control Freak Tendencies (Punctuation)
- Pods: Scale your agency with a modular team structure (Sakas and Company)
- I don’t know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Anchor Advisors)
- 12 Tips to Get Prospects to Call You Back (RSW/US)
- 7 Steps to Overcome Negative Online Press (Spin Sucks)
Podcast Episodes
- Five Things Solo PR Pros Should Do Before The New Year (That Solo Life)
- Podcasts Defeat Mainstream Media in 2024 U.S. Election (For Immediate Release)
- Your Authority Paradox – Why Experts Stay Invisible, with Linda Ugelow (The Personal Brand Business Show)
- Your Earned Media Strategy Needs a Complete Overhaul (Spin Sucks)
- How to Use Narrative Psychology in Service Design, with Kristian Aloma (The Agency Profit Podcast)
- Crafting Compelling Newsletters to Drive Business Development, with Christian Banach (The Innovative Agency)
Videos
- Landing big clients, when to sell your agency, and how to scale: Agency Q&A with Karl Sakas (Sakas and Company)
- Autumnal Truths (Agency Management Institute)
AI in focus
- How Ad Agencies Are Actually Using AI (RSW/US)
- 10 AI Tools for Data Analysis Every Agency Should Know About (AgencyAnalytics)
Don’t irritate clients with your agency’s invoices
Many years ago, it was common for agencies to include itemized charges on invoices for faxes and photocopies.
When I worked with agencies, I would receive monthly billing statements with the number of pages sent via fax — usually at some absurdly high per-page cost.
It was incredibly irritating — especially because any time I got something from them via fax I knew I was paying something like $1 per page for it.
I had no issue with these agencies recouping their costs for these things — after all, faxes and photocopies weren’t cost-free.
But they should have rolled the cost into their overall fees rather than shining a spotlight on them.
The same is true of agencies today, even though I don’t know of many who send faxes or make photocopies, much less charge for them directly.
I got to thinking about this when I saw a LinkedIn post that referenced a lawyer’s invoice that included a direct charge for the time it took to create the retainer agreement and invoice for the client.
Think about how you feel when you get an airline or hotel bill that is larded up with additional fees and charges. Or take a look at your utility bills with the myriad additional items included each month.
So don’t be that agency. Keep your invoices as simple as possible and only itemize when absolutely necessary.
Unless you are billing by the hour, don’t include a breakdown of hours. It will only invite questions about why some task took “so long.”
Don’t itemize “project management” fees as has become popular with some agencies. It will only invite clients to want to avoid this important work, thinking they can save money.
Avoid piling up lots of small individual charges for software or other things that are more properly accounted for in your overhead costs. It will only invite questions about whether some tool or service is truly necessary or even the right one.
Steer clear of calling out expenses that look more like business development (like preparing contracts or even traveling for a contract renewal pitch). It will only invite frustration from clients.
Your proposals and invoices should only itemize things that you are happy for clients to decide to include or exclude at their own discretion.
Anything that is essential to the completion of a project or the successful execution of your monthly retainer should be included in your total fee in the vast majority of cases.
Your invoice should be a vehicle for getting paid in a timely fashion, not an invitation to irritation for your client.
Just 1 week left to complete the Q4 Agency Owner Survey
If you haven’t already taken our Q4 Agency Owner Survey, now’s your chance! Closing November 22, the survey will take less than 10 minutes of your time. And you’ll receive a detailed report of its findings, with a more limited set of results released publicly.
Each quarter, we ask for your feedback on how things are going generally and what the future looks like. Our Q4 survey also incorporates a deeper look at the specific aspect of Talent.
