{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Recipe for Success: Do Less of Better, Not More of Crap","description":"Lee Caraher is Founder, President, and CEO of Double Forte, a \u201cfiercely independent public relations and social media firm\u201d with offices in New York and San Francisco. They select clients that are good companies doing great things in their categories (in particular \u2013 consumer lifestyle, digital life, and professional services); and set goals based on business outcomes (ROI)\u2014not PR outcomes. At least 50% of the company\u2019s employees has a minimum of 8 years of experience. In this interview, Lee provides tips on how to communicate effectively in email messages and why it is important for an agency to be \u201ceasy to work with.\u201d She believes that measuring against business goals comes first, because the closer an agency is to meeting its clients\u2019 business goals, the longer term its contracts will be. The longer term its contracts are, the more profit the agency can drive out of those contracts and the longer it will keep its employees. Her company\u2019s average client engagement period from Day 1 is 5-\u00bd years, double the average retention rate in San Francisco. With an eye for the numbers, Lee points out that these strategies also help on the staffing side: Her 16-year-old company\u2019s average tenure for people under 30 is 4-\u00bd years and over 30 is 6-\u00bd years. During the 2008 recession Lee re-engineered her company. Originally, she had required new hires to have at least 10 years of experience. With the economic downturn, she knew she had to bring on less-experienced people so that when things turned around, she would have a continuum of experience instead of a \u201chard times\u201d hiring freeze \u201cdoughnut hole.\u201d She cut frills, diversified the client base and increased the percentage of consumer goods clients (working with consumer goods clients on a national basis), and told her employees to dig deep with prospective clients. Instead of saying \u201cNo\u201d as a first response to clients that didn\u2019t appear to \u201cfit,\u201d she told her agents to say, \u201cYes, tell me more.\u201d If they got to \u201cNo\u201d in the end, they would have arrived there by going through, \u201cYes,\u201d and not bypassed an opportunity. Lee can be reached on her company\u2019s website at: double-forte.com or follow her on Twitter @DoubleFortePR. ","author_name":"The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/spinutech.com","html":"