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I’m going on record here as a person who believes in the wisdom of reasonable gun control laws. Reasonable in that they take into consideration the larger good and public safety over narrow self-interest. That’s all I have to say about this topic here because my views on this issue are actually not the focus of this missive.
However, knowing that I come from this perspective might help you enjoy the irony of a metaphor that occurred to me in considering the relationship between past accomplishments and future successes: ammunition.
Each win, advancement, accomplishment or success we achieve as businesses or individuals is like a precious allotment of ammunition in our arsenals. Just like ammo, these proofs of our worth can be used to good ends or bad.
Ammo merely accumulated and stored is ammo wasted. Over time, it loses its potency and with that its impact. Even worse, ammo stored poorly can become unstable and cause unintended harm. Analogous metaphor: resting on your laurels. I’m sorry to report that in my industry — marketing, advertising and media — what you or your company did five years ago, let alone ten, often is of little interest or relevance to what you can do today. In fact, I’d give any accomplishment a mere two-year shelf life for future leverage unless said accomplishment was a genuine game-changer for your company, a client or the industry in which you achieved it. Fair isn’t part of the discussion; it’s just so.
Likewise, ammunition spent willy-nilly shooting for new business, a next job or whatever advancement you happen to desire is equally wasted more often than not. A lucky shot gets you only so far; it takes a steady string of hits to build a case for how good you really are you. Analogous metaphor: one-hit wonder. The only way to ensure hit after hit is to be focused yet flexible, aware of the changing environment and willing to hold fire when the target is off-focus or the cost of taking the shot outweighs the benefits of hitting the target. Know what’s worth aiming for and what it costs to achieve; then calculate its real value before taking action.
Savor your accomplishments and use them for the next win? By all means. Takes risks? Oh, yeah. Just be sure to keep a clear vision of the future in sight and mind at all times.
It was Plato who declared that necessity is the mother of invention.
To be precise his actual words, from The Republic, are “Necessity, who is the mother of invention.”
Necessity has been not only mother but also taskmaster to countless people in the past several years as their Plan A careers, usually in the employ of others, has been diverted, cut short and even unceremoniously dumped. The options? Find another Plan A perch on which to sit. Resort to cowering. Or launch a Plan B.
This is an ode to friends and colleagues – upbeatniks all – for whom the loss or declining velocity of a Plan A job has spurred their necessary forays into Plan B courage and creativity. Rather than tell their stories for them, please visit evidence of their new dreams online:
- Angie Davis, byrd & belle: From budding architect to sought-after purveyor of hand-crafted accessories for Apple and other electronic devices
- Gillian Gabriel, GiGi Bathing Suit: Still a head hunter to the Minneapolis-St. Paul agency business but spreading her (water) wings as creator of the the little black swim suit
- Jason Sem, J.B. Sem Consulting: Once an in-house marketing honcho and now earning new stripes as a successful social media consultant
- Kakie Fitzsimmons, Bur Bur & Friends: Serious marketing leader who is making child’s play of positive-message books about diversity for kids and also is building delivering the goods as a marketing project management and social media consultant
- Nathalie Wilson, Alan Tse and Rosemary Ugboajah, Zydeco Design: Seasoned agency stalwarts in strategy, design and client services, now new-agency entrepreneurs by choice, just sped up a little by circumstances beyond their control
- Lisa Foote, MixMobi: Big corporate experience might not be the bread and butter for Lisa anymore, but she’s applying those smarts to a mobile marketing start-up that’s building buzz
Not all Plan B-ers have abandoned their day jobs, or the hopes of landing one. Even this inspiring lot has among it a handful of folks who would like nothing more than a plum job offer. Yet for some Plan A is dead. Or at least it’s no longer their be-all and end-all.
To whatever role it plays in their lives, long live Plan B and cheers to the brave souls who pursue it!
As a self-proclaimed dot-connector and value-builder in business development and business in general, I strive for situations that are beneficial to my prospects, clients, team members and “the management.” That’s rather than looking for my own advantage first and wedging the needs of others into that.
