What makes a successful Agent/Talent relationship?

Alex is the Managing Director of major UK talent agency InterTalent. He represents his clients alongside overseeing the agency's creative strategy, day-to-day operations & acquisitions.

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🤔 What makes a successful Agent/Talent relationship?

This is a conversation that comes up on a daily basis. What is the relationship supposed to be like? How often should we call each other? Should our clients still do their own networking and create their own work? What if I don’t hear for 2 days? 3 days? 4 days?

Building a great relationship with your talent is the second most important defining factor in whether the partnership is going to be a success. It’s integral. Side note: I’d say the #1 defining factor is CREATING OPPORTUNITIES. You might have a great rapport with your clients but ultimately winning beats everything else most of the time. You want to get to the end of your career and say I achieved this, this and this not I had a great partnership which I loved but nothing major ever happened. Some people will even go as far as to say that as long as you’re delivering big results nothing else matters as much. I wouldn’t go that far but I do agree that success is always going to be the defining factor. You can be the best Agent in the world when it comes to networking or negotiating but without great clients achieving big moments it becomes meaningless. That said, forging a great relationship is extremely important and what we always hope for. An unaligned one usually leads to an early end date. When you’re not in sync it can be tough to create a spark.

A first meeting will always be positive but it’s impossible to know if it’ll be a great fit. If you click enough in the room, and you want to offer representation, you just have to pray it starts well. You don’t really know how things will pan out until you get to work, but the aim is to try and suss out quickly if the other person feels like they will understand you, understand your ambitions, understand your lifestyle and understand what’s important to you.

At InterTalent, we only sign those we believe in for the long term. We’re always talking 5 years, 10 years ahead. It’s so important to us that we get it right at the start otherwise we might not even hit 2 years which would be a waste of everyone’s time and hard work. Every conversation is to change the long-term success of our client. At our company, we are fortunate to have a team of 30+ people so we always feel we have someone who will be the perfect partner for our talent. Those clients in the spotlight can operate in a very unique way, and finding the right combination to be part of the team is an art form in itself.

Today, I’m going to break down what I think makes a great partnership.

Let’s go! ⬇️

One of the greatest attributes an Agent can have is to be a chameleon; being everything to everyone. Having the ability to adapt our working style to fit our client’s style of working is a must. They are hiring us to do a job. We need to be able to do it in the way they want or they will find someone else who will. Some clients like to chat about the weekend or the Football before talking shop. Others don’t care and just want to get to the point. Some will only call, others only WhatsApp. Every Talent you sign is different, with their own nuances, and it is them who sets the style of the working relationship they are after.

As I mentioned in my last blog, this is a 24/7 job and we are on call at all times. There’s no such thing as not being available. However, it is important that your talent knows that you have a certain way of doing the best job for them and they need to trust and empower you to do that. Communicating that, and keeping them updated as often as is useful, is key. You might be working hard but if your client has no idea about what you’re doing then it’s fair that their mind starts to wander and question what, if anything, is proactively being achieved to push their career forwards.

Like any relationship, it will always need care and attention. Success will bring unexpected new pressures and challenges, and the needs of your client will expand. In any case, there are certain non-negotiables for a productive and prolific partnership.

Here’s my guide to what a great Agent/Talent partnership looks like ⬇️

• ✅ Communication: I mentioned it above and I know it sounds simple but in practice, it isn’t. When a talent is so well known they get things coming to them directly and people try and bypass the Agent if they can. You have to tell each other absolutely everything, the Agent should handle all opportunities and the diary has to be right at all times otherwise major slip-ups can happen. Failing at logistics is not acceptable. Likewise, an Agent has to properly communicate what conversations they are having to push their talent’s career forward and feedback where appropriate. Which leads to…

• ✅ Expectations: This is a big one. Managing expectations. It’s one of the hardest parts of being an Agent, especially with profile talent. Understanding where your talent sits in the food chain, and being realistic about that level, is crucial. Just saying YES to everything your client says or adding to their ego when it’s unsubstantiated is one of the worst things an Agent can do. Telling the truth and being real about where they sit in the industry or about a decision they want to make that you know is detrimental might be tough, it might not be what they want to hear and they might be pissed off with you for a day or 2 but I believe being honest with your client, especially with bad news, is important.

