An agency/client relationship is a puzzle, and kind of one that can never be solved.

Maybe it’s like this:

Side 1: We had a great intro meeting.
Side 2: We came back with a great pitch proposal.
Side 3: We revised the proposal until it worked for everyone.
Side 4: We moved to SOW and got that all worked out.
Side 5: We kicked off a great define phase
Slide 6: We’re moving into design & engineering; this is great.

Puzzle solved!

But suddenly:

The client has less money than intended.
There’s a new procurement guy.
Our contact quit and the new contact has another agency pal.
It’s Monday, someone changed their mind.

The puzzle’s never solved for long. Solve it, celebrate the win, and plan to solve it again and again.