In my world view, all boats float when you take care of others. (Not to my own disadvantage, mind you. I’m not a chump.) This style is service-oriented, open-ended and focused on mutual benefit. Think of it as doing well by doing good.
Beneficent as that might make me feel, I’ve learned that not everyone responds to that approach. In fact, there are those who are left befuddled because they expect and even want to be sold to. For those people – and I suspect there are more of them than not – there can be a comfort in conventionally defined roles, clear choices and directness. There is no shame in wanting that, nor is there any shame in you responding to that need.
There’s an old saw that goes something like this: People want to buy things, not have things sold to them. Sometimes that’s true, but don’t make the mistake of believing it all the time. Adaptability is a core skill to master if you want to be successful at new business, client management and organizational effectiveness, and that means adjusting your approach to the circumstances at hand.
The signals aren’t that hard to read. If you approach an opportunity from an open-ended, exploratory perspective and get blank stares or an “I’m-not-understanding-this” response, there’s a good chance your audience expects a more conventional approach. If so, take the cue and shift tactics by:
- Making it clear why you’re in front of them and what you’d like them to consider or do
- Being more direct, suggesting a specific solution, for example, and allowing your audience to edit, push back on or even reject it
- Offering clear go/no-go options if the situation is appropriate
This dovetails neatly with an earlier post about the difference between sales and business development. That post prompted a spirited debate in LinkedIn groups in which I posed the issue. Debate was so spirited, in fact, that I was all but ignored by the combatants, who went at each other with amazing force. Clearly, the topic touched a nerve.
My supplemental two cents on that topic, with the shading of this post in mind, is to draw some added functional (but not qualitative) distinctions between the two approaches:
- Traditional sales interactions tends to be more structured and close-ended. That serves a purpose when the prospect allows bandwidth for a sales discussion but not a full consultation
- Classic business development is inherently more consultative and therefore more open-ended. As observed, that’s not a universal recipe for success
All interactions that involve persuasion need to be two-way, but there are different ways to play that out. When your audience wants to be sold to, then it becomes your job to both present and listen.
If you give your audience, customer or colleague the experience they expect in the beginning, you can use those early interactions to build trust and gradually shift the style of the conversation to that mutually beneficial sweet spot.
In the job interview: “We’re looking for a candidate who is passionate about his/her work.”
In the job itself: “We want you to be passionate about your clients, their brands and our company.”
In the sales meeting: “Let success be your passion.”
In the boardroom: “Growth and innovation must be our passion.”
All this passion has me fatigued. And I’m even finding it a little dangerous, what with “crimes of passion” being a real threat. There is so much exhortation about passion in business anymore, it’s a characteristic that has lost any real meaning. It’s become trite, and that’s a shame when some authentic passion well-applied can be a good thing.
Likewise, a little indifference goes a long way in the workplace and marketplace to keeping balance. When people takes things too seriously, they also tend to take them too personally. And that’s a recipe for losing perspective.
So, here’s a call for pragmatic indifference. It goes like this: You are NOT your company or your clients or even the work you do. You bring yourself to each of them – talents, eccentricities and all. But to be truly successful you need to separate what you do from who you are.
For example, you passionately advance your big strategic idea and it doesn’t make the cut. Are you a loser? Was the idea bad? Not necessarily, it just might not have been the right idea for the circumstances. With a little indifference you can feel satisfied that you rose to the occasion, made your contribution and quite possibly even inspired or influenced the direction that ultimately was chosen.
No need to sulk back at your desk and trash the team or the client or the bosses over a perceived loss. You came, you contributed and you will be called on to contribute yet again.
Interestingly, younger professionals tend to take these presumed losses harder even though they have years and years ahead of them to win the day. A maturity thing, I suppose. Even seasoned professionals need to see the momentary setback in the larger scope of their careers. Is it the only shot you ever had? Probably not. And even you will have more chances at bat in the future.
So be as passionate as you want, but try to keep a balance by cultivating just enough indifference to get through another day in your long career.
