The Art Of Client Service, Revised And Updated Edition Part 6

This is a book of rules, but an account executive works in a world of exceptions. No rule can accommodate every situation, and no list of rules is exhaustive. In the end, the only rule you can rely on is this: Judgment rules.

CHAPTER 35.

Credit Is for Creative Directors.

Did you see the film Wag the Dog Wag the Dog? The character played by Dustin Hoffman is called Stanley Motss. Stanley is a movie producer. At one point in the movie he does a riff on how everyone knows what the directors and actors do, but no one understands what a producer does. Later, he insists, "I want the credit!" Instead of getting the credit, he gets murdered. A lesson to us all.

Poor Stanley might just as well have been an agency account executive. If you're worried about getting the credit, I suggest you think about another line of work. As an account exec, your job is to give the credit-to your clients, to your colleagues-not to take it. Often, the only people who truly appreciate what you do are other account people.

Years ago, a creative team I was working with wanted to present some envelope-pushing work to our client. I knew my client tended to quickly kill new thinking if it made her even slightly nervous. So I called the client the day before the presentation and said, "Do you have time for dinner this evening?" She did.

We went without anyone else from the agency or her company. We had a great time talking about everything except work. When the time was right, I said, "Look, you're going to see some great concepts tomorrow. The creative team worked incredibly hard on the a.s.signment, and they're really excited about what they have to show you. All of the work is really smart, but some of the best stuff is pretty edgy. Try to keep an open mind. If something concerns you, let's not kill it out-of-hand. Let's talk about it first." She agreed.

The next day, the presentation went really well, and the client bought the agency's recommendation. On the way back to the agency, the creative director said, "That was a surprise. I was expecting a fight. I wasn't expecting the client to approve our recommendation."

To which I answered, "The work was great, and you did an amazing job presenting it." Then I smiled. I knew I had helped achieve the right outcome, and that was good enough for me. The creative team could have the credit. They earned it.

CHAPTER 36.

You Cannot Lead an Account from Your Desk When I worked at a Boston-based agency, my main client was in New York. That company worked with multiple agencies; our shop was the only one not in New York. I learned early on that if we were going to hold our own against the compet.i.tors, I would have to spend more time in New York than Boston. I earned an astonishing number of frequent flyer miles shuttling between the two cities.

If I didn't have any New York client meetings scheduled for a particular week, I would pick a day and plan a visit there anyway. I'd call a couple of my client contacts and say, "Hey, I have to be in New York on Thursday. You around that day? I'd love to stop in to say h.e.l.lo." That's how I would fill my calendar. In between the meetings I scheduled I would walk the halls to say h.e.l.lo to my other contacts. Many times I'd get pulled into an office for an impromptu conversation.

It was a great way to serve my clients. I knew it was working when one of my client contacts awarded my shop a new a.s.signment and said, "You guys are in Boston, but I see you here way more than the New York agencies."

Account work is fieldwork. You need to visit your clients regularly, no matter if they are on the next street or in the next time zone. Phone calls and e-mails don't replace face time.

Don't wait for trouble before you get off your b.u.t.t. Spend time with clients when things are going well. Most clients have little patience for account people who only show up when something goes wrong. If that's the only time you see your client, then you won't have forged the relationship you need in order to fix the problem you're there to address.

I once worked with an agency executive who didn't like to travel to the city where one of our largest clients was located. My colleague was a very senior guy, critical to building a relationship with top management. During the years the agency worked with this client, my colleague was an all-too-infrequent presence at client headquarters.

The client fired us after some ongoing issues that we couldn't seem to get resolved. There were lots of reasons why we were dismissed. One of them, I think, was a lack of attention from our agency's senior management. The client's CEO found it too easy to fire us; there was no relationship at the top. Perhaps if there had been one, the outcome would have been different.

It is almost impossible to spend too much time with clients. So, if you lack a specific reason to see your clients, create one.

CHAPTER 37.

Avoid the Dark Side You've probably read about top account people who develop such a close personal relationship with their clients that they are said to "own" the account. In truly extreme cases, an account person can shop the client to competing agencies. If the account person switches agencies, the client switches with them.

I can't begin to say how completely, utterly unethical this is. Yes, one of your primary responsibilities is to forge a strong bond with your client. Yes, people work with people, not with organizations. But this does not give you license to ignore your obligations to the agency that employs you. This is the primary reason agencies now make senior executives sign nonsolicit, noncompete agreements that are designed to prevent account people from taking clients with them when they switch agencies.

