Let me talk to your clients
I work with tons of different brand teams in ad agencies every week. When I talk to my various colleagues about best pratices in digital, they often say, "We get it, but this client wants [x/y/z]," or "We tried, but this client is very stubborn." My response is always the same:
Let me talk to them.
I do not mean for this to sound like bragging — I promise! and I'll explain why below — but I've ended up with an amazing track record of convincing clients to change their minds and follow digital best practices. In many cases I'm shocked by this myself! Especially after hearing the brand team tell me how this particular client will never listen. In the most extreme cases, I really do go in expecting the client to shut me down immediately, and then within a few minutes of hearing me talk about what would be best practice in this scenario — and most beneficial to them — they say, fine, sounds good, let's go with that. Wow! It's a fantastic feeling.
However, I don't really take credit for this incredible success rate (as much as I would like to). I think I can cite two different things that enhance my sucess with clients, and neither one is really about me:
One is that I'm simply a new person they're hearing from. The client talks to the agency's core brand team every day/week, and they may have a relationship that goes back years. The client may have a strong sense of how digitally savvy the agency brand team people are — or are not. Now, me, I get to swoop in with a fancy digital title and speak basically as an outside consultant, and that leads directly to my second point:
For most of my career I've been in a position of digital leadership where I work with dozens of brand teams each month. I get to see the patterns of what works and what doesn't work, across hundreds of digital projects for dozens of brands. I definitely mention all of this when I talk to clients so they can see where I'm coming from; if I'm lucky they may value my insights from working with tons of other brands. The core brand team can't offer these insights because they just work on this one brand every day. So, again, it's not about me and how brilliant I am, it's about the position I happen to be in.
A third — I believe less important — factor, is just that I'm focusing on these kinds of digital things all day every day. That's my role — unlike account managers, art and copy folks, project managers, etc. I'm the digital guy. I think that in itself may carry a little bit of weight. But I really do think the two factors above weigh more heavily in the equation.
So, let me talk to them. Please. It will benefit all of us on the agency side, and it will lead to work that's more successful, which of course means happier clients.
Now, of course, when I say "me" here, what I'm really getting at is that if you work for a digital agency, you should make a point of allowing your technology director(s) or whatever kind of digital guru(s) you have talk to your clients, early and often. They may be able to facilitate the difference between a client insisting on something that we know is bad for them, and getting that client onto our side so we can make good decisions together. Win-win.
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.