NOTE: I’m pleased to report that this post was selected to run in MinnPost’s Blog Cabin on Monday, August 2, 2010. I encourage you to read Blog Cabin regularly.
It’s said that art imitates life. Whether or not that’s true, it’s certain that popular art forms mirror, mock and amplify what happens in our day-to-day existences.
Like relationships.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” is the title of a long-running Off-Broadway play, the conceit of which is the contradictory condition of romantic relationships: attraction, pursuit, unconditional acceptance, growing dissatisfaction, meddling, nagging…and so on.
Funny thing is, life can imitate art’s send-up of a real situation, too. Take business relationships, for instance, and more specifically advertising-marketing agency relationships with their clients.
Clients and agencies enter into relationships typically through tortured processes of flirtation, wooing, proof of worthiness and seemingly endless talks. Then fingers brush, sparks fly and full romance blooms. “This is going to be the best relationship ever,” both parties vow. “We can grow together. Laugh together. Change the world together.”
At that moment, each party is likely to believe that the other is perfect. Love takes root. Then comes the inexorable compulsion to change the other party’s ways.
Agencies, of course, believe they have been specifically retained to change their clients’ imperfections. The nexus of the relationship for the agency is the presumed role as rescuer. The magical thinking is that the agency will easily have its way. Like a review and approval process that ignores the client’s lack of capacity to respond as quickly as the agency wants. Or even more absurdly, that the client will choose strategic and creative direction absent any internal politics, inscrutable priority shifting, and differing perceptions of what works.
The fact is, like any relationship that succeeds there has to be both give and take. The agency might indeed be in the vanguard of what’s best for the client’s needs in the marketplace, but also just like a relationship people are involved. And the involvement of people in relationships makes them inherently complicated.
So, to keep the romance strong and hold onto a rewarding relationship over time, I offer these partner dancing tips from a Wikipedia. While the wording is a bit studied, these are apt metaphors.
- Obstruction avoidance: A general rule is that both lead and follow watch each other’s back in a dance hall situation. Collision avoidance is one of the cases when the follow is required to “backlead” or at least to communicate about the danger to the lead. In traveling dances, such as waltz, common follow signals of danger are an unusual resistance to the lead, or a slight tap by the shoulder. In open-position dances, such as swing or Latin dances, maintaining eye contact with the partner is an important safety communication link.
- Recovery from miscommunication: Sometimes a miscommunication is possible between the lead and follow. A general rule here is do not wrestle and never stop dancing.
This morning on the way to work I noticed that the light had changed to green – just a bit sooner than the car in front of me. The result wasn’t catastrophic, but it was a little messy and uncomfortable for everyone involved.
That’s what it can be like when agencies get ahead of their clients on strategic and creative direction. Sometimes it’s just a little ahead of where the client is ready to be, resulting in a fender bender. Other times, and we’ve all heard the stories, the lack of coordination between the parties can result in a major collision.
Pushing the boundaries of what the client already knows is core to the agency-client relationship. It’s often why clients choose agencies: To bring fresh thinking, new energy, creative advances and informed strategy.
Yet every day agencies forget that there is no single stance for them to take in their client relationships. It’s not just lead, lead, lead. The best account management practice is determining whether to lead, follow or accompany.
Leading: Seems that everyone wants to lead all the time. Imagine the chaos that would cause if it ever happened. Fact is, it’s something everyone wants to do but few accomplish often enough. Leadership is not strong-arming your client into a direction it’s not prepared to embrace. Instead, leadership is bringing well-grounded new information and perspectives. It is persuading. It is seeing beyond and translating that into a vision to which they can aspire – and to which you can lead them. Lead as often as you and your client can agree on that role. But always lead with respect.
