Brian Gerstner, president of White Label IQ
Advertising agencies, business consultants and professional service firms in the past have been afraid of the other firms in the client’s waiting room.
Today, the firms that want to grow need to be more afraid of losing talent.
If you want to grow your firm, you need the right people. Many firms worry about finding and retaining top talent to serve the clients.
The answer to securing that talent might be right in front of you on the shelves of Walmart or Whole Foods Market: white labeling.
Think of the store brand on the shelves. It might be Great Value at Walmart or 365 Everyday Value at Whole Foods Market. These are white label products sold by the supermarkets with their own branding and logo. But they did not produce the products, they had help from a strategic third-party partner.
That third-party assistance can be the future of staffing for those firms who make a living selling time and talent.
“Flexible staffing is the key to competitive edge,” says Brian Gerstner, president of White Label IQ. “Strategic partnerships are essential for focus and ROI.”
His Colorado-based company provides white-labeled digital services to advertising and digital marketing agencies. We met in May of 2022 at the Build A Better Agency Summit in Chicago, which was attended by more than 200 agency executives.
Through White Label IQ, Gerstner works with over 50 advertising agencies where his main goal is to make their life easier and more profitable by focusing on their strengths and providing them with cost-effective as well as scalable resources.
Scaling is a challenge for professional services firm owners, who face a number of growth risks in the years ahead. These include reduced efficiency and productivity, increased labor costs, higher turnover costs and increased overhead costs.
Gerstner contends flexible staffing can boost innovation, provide access to specialized skills, improve employee morale, and adapt to changing demand.
In a recent phone interview, he shared these tips:
Maximize growth through strategic partnerships. “Taking calculated risks, along with partnering with a strategic partner, can create new opportunities by balancing potential benefits with potential risks,” says Gerstner. “This partnership enables companies to mitigate risks and achieve their goals through shared resources, expertise, and collaboration.”
Use strategic partnering to mitigate risk. “The advantages are improved workload management, cost savings, increased agility, access to top talent, and reduced overhead costs.”
Evaluate your strategy. Gerstner advises agencies to keep asking these questions: What are the core positions in your agency? What processes can you document for deliverables? What are the characteristics of a strong strategic partner?
Then get started. Gerstner says to identify goals, research partners, evaluate resources, communicate clearly with partners and develop agreements.
With more than 20 years of experience in the industry, Gerstner is an expert at creating, directing, and leading teams of freelance marketing and software professionals both domestically and internationally. He truly believes in the power and potential of flexible staffing. He says now is the time to double down to maximize ROI.
“Flexible staffing allows you to be really good at what you do and to bring other players to the table who are really good at what they do,” says Gerstner. “Then a client can have best-in-class development, best-in-class strategy, and best-in-class search engine optimization. It is the agency of the future. It is a collective.”