• ✅ Trust: You have to be able to trust each other with confidential information. If your client does not tell you everything they are doing or you find things out about them from a third party you clearly don’t have the relationship you thought you might. It’s a major problem and it means there are cracks. If you’re worried they won’t keep things to themselves, or if they don’t feel like they can tell you every important piece of news then there is a fundamental breakdown of what the set-up is meant to be, and that goes both ways. The partnership needs to be an unbreakable bond full of top-secret, classified information. A respectable and responsible Agent will never break the bond of being in the inner circle. It’s a pact you make when you shake hands on working together.

• ✅ Decision Making: I often meet clients who are leaving Agents because either a) the Agent is making job decisions without their knowledge or b) they don’t feel they have the final say. That is completely wrong. A partnership means being on the same level, yes, but ultimately an Agent is employed by the Talent. We work for them and get paid to do so. An Agent’s job is to give advice on any given opportunity based on their experience, knowledge and understanding of the industry. It is up to the talent to take that advice and make a final decision… and what they say goes. I never make a decision without consulting my client. They have full knowledge and transparency. The only time that isn’t the case is if the client has, in advance, said ‘I never want to do X or Y, you don’t even need to run that past me’ but even that is dictated by the client. If you are on the same wavelength strategically then 9 times out of 10 your advice on YES or NO will match your client’s verdict. Every now and then they will take a different view and that is the final answer. If you make the decision for your client and it goes wrong, that will only end one way. Your client always has to make the final call.

• ✅ Selective: We often meet people who have lots of people working on their behalf, fighting for the same jobs. It’s impossible to build a connection like that. This is not to be confused with having other Agents in other countries or covering areas of the industry which you don’t. That’s called building a good team… but when talent has no one person and opens their arms to anyone who brings an opportunity to their door there is no way to be strategic or achieve consistency. It can be undermining and an uphill task to build any consistency. Being ‘their person’ is important if there is going to be consistent success.

• ✅ Wavelength: From the very beginning you both need to agree on a strategy. As discussed in a previous blog, at InterTalent we always set 1, 3 and 5 year plans. The talent is integral in setting that plan. You have to agree on where you are and where you want to be, and the kinds of opportunities that are going to get us there. What are the creative jobs and what are the financial jobs? If a job doesn’t tick either the STRATEGY box or the MONEY box then there is absolutely no reason to do it. If an Agent and their client can never agree on what the right next move is then clearly it’s the wrong match. Every Agent has a different opinion and style on what should happen. A talent should find the person who aligns with their vision.

• ✅ Getting Paid: Getting your client paid in full and on time is one of the most important parts of the job. It’s the one area that you can’t slip, ever. Your client has bills to pay and food to put on the table. We all do. Yes, chasing payments is definitely not a fun part of the job and at times you are left pulling your hair out but you have to be on it every single day. Nothing gives an Agent a bad reputation like not getting your client paid properly.

The relationship between our Agents at InterTalent and our talent is a bond that we take seriously. We are always looking to get it right and keep improving. There is nothing more important than our talent, and how we work with them every day to create the best results. It’s the very basis for why we have successfully represented some of the biggest stars in the UK over the last 30 years.

As ever, here are a few recommendations to check out:

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🎧 TO LISTEN:

Strike Force Five Fallon, Kimmel, Colbert, Oliver & Meyers have got together in support of the Writer’s Strike to create a hilarious joint podcast. It’s laugh-out-loud brilliant.

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How Did This Get Made? Have you ever seen a film so bad that it's amazing?

📺 TO WATCH:

Harlan Coben's Shelter, Amazon Prime Really loving this YA murder mystery series. Harlan Coben is always a brilliant storyteller. Need the next ep and now!

At Home With The Fury's, Netflix Ok, I don’t know anyone who isn’t watching this so it’s probably a useless recommendation… if you haven’t seen it, then you are missing out.

Manifest, Netflix Love a mystery Sci-Fi series. Watched the first series a few years ago and now Netflix has picked it up it’s got even better.

See you next time!

Alex