Jodi Lebow, Director of Marketing, Global Demand Center at Hexagon -- How to Make an Agency Feel Like a Part of Your Team

Finding an external vendor is not an easy task, and you have to dig deep to find someone who truly meets your expectations. But there are many different types of agencies and approaches to choose from; so, how do you choose the right one for your company? In this episode of the YouShouldTalkTo podcast, our host Daniel Weiner welcomes Jodi Lebow, the director of Global Demand Gen at Hexagon. They talk about why there's no one-size-fits-all agency, why a generic approach never works out in business, and how to develop a long-term relationship with your new agency. ## Guest-at-a-Glance 💡 Name: Jodi Lebow, Director, Global Demand Center at Hexagon. 💡 Company: Hexagon 💡 Noteworthy: Jodi is an industry-recognized and high-energy B2B marketing leader with a passion for driving revenue with effective marketing approaches. She has extensive experience in data-driven demand generation and account-based marketing (ABM) and has a track record of creating strategic, integrated go-to-market strategies. 💡 Where to find Jodi: LinkedIn ## Key Insights ⚡ There's no one-size-fits-all agency. When hiring an external vendor, look for someone who meets your specific needs. Jodi explains, "With agencies, I think that for me one size just doesn't fit all. There are so many types of agencies and different approaches that you can't just lump them. And I think that agencies can provide a lot of best practices and expertise that you might not be able to build up fully internally, and they can also be great for staff augmentation when we can't build up the teams internally. So I think they're a real value. I think, just like anything nowadays, you have to maybe weed through some things to find those really good nuggets of those teams and those agencies that are the right fit." ⚡A generic approach never works out. Thinking out of the box is key in business. Companies are more likely to choose agencies that take the time to write a customized email and take a customized approach. Jodi says, "I think it's looking for those agencies that feel like a fit, that I could see as an extension of my team, that can move at my speed, and hear me during that evaluation process and what we're looking for and can really hone in on that. Because I think that the worst thing is spending time trying to articulate a challenge or need or what we're looking for and then have them still come with some generic pitch deck and try to talk about what they want to talk about. So those that actually can customize and dig in and try to understand what we're looking for [are valuable]." ⚡Make your agency feel like a part of the team. Even though you're working with an external vendor, you should still make them feel like they're a part of your team. Jodi says, "You have to put in the time; they're not going to be able to do things that you want in a vacuum, or you're not going to be happy. So, I think you have to have that time to share and review and also to know we aren't always the channel experts, and we want people to push us. We want to try new things, and I expect them to bring that to the table." ##