Following: No matter what your ego tells you, your client is not wrong, uniformed or just plain dumb all the time. (Read an earlier post on this topic, “Think you’re smarter than your clients?“) Sometimes you should follow their lead, and not just because they own the purse strings. They often know their own climate for risk better than you, are more likely to know their particular marketplace best and above all know what they can get through approvals among the higher-ups. They’ll use your strategy/creative smarts plenty if you use your political smarts to earn that. One caution: By all means follow when it’s right, but following too often could relegate you to pure vendor status.
Accompanying: A good deal of lip service is given to partnering and collaborating with clients. During the pitch, that is. “Ooooh. It will be heaven on earth when our agency partners/collaborates with your team to create beautiful music,” the siren song goes. Yet how often does that actually play out. Not as often as perhaps it should, and rarely as often as it should with intent. There is room for genuine cooperation despite some agency styles based on a superior-subservient worldview. Genuine partnership can be the key to a trusting and lasting relationship.
Lead. Follow. Accompany. When it comes to agency-client relationships (or any relationship for that matter), the real leader knows when to assume the appropriate role.
LinkedIn is a puzzling yet entertaining marketplace of alliances, ideas, bald-faced pitches and seekers of services. Groups are a favorite haunt, where the best and worst of this business-oriented social media channel get played out.
Recently I’ve started to notice, really notice, numerous requests for “cost-effective” services and providers. Cost-effective content for digital signage networks. Cost-effective qualitative research. Cost-effective social media services.
You know what they’re asking. They want it cheap and probably fast and high-quality, too. So to those in search of “cost-effective” services, I share this observation:
Any service that is truly effective is an exceptional investment no matter what it costs. You typically get what you pay for.
The pursuit and acquisition of new clients in advertising and marketing agencies is a minefield of contradictions.
On one hand new business is essential to the well-being of an agency – quite simply ensuring future revenue. Moreover, good business development outcomes provide opportunities for agency innovation, expertise-building and even prestige.
Yet anyone in an agency also knows that business development gets more back-of-the-hand than open-hand treatment. The reasons are many:
- Lack of focus – strategic or otherwise – for new business efforts, leading to uncertainty and frustration
- Truly poor performance by business development hires, maybe on their own lack of merits and maybe exacerbated by an absence of focus
- Then there’s serious miscasting for the new business role, resulting in a good-person, wrong-direction situation
- Magical thinking that leads agency leaders to believe that successful business development is [a] just a few well-placed calls away – the rainmaker myth, [b] a volume game – smiling and dialing or [c] something the principals themselves will and can do
- Not to mention a certain disdain for the sales aspect of new business vis à vis the “higher calling” of advertising and marketing
Many agencies are adrift, yet there are numerous resources at hand to help, resources I use as touch points in my own professional life.
RSW/US is one of those resources, and when they shared their plan with me to produce a series of webinars about good business development practices I was interested. When they further explained that agency principals are the target audience I promptly signed on as a sponsor.
That heightened enthusiasm comes from our shared belief that agency business development wisdom often misses its neediest audience: the agency principals at the core of decision-making about the future of their businesses.
RSW/US webinars are free, they are reasonably brief and they address topics that principals need to hear. The first webinar, sponsored by Agency Babylon, is June 29. So hurry and register.
RSW/US Agency Business Development 2010 Webinar Series
- June 29: First Meeting and Closing Effectiveness – 78% of Agencies Don’t Know Enough. Explore the deep divides that exist between what marketers want and what agencies present during first meetings and as the closing process. Click here to register.
- July 20: Check the Box – Counsel on Closing. Mark Sneider, RSW/US owner/president, offers insights and recommendations on preparing for pitch meetings, follow-up how to craft responses to RFPs and RFIs. Click here to register.
- August 10: Social/Digital Media – Marketer and Agency Perspective. How to be successful long-term in the social/digital universe. What marketers want and what you’re giving them might be two very different things.
Click here to register.
- September 7: Agency New Business. What it takes to create a successful new business development program within the four walls of your agency. Get marketer perspectives on their needs.
Click here to register.
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Full disclosure: Agency Babylon and RSW/US have a nominal business alliance around endorsement of the webinars. However, I can assure you that I’d recommend them even if we didn’t.
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