Hot take: I thought our agency partnership was solid until a client in Phoenix asked for a change.

We had a referral deal with a web dev shop for 2 years where we just sent leads back and forth. The client said, 'Why aren't you two working together on my project?' That made me see we were just passing work, not really teaming up. Do you think a true partnership needs a shared project plan from the start?

3 comments

3 Comments

paige4271mo ago

Wait, you guys had a partnership without ever actually working on the same thing? That's like calling someone your gym buddy but you just wave from different treadmills. Of course the client noticed, they're paying for one team and got a weird game of telephone. You need a real plan together, not just a handoff note. Otherwise you're just two separate companies with a fancy name for forwarding emails.

thomas2751mo ago

Read a case study where a loose referral setup like that fell apart after a client audit. What's your backup plan when the handoff fails?

foster.charles1mo ago

Lol is it that deep though? Sounds like the referral setup was working fine for two years. The client just pointed out something obvious, but that doesn't mean you need a whole shared plan for every lead. Sometimes a simple handoff is all you need, not some big complicated partnership. If you start overthinking it, you'll just make more work for yourselves.