Your job is to build a strong client relationship on behalf of your agency, not not on behalf of yourself. You do not own the client relationship; you are merely the keeper of it. You have a fiduciary and an ethical responsibility to do everything in your power to ensure that the client feels loyal not just to you, but to other people in the agency, and to the agency as a whole. on behalf of yourself. You do not own the client relationship; you are merely the keeper of it. You have a fiduciary and an ethical responsibility to do everything in your power to ensure that the client feels loyal not just to you, but to other people in the agency, and to the agency as a whole.

If you have done your best to facilitate ties between your client and the agency, the client is much less likely to go with you if you change agencies. If the client does decide to find a new agency after you've left, you'll know that it wasn't due to any shortcoming on your part, but rather on a shortcoming at the shop you left behind. You'll be known as a person of integrity. In the context of a long career, that is far more valuable than any short-term gain you might derive from an account you are able to transport to a new agency.

CHAPTER 38.

Great Work Wins Business; a Great Relationship Keeps It In new business pitches, clients often claim to seek a relationship with the agency, yet select the winner based on which shop presented the work they liked best. Conversely, with existing accounts, clients often say it's the work that matters, yet fire the agency because of a breakdown in the relationship.

Think of all the client-agency marriages that dissolved, even though they were characterized by great work. BMW and Ammirati & Puris. Ikea and Deutsch. Taco Bell and TBWAChiatDay. Charles Schwab and BBDO. Staples and Cliff Freeman. Add your own examples. The list can get very, very long.

I remember what one client said to me years ago, "I love your work; the agency is very creative. But you guys are just too hard to deal with; everything is a fight. If I have to choose, I'll take an agency a little less talented but a whole lot easier to work with."

And then she fired us.

We had won the account based on our work. We lost the account because we didn't understand that while great work is what wins business, a great relationship is what keeps it. We thought if we did great work, the relationship stuff would take care of itself. Advertising isn't just a creative business, though; it's a relationship business.

I don't mean relationship as in "doing lunch," although there certainly is a time and place for that. I mean relationship as in doing all of the things, and being all of the things, that build trust with the client. Listening. Asking the right questions. Antic.i.p.ating and solving problems. Meeting commitments. Managing expectations. Eliminating unpleasant surprises. Taking ownership. Acting with integrity.

A client who trusts you will seek your counsel. A client who trusts you will forgive your honest mistakes, and will work with you to correct them. A client who trusts you will partner with you in taking the risks that lead to great work.

A relationship is like a brand: you have to invest in it, and understand that it gets built over time. You can't rush it; even the slightest hint of insincerity, dishonesty, or manipulation will kill a relationship before it has a chance to develop.

Whenever I hear someone say, "The work is the only thing that matters," I think of the client who fired me years ago. It reminds me that if you don't pay attention to building a strong relationship with your client, you run the risk of being shown the door, no matter how terrific the work.

Advertising is is about the work, but remember that advertising is a business. Business is about relationships, and a great relationship allows great work to flourish. about the work, but remember that advertising is a business. Business is about relationships, and a great relationship allows great work to flourish.

CHAPTER 39.

We Are Smarter Together Than We Are Alone At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Ben Franklin said to his Continental Congress colleagues, "We must all hang together, or a.s.suredly we shall all hang separately." Ben of course was worried about the British. The reason I pay attention to Ben is I worry about the enemies of great advertising.

The creation of advertising and everything that surrounds it-the plans, presentations, budgets, and schedules-is a collaborative process. Effective collaboration is key to making great advertising. So why are so many agencies siloed? Why do departments within agencies-account management, creative, media-often act more like compet.i.tors than colleagues? Why is it that many agencies are characterized by turf battles, warring egos, and petty politics?

I suppose you could excuse some of this because of the inherently nonlinear, dysfunctional nature of creating advertising. But much of it, I think, is the result of people forgetting who and what the enemies are.

To get your colleagues to hang together, remind them that the enemy is the compet.i.tion. The enemy is never having enough time to do the work. The enemy is whatever stands in the way of making great work.

Remind your colleagues that you need one another in order to create the best possible advertising in the most efficient and cost-effective way. Remind them you are smarter together than you are alone.

Above all, remind them that if you don't hang together and help one another, you will will hang separately, soon after the client replaces your agency with another. hang separately, soon after the client replaces your agency with another.

Communication

CHAPTER 40.

Make No Commitment without Consultation As a young account executive starting out in the business, I had the good fortune to work with the client from h.e.l.l. I don't know if this client hated agencies in general, or simply hated me in particular, but it seemed as if I could do no right.

I dreaded telephone calls from this client; I would flinch before picking up the phone. Meetings were worse; I'd lie awake the night before in dread.

