Building a Manifesto (part 3 of 6)

Here’s another installment in my series about our Manifesto. This set of ‘Six rules to live and die by’ has served us very well over the years, and we are challenged every day to uphold and respect these rules.

(And sure, we’ll admit our Manifesto has evolved. We’re less naive now than we were five years ago, and more naive than we will be five years from now. The point is to keep your Manifesto relevant and sincere.)

This is part 3 of 6: Trust people to do what they do best.

We live in a society that rewards specialization. At BatesMeron, we aren’t doctors, accountants or engineers. We don’t know how to manufacture a widget. Please don’t ask us to speculate on what a Radiopharmacist or Adsorption Engineer does with their day. (We looked it up; didn’t help much.) But we do know how to brand businesses, develop positioning and strategy, create marketing plans and roll out beautiful creative work. That’s what we do. Passionately.

To us, nothing is more rewarding than working for someone who knows their business, knows their goals and isn’t afraid to rely on a partner to help achieve them. Our favorite relationships are with people who are the best at what they do—we trust our clients to live up to the buzz we’re creating around them, and we trust our vendors to support us by being excellent craftsmen and responsible professionals.

And it’s not blind trust we’re talking about here. This is trust that’s built over time. It’s trust that’s been reference-checked, fact-checked, time-tested, tried and true. Trust that’s earned should be rewarded, and never taken for granted. Once trust is established, giving someone your word carries weight—and if the relationship goes both ways, it’s an honor, not a burden.

Trust is also incredibly liberating. We know it’s not easy to turn over the reigns, but delegating to proven partners is priceless: if you trust us to do what we do best, you can focus your energies on other things. At the end of the day, if our clients can’t (or won’t) trust us to handle their brand with tender loving care, how can they focus on their own job? And how can we sleep at night if we can’t trust our printer to be the best color matching, soy-based ink using, spot varnish specialist with the know-how to deliver on time every time? After all, we cared for that baby from inception. Once we drop it off at your house, you’d better take care of it!

When the relationship between an agency, a client and the supporting vendors is built on mutual respect and trust, the payoff is awesome.

xo.