GE Legend Linda Boff’s 5 Insights Every Brand and Agency Should Know

Eminent CMO Linda Boff‘s departure from General Electric in April made news for two reasons. First, it marked the end of a tenure that included GE shedding its appliance brands and then splitting into three industrial companies. Second, though Boff could arguably have written her ticket to any marketing suite in corporate America, she decided to join an ad agency instead.

In June, Boff became CEO of Said Differently, a shop that’s upended the traditional agency model by eschewing a large, full-time staff in favor of a “global talent network” of designers, analysts, and digital strategists.

Crossing over to the agency side has given Boff the opportunity to look at marketing and advertising from a dual perspective, recognizing the places where both CMOs and agencies frequently fall short. In conversation with ADWEEK’s chief brand and community officer Jenny Rooney at the Brandweek summit in Phoenix, Ariz., Boff shared an informed perspective on how brands and agencies should adjust their thinking to create smoother relationships—and better work.

Agencies get the clients they deserve

Having earned her stripes at Citigroup before moving to GE in 2003, Boff has sat through many a pitch meeting—and watched agencies make the same mistakes over and over. “Agencies get the clients they deserve,” she said. “What I mean by that is, if you as an agency are showing up to sell work and to win work, and you’re not there to figure out a brand’s needs, it’s not the formula for a great relationship.”

Take the CMO blinders off

Some of the most valuable experience a marketer can get lays outside of the marketing department. At GE, “I spent most of my time with other people in the C-suite,” Boff said. “The ability to talk to the CFO, talk to the head of IR [investor relations], to the chief people officer and the CEO was an important part of my journey.”

During the years of work required to section the corporation into three publicly traded brands (GE Aerospace, GE HealthCare and energy company GE Vernova), Boff was able to play her role because she understood the roles of others. “I don’t think I could have been successful if I had the marketing blinders on,” she said.

Put the right people in the right jobs

One of the problems with how traditional agencies match creatives with brands, Boff said, is taking a one-size-fits-all approach. At Said Differently, by drawing from a pool of thousands of creative specialists, “we take a look at any business, any problem, any challenge, and we cast the right team of people to work on that,” she said.

The team selected for one client won’t be repeated for another. According to Boff, agencies should remember that “no two clients are alike; no two problems are alike.”

Quit pretending you know everything

“No agency, no matter how good they are, walks in the same shoes as the client,” Boff said. A big mistake she’s seen creative shops making—especially those with a long history and a lengthy list of brand clients—is assuming that they know everything. They don’t. “The role of the agency as a partner is to understand the business problem or to hear the business problem, and then to take that fresh lens and apply it,” she said.

Shut up and listen

When brands meet with agencies, Boff said, the conversation is all too often transactional, especially on the creative side. “The advice that I give our team all the time is: You have two ears and one mouth—listen hard,” she said.

While it’s natural that a seasoned agency will come into a meeting and immediately begin showing off their past work, what it really needs to do is clam up. The successful agency, she said, will practice the fine art of “listening hard versus selling hard.”