Agencies and their clients should be pursuing the same goals. So why does it always seem like they’re fighting on opposing teams? Find out how to work together in harmony.

Successful relationships are forged by common interests, trust, and mutual understanding. This holds true of any relationship — including that of an agency and its client.

David Friedman, SVP and president of marketing for Sears Holdings Corp., understands the intricacies of the agency-client relationship better than anyone. As the former president of Razorfish, Friedman has had the rare opportunity to work as both an agency head and brand executive. In his keynote address at the iMedia Agency Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz., Friedman explained how agencies can improve their relationships with clients.

Know that the client is under just as much pressure as you are
When asked about what it was like to make the transition from Razorfish to Sears, Friedman said, "One of my peers said that, when you’re a CMO, the day you start, they fire a bullet and you’re supposed to run as fast as you can until it catches you… and it’s not a matter of if but when."

Agencies often forget that brand marketers are under the same pressure to meet deadlines and quotas. Awareness creates empathy: Remember, you are not racing against each other; you are racing with each other.

Don’t think of collaborating agencies as competitors
Media and creative agencies need to work together. While Friedman concedes that it is the brand’s responsibility to coordinate this, agencies don’t do themselves any favors by acting passive aggressive as they "fight for their piece of the pie."

Running with that metaphor, Freidman explained that instead of fighting to get a bigger piece, agencies should focus their efforts on working together to make the whole pie bigger. When the brand succeeds, the agencies succeed as more brand dollars are allocated to digital innovation.

Understand your clients overarching marketing goals
"I’m surprised that few agencies actually come to talk to me about my whole marketing problem," Friedman said. "If they’re a TV agency, they’ll come to talk to me about TV, or if they’re search, they’ll come to talk to me about search. But that’s not my problem. My problem is marketing."

The bottom line is that clients expect you to talk about their marketing strategies as a whole and not just "your sliver of expertise." Before you pitch, take the time to understand how you fit into the big picture. Do this by educating yourself on what’s important to the clients: Know their businesses, customers, and competitors.

Remember that it’s all about the customer
Friedman is wary of agencies that make claims like "digital is at our core" or "all our ideas start with digital."

All ideas should start with the customer — after all, marketing to the customer is what it’s really about. Agencies that focus more on the medium than the goal have blinders on as to what really needs to be done to solve the problem.

In order to market effectively, agencies need to understand the customers and what drives them in their daily lives.