8 ways to spot a bad client (before it’s too late)
In this guest post, pitch doctor Darren Woolley has some advice for agencies on how to spot a dodgy client before a deal is done.
So, you are trying to woo a client. Or, even better, they are trying to woo you. But how do you tell a tyre-kicker from the real deal? How do you know they are not simply going to take you for a spin around the block before dumping you on the pile of rejected agencies?
Here are eight simple things to look out for before it’s too late.
1. Past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour. So if they change agencies on a regular basis then prepare to be used, abused and dumped.
2. Respect is a mutual attribute. If on your first meeting they leave you waiting in the reception area for more than 15 minutes without an apology, this is a good sign of a lack of respect.
3. Are you as important to them as they are to you? If they cancel and reschedule meetings with you at the last minute more than once it is a good sign you are not.
4. How they treat their incumbent is how you will end up being treated. So if they openly criticise their current agency with you, just remember that will be you one day soon.
5. Is this about value or are they simply looking for the cheapest option? Listen carefully for the first things that they talk about, because if it is rates and remuneration, then this is probably no more than a financial transaction for them.
6. Clarity of objectives reflects clarity of purpose. If they cannot describe what success looks like it is also likely that they cannot see your place in that success.
7. Communication is the foundation of successful collaborations. But if they resort to using industry jargon and ‘weasel’ words that require deciphering, it is likely they are covering up that they don’t know what they need.
8. Finally, in the words of David Ogilvy, never have a committee as a client. But committee come in all shapes and forms. So if you find yourself talking to someone who can’t make a decision, that is a committee.
Your time and energy is too valuable to waste on clients that simply chew up agencies and spit them out. Look for the signs and if you see one think carefully about going any further. See two? Stop and walk away. If you see three or more, turn and run. If you don’t, then don’t blame anyone but yourself when you have been chewed up and spat out.
You have been warned.
Darren Woolley is the managing director at TrinityP3.
Great synopsis Darren. Brings to the fore the very poor behaviour displayed in business far too frequently of the “client – supplier” or unspoken “master – slave” dynamic. What/whom is a supplier today could well be your client tomorrow.
ReplyNumber 5 is very true. Horrible clients.
ReplyNumber 5 is very true. Cheapskate clients get what they deserve.
Reply9. A pitch consultant has to be hired to manage the process as the client is too dim to do it themselves.
ReplyAdvertising is not a specialised craft like aerospace engineering. Any riffraff can get into it …and for a long time that is the kind of individual that it has a tendency to attract.
I do not blame clients one bit for their biases. They are paying top dollar for rubbish work and have had it.
Every bad agency and bad ad goes to strengthen this perception and there are literally truckloads of such examples being displayed daily. If we want to change their perceptions we have to begin with our deeds not empty moaning and self pity.
ReplyDanny, clients ultimately get the work they deserve.
So if they don’t want to pay for good (i.e. more expensive) people to work on their business, it will show.
If they don’t want to give the agency enough time, it will show.
If they don’t really know what they want, it will show.
If they decide things by committee, it will show.
If they are concerned with not appealing to people who are not in their intended target, it will show.
If they have junior people making big decisions, it will show.
Many of the reasons why most ads are shit lie within those listed above. Blaming an agency is a bit like blaming a farmer who has led the horse to water but the horse still refuses to drink.
ReplyAgency arrogance on this matter is staggering, is all I can say.
According to their logic, only expensive people are any good.
Agencies want to decide how much time they get for a project (knowing full well the longert the time they ask for, the higher they can bill).
They want to know exactly what the clients want (isn’t it their job to figure this out?).
They don’t want a team of decision makers on the clients side (as if only one person makes all decisions on the agency side).
Until then all advertising will be bad and this is the clients fault.
ReplyGreat list, and a fun, if painful read. We’ve all had them… the no fun clients that sap energy and life out of an agency.
And Wesley, you have some great points. Yes, agencies do want all of that… just as clients want great work, cheap, fast with more results then you can shake a stick at.
The trick to to realize that both want to win. Finding a partner that helps you, agrees with your world view, willing to compromise on some of the above, is the goal.
Feel free to jump over to her and check my similar list and find fault with it as well!
http://www.sandersconsulting.com/newbusinesshawk/new-business-warning-signs-of-a-nightmare-prospect
Cheers
B
Reply8 ways to spot a bad agency:
1. They will put their best people on a pitch but then substitute them with inexperienced ones after winning the account.
2. They love ‘discussing broad directions’ instead of suggesting the best idea themselves. Often broad directions are just beating around the bush and do not translate into good advertising.
3. If a client will not help them do what they feel is award wining work, the agency will relegate them to the ‘just get it out’ style and quality of work. And it will show.
4. They have an excuse for everything.
5. At times, they let their own internal politics seriously compromise the work.
6. They waste too much time on briefs and allocate too little time to doing the work.
7. They are always recommending ideas that are impossible or too expensive to implement.
8. The creative department has so many awards yet none of this brilliance is evident when they are discussing your assignment with you.
ReplyClients get what they deserve. Does an Ad Agency / Communications Consultancy
Replyadd value or diminish it ?
Wesley, old chap, I would like to comment on some of your points.
ReplyGood doesn’t always mean expensive, but there is usually a strong correlation between quality and price. That goes for most things in life, not just advertising professionals.
Agencies want to decide how much time they get for a job so they can it well. Why should the client dictate to an agency how to do their job? Do you tell your doctor how to treat you, or how long s/he should take?
You’ll find that it is clients who usually ask for an hourly rate card rather than agree to a set fee. This is primarily so they can go through line by line and negotiate the price down.
@Wesley
ReplyU raised many good points.
Here are 2 more:
The creative teams at big agencies often complain that they have not enough time to work on regular briefs- especially during awards seasons.
Yet they have time to knock out freebie ads for Cannes.
These ads ain’t free either as the production houses always find a way to recover their cost in the estimates of regular jobs.
Advertising is being disrupted daily by new developments in data and online consumer behaviour yet some of the agency thinking is yet to reflect these realities.
They want to be seen as an industry of quality but put the work of a big mnc next to that of a small local shop and you cant tell the difference…both will be equally bad.
If this is not addressed it does not matter whether you want to charge per minute or per hour, or whether you wish to be treated like a doctor who wants no questions to be asked by the patient.
The industry needs to reclaim the respect it once had.
ReplyAn excellent article.
ReplyWhen we value our time, our clients will too.
It takes more than one ingredient to make a successful recipe.
Client marketing budgets are shrinking but work scope keeps increasing, agencies fear saying no to ambitious requests but keep slogging staff to deliver, a simplified vicious circle (and yes to all the points mentioned in this thread)
Many clients and agencies have apparently lost their sense of integrity and will sell their own mothers for a small gain to save face. This lack of integrity has polluted our industry and leaked down through the ranks.
What happened to communicating, training and building client/agency business partnership to find solutions?
Is this an opportunity up for grabs?
ReplyHave your say