Issue 114, 23/06/09

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Are you paying the right level of remuneration? Does your remuneration model align your suppliers' efforts to delivering your objectives? Does your remuneration structure provide you with the flexibility to respond to the changes in the market with little cost impact?

In this edition of TrinityP3 e-news, we look at retainers and the best way to develop, implement and manage these, plus we launch our unique Remuneration Calculators, and show you how they can help you understand your agency fees.

Calculating agency fees

Ever been baffled by how your agency calculates head hour rates? Or wondered how the overhead and profit multiple is worked out? Curious what salary the Creative Director is getting when billed out at $595 per hour?

Industry Best Practice Calculators

There are many different ways to calculate these charges, and TrinityP3 has developed a set of on-line calculators using industry best practise methodology.

So calculate your agency’s salaries, head hour rates, billable hours and mark-up multiple here using best practise methodology with TrinityP3's Remuneration Calculators. And bookmakr it for future reference.

You can also download our Top 10 Ways to Prepare for an Agency Remuneration Negotiation.

Retainers: good to better, better to best

Many marketers have moved from media commissions and service fees to retainer based remuneration models. Yet although retainers often provide a minimum of management during the course of the agreement, they can become problematic at renewal or review time, especially if there are reductions in the marketing budget, requiring reductions in the retainer.

Recently these have been highlighted to our clients in a number of ways:

1. Retainer reduction negotiation:
A client had a Retainer based on the delivery of a number of full time equivalent staff (FTEs) of 6.8 to deliver all of the account management, strategy and creative concept work required. There was no defined scope of work other than a loose description of the services to be provided under the contract.

With the reduction in the overall marketing budget of 25%, the client wanted to reduce the agency retainer by the same amount. However, the agency responded that the actual FTE level had been running at 9.18 (supported by timesheets) or 35% higher than contracted and that a 25% reduction in spend and associated work would require a 10% increase in the current retainer and an increase in FTEs to 7.5 to be equitable.

What to do? Click here to continue reading 'Retainer: good to better, better to best

Or to get an assessment of your current retainer or find out more about developing a best practice remuneration model contact TrinityP3 in Melbourne 03 9682 6800 or Sydney 02 8399 0922 or at people@trinityp3.com

Pitch with the experts

TrinityP3 have much experience when it comes to supplier selection. In the past 12 months alone we have run pitches for Vodafone, Medibank, Lexus, Hutchison and Fidelity.

As part of this experience we have developed a White Paper titled 'Improving the Search and Selection Process'. The paper covers areas such as:

1. Pitching Best Practise
2. The Selection Process
3. Areas of Concern
4. Factors Contributing to Selection
5. What Drives Satisfaction
6. Is Satisfaction Enough?
7. Final Recommendations

Click here to download TrinityP3's Search & Selection White Paper
Click here to download TrinityP3's Search & Selection Services
Or click here to contact us to discuss your next pitch.