I remember one particularly difficult discussion about a schedule. The client was biting: "It takes you guys longer to write an ad than it took Tolstoy to write War and Peace War and Peace. I want to see copy two days from now, not two weeks from now. Okay?"

I didn't know it at the time, but this was a test. I was intimidated by this client. When he said "Okay?" it was strictly rhetorical. He meant, "Get it done, you worthless bag carrier!"

The easy way out would have been to say, "You got it!" and beat a hasty retreat, but I knew that would only delay worse pain. There was no way we could have copy to him in two days, and when we failed to deliver, all the client's rage would be visited on me.

I also knew that saying no would mean rage right there. He'd pick up the phone, call my boss, and scream at her.

So, in an instant, I said, "Let me make a quick call and see what we can do." The client looked at me derisively. "Sure, go ahead and call your pals." I stepped out of his office, found a phone, and spoke with my creative colleagues. After I did some begging and pleading, they agreed to have something to the client in four days.

I went back to the client and said, "I know you want it in two days, but how about four days? That's a big improvement over two weeks."

His answer: "Three days." To which I replied, "John, I can push the creatives to three days, but it isn't enough time to get the work right. We'll wind up having to do a major rewrite and take even more time. Give us the four days and we'll nail it."

"It better be brilliant," was his reply.

When I got back to the agency, the creatives weren't happy, but they knew what I was dealing with in this client, and they understood. They delivered in four days.

I didn't have an entirely happy client. I didn't have an entirely happy group of colleagues. But I had managed to broker a solution without the client asking my boss to fire me, and without my colleagues thinking I had sold them down the river.

What I took away from this experience is to make no commitment without consultation.

When a client makes a request, let alone a demand, your first, and understandable, instinct is to say yes. The more senior the client, the more urgent the need, the more strident the tone, the more you want to comply on the spot. Don't do it.

Even with seemingly simple requests, a unilateral yes is not not the right answer. It does a terrible disservice to everyone-your colleagues, yourself, and most of all, your client. the right answer. It does a terrible disservice to everyone-your colleagues, yourself, and most of all, your client.

A commitment without consultation ignores the collaborative nature of making advertising. It pays no respect to the people you work with. Besides, you might not be able to deliver on your commitment.

You may be a big fish in the agency food chain. You may have the power to say yes, but you and your client will soon feel the consequences of the unchecked exercise of that power. It will undermine teamwork, erode morale, and destroy your credibility.

The fact is, the more senior you are, the easier it is to explain to your client that you want to check with others before saying yes.

That doesn't mean you say no either. (See Chapter 41 Chapter 41.) The exact answer you give will of course depend on the circ.u.mstances, but it should go something like this: "I think think it will be fine, but give me a minute to check, then get back to you." it will be fine, but give me a minute to check, then get back to you."

Go to your colleagues, gain consensus, then get back to your client, without delay. The client needs an answer, quickly, that all of you can live with.

CHAPTER 41.

There Is No No in Your Client Vocabularyin Your Client Vocabulary Your job is to build bridges, not barriers. No No is a barrier builder. is a barrier builder.

So, even when a client makes a seemingly unreasonable request-about a deadline, a budget, a change in the work-no is not the answer. is not the answer. No No helps no one-not the agency, not your colleagues, and of course, not the client. helps no one-not the agency, not your colleagues, and of course, not the client.

What is the right answer?

First remember to make no commitment without consultation. Even after you've spoken with your colleagues, you may still not be able to give your clients exactly what they want.

When an unqualified yes isn't possible, offer a qualified one: "Here's what we can do; it's not a perfect solution, but does it address your need?"

Discuss, negotiate, collaborate, solve the problem together. Even difficult clients will usually accept a reasonable solution, especially when you've made every effort to give them what they want.

That's what happened with the story I told about the "client from h.e.l.l" in Chapter 40 Chapter 40. I admit it wasn't much of a negotiation, but I did get the client to accept (grudgingly) a solution a little short of his demand, without completely upsetting my colleagues. I also lived to work another day.

CHAPTER 42.

Before You Tell Clients or Colleagues What You Think, Tell Them What You Know Everyone has an opinion. And you want to hear their opinions, especially your client's.

You'll be tempted to add yours to the mix. You should. Before you do, remember that your job is to be an expert source on the business-a source not just of opinions, but of facts.

So get the facts on the table first. What you know about the compet.i.tors, the customers, or anything else that has a bearing on the discussion. Everyone else has opinions, but as the facts you present demonstrate, yours is an informed one.