Walk in the Other Guy's Shoes: 25 Lessons for the Marketing, Procurement, and Agency Triangle

What do New Year's resolutions, Valentine's Day, the Super Bowl, Mother's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving-and even Star Wars-have to teach us about building better business relationships?

Quite a lot, according to Joanne Davis.

In Walk in the Other Guy's Shoes, longtime agency search and relationship expert Joanne Davis turns the calendar into a practical-and often entertaining-guide to one of marketing's most consequential relationships: the triangle among marketers, procurement professionals, and agencies.

Drawing on decades of experience advising many of the world's leading companies and agencies, Davis offers 25 timely lessons about what makes client-agency relationships work, what causes them to unravel, and what each side can do differently.

Her premise is simple: marketers, procurement professionals, and agencies enter relationships with different responsibilities, pressures, expectations, and definitions of success. Better partnerships begin when each understands how the world looks from the other person's point of view.

From unclear briefs and agency reviews to compensation, feedback, ghosting, procurement's evolving role, AI, talent, trust, and the simple importance of saying thank you, Davis tackles familiar industry frustrations with candor, common sense, real-world examples, and humor.

WHY THIS BOOK MATTERS NOW

AI is changing how marketing and agency work gets done. Procurement is playing an increasingly important role in agency relationships. Agencies are being asked to deliver greater value, faster and more efficiently. Marketers face growing pressure to demonstrate business results amid tighter budgets, new technologies, and increasingly complex organizations.

Yet one thing remains remarkably constant:

Great work still depends on great relationships.

Davis argues that the marketing-procurement-agency triangle works best not when everyone thinks alike, but when each side understands-and respects-the responsibilities and pressures of the others.

WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK DIFFERENT

Rather than offering another dense management framework, Davis uses the rhythm of the calendar to make good relationship practices memorable.

New Year's Day becomes an opportunity to align expectations. Valentine's Day asks whether we still "love" the work, the people, and the partnership. Spring Cleaning invites us to discard behaviors that aren't working. Take Your Kids to Work Day inspires "Take Procurement to Agency Day." Halloween tackles tricks, broken promises-and ghosting. Thanksgiving reminds everyone of something surprisingly powerful: saying thank you.

Throughout, Davis's advice remains refreshingly human, candid, and practical.

Sometimes the smartest way to improve a business relationship is also the simplest:

Walk in the other guy's shoes.

Joanne Davis is a leading authority on agency search, compensation, and marketer-procurement-agency relationships. She founded Joanne Davis Consulting, Inc. in 2000 and became a partner in SCAN International in 2006. Her work focuses on agency models, client-agency optimization, agency search and compensation management, and marketing and procurement coaching and training.Davis began her career on the agency side, ultimately serving as an agency president and board member, and later served as acting CMO for the U.S. Department of Defense. She has advised many of the world's leading companies and their agencies and coached thousands of marketing and procurement executives globally.A frequent speaker and writer, Davis has addressed audiences on four continents for organizations including the ANA, 4A's, IAA World Congress, Festival of Media, ISM and the American Advertising Federation. She joined the ANA faculty in 2004 and serves among its "Ask the Experts" advisors. Advertising Age named her one of its inaugural "25 Women to Watch."Her previous book, How to Get Your Agency to Run Through Brick Walls Without Paying More, was published in 2024.

Bill Duggan is a longtime marketing and advertising industry leader who spent more than 25 years at the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), most recently as Group Executive Vice President before stepping down in 2026. At the ANA, he helped lead major industry initiatives addressing media transparency, production transparency, the programmatic supply chain, creative briefing, and digital advertising fraud, while overseeing key industry committees, conferences, and thought leadership.Before joining the ANA in 2000, Duggan worked in account management at Grey Advertising with major clients including Canon U.S.A., Kraft Foods, SmithKline Beecham, and Sara Lee. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at New York University's Stern School of Business. He holds a bachelor's degree from Boston College and an M.B.A. from New York University.

Jim Akers is a global procurement and strategic sourcing leader with extensive experience across marketing, media, creative agencies, and professional services. He is President of Akers Advisory International and previously held senior global procurement leadership roles at Avis Budget Group, Bristol Myers Squibb, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer.Throughout his career, Akers has worked at the intersection of procurement, marketing, and agency management, with responsibilities spanning global marketing and communications agencies, media, supplier compensation and relationship management, strategic sourcing, and organizational transformation. His work has emphasized moving procurement relationships beyond cost management toward strategic partnership and value creation.Akers holds a B.A. from American University.