Client-slave relationship. Are you in one?

For decades the act of love deprivation and guilt trips have turned the most disobiedient children into high performing, role models. It is the kind of conditioning whereby those who underperform meet the end of a big stick.

Unfortunately some of us carry the master-slave paradigm we learned during childhood into the workplace. Instead of encouraging staff and suppliers to be self-governing, responsible individuals, they revert to master-slave roles to get what they want.

How to get in one.
Nine times out of ten, client service become slaves by poorly framing a Client's expectation. The Agency is so focused on getting the business, they neglect to negotiate the Agency's requirements, and project an unbalanced picture of the working relationship.

They say 'yes' to everything - just to secure the sale. They fail to mention the effort they require the Client into a project, the potential situations for variation fees and realistic turnaround times for changes to production.

Client service will know they have become slaves, when the Client emails a request then calls five minutes later to make sure it is being executed. The Client has been conditioned to micro-manage.

How to get out of one.
The problem is no number of Client lunches and boozing can guarantee the situation can be turned around. The most painless way to fix the issue, is to end the relationship. When you hear of an Agency walking away from a Client's business, this is usually what has taken place.

The good news is most Clients don't want a master-slave relationship. They recognise the relationship is unprofitable for both parties. Playing the master role saps them of precious time and energy, and forces them to micro-manage. All an Agency need do, is prove to a new client, that they can perform without having to be whipped.

You will know you are not in a master-slave relationship, when client service is able to negotiate with confidence at different stages of the relationship. Rather than feeling under the thumb, they have room to manoeuvre when making a request or presenting costs.

Example pitch.
“Hi Bill. You have just seen a presentation of our creative work. You can see we are good. However we believe our creative is a given. If you are an Agency and can't get the creative part right, there's no point being in this game.

Although we are small, we compete with firms many times our size. Clients work with our Agency because they are not willing to pay the high fees demanded of a large agency, but still value client service. They want accountability, accuracy in workmanship, and to never have to chase the Agency to find out the status on their job.

In fact, you can expect us to chase you.

You have a corporate background, and I know service will be important to you. Let's face it, most small agencies are in survival mode, and struggle just to output the product.

Unless this you place a dollar value on your time, there is no point working with us, as you will never feel like you are getting value for money.”

In this delivery, the value proposition is clear - you are dealing with professionals, and this is a scarce commodity which comes at a price. It is said in a very business manner, with a practiced delivery that wastes not a single word.

Cleverly, the last paragraph implies the Client is pitching to the Agency, as much as the Agency is pitching to them. This plants a win-win mentality which will give the Agency an edge in negotiate.

This kind of setup is key to breaking down the master-slave paradigm. The Client is confident they can let go of power, without risking a drop in performance. This freedom places both parties on an even keel, and in good stead for a healthy relationship.

To pitch? Or not to pitch? That is the question.

While free pitches can sharpen the saw and bring glory for the winner, it can spell disaster for the losing parties.

Know you are going to win.
The best military leaders of all time never went to war unless they knew they were going to win. I think pitching for free is much the same. When you consider the opportunity cost of battling it out with agencies - the angst, forgoing paid work and over working staff - you really have to pick your pitches carefully.

Unless you have intelligence which suggests you will win, perhaps the time is better spent on an existing Client.

Devaluing the agency.
In most cases when you pitch, you have to reveal your big idea. You deal your trump card, right at the start of the game. Any seasoned poker player will advise you such a move smells of desperation.

In addition, giving away the most valuable work at the beginning, devalues the remaining work to be completed. This could be avoided had the Client paid for the big idea.

Samson or Goliath.
Clients could be doing their business a disservice by calling a pitch. Perhaps Agencies with no work spend more time pitching, while the successful ones are busy servicing paying Clients.

The Client gets free ideas, but not necessarily the right Agency to work with.

This is particular true when dealing with small agencies. To survive, they must deliver fast and accurate work to their Clients. Instead of pitching, they build intimate relationships with fewer clients, and incremental grow their retained business.

After all, it is statistically proven easier to retain business than win new business.

Larger Agencies are different. Their business model requires they drive new business, which means lots of pitching. They have more fat in their organisation, and need to continuously pitch to cover their large overhead.

Quite often they are pitching on budgets of $250k and higher, making the carrot enticing enough to pitch for free. They can afford to lose a few pitches and not feel the pinch.

See the full article published in marketing interactive.

Clients play a role in the success of projects

The confidence the Client has in the Agency's capability to deliver a scope of work, impacts on whether the project will be a success or failure. Put simply, if those around you are telling you that you will fail, your chances of success become slimmer.

From the time we learned to walk or ride a bicycle, we have needed the confidence of others to overcome obstacles. A Client's confidence is no different. The vested confidence in an Agency gives client service power to be effective, make decisions and focus on the deliverables of the project.

For all the reasons confidence empowers, lack of confidence disempowers. The Client will behave unproductively - micro-managing client service, demanding trivial reporting and face to face meetings which accomplish little except appease the Client's emotions. With their focus divided and their attention occupied by the Client's emotional state of mind, client service become tired and ineffective.

The net result for the Agency are projects which never end, projects with no outstanding result to promote the Agency's services, and the threat the Client may refuse to pay. The Client is unlikely to be a long term prospect, or refer the Agency to other professionals.

Client service should keep a mental register of how negatively or positively a Client perceives the Agency, and establish practices to prevent or correct instances where confidence is slipping.

A few practices to minimise the likelihood of a Client losing confidence include:

1. Seeking win-win deals. Ask yourself 'Does the Client trust us?'. If the answer is no, consider not taking the project. There is a tendency for deal makers to ignore underlying emotional problems, and simply focus on the deal size or particulars. The underlying issue is left unresolved, later surfacing and reducing the value of the contract.
2. Communicating clearly. Comprehend the Client's needs and understand their intent. Deliver accurate, timely documentation, free of typos. In an existing relationship, a Client may overlook many of these errors, but in a new business context, their tolerance may be much lower.
3. Assessing personality types. Discuss and assess the Client's personality, where they have worked before, and their pain-points. Tolerance for errors will vary from Client to Client, and depend largely on their expectation and experience.
4. Act on warning signs. The Client may be testing the Agency's ability to read their body language by dropping subtle clues. Serious or not, warning signs must not be ignored and acted on immediately.
5. Establish a clear path of complain. Allow Clients to air their complaints by appointing an independent party as a silent listener. The listener is normally someone senior in the Agency, who is approachable and possesses many of the faculties stated above.
6. Knowing when to call it a day. When confidence slips too far into the red, no reasonable effort may reverse the perception. It may be best to terminate the scope of work agreement, than to continue to push in a direction which is causing all parties undue stress.

Positive client experience is more valuable than the deliverables

Projects requiring an investment of the Client's time expose the Agency to risks they may not have foreseen. On such projects, it is not good enough to exceed the expected deliverables. Agencies, like all service-based businesses, need to deliver not only a great outcome, but a positive client experience.

Client service may deliver a project on time and budget, but it will not be remembered if it came at huge cost of the Client's time or emotional energy. This is because over the course of the project, the Client begins to measure the performance of the Agency with a non-tangible criteria.

Instead of focusing purely on milestones and the end result, the Client begins to measure the project from the perspective of their day-to-day experience. How they feel about the client service person, and their confidence and attitude to the project begin to influence their overall perception.

So no matter what the outcome, a negative Client experience will smear a great result. The outcome becomes worthless if the process was not a class act. In fact, a less than expected result will be more often forgiven if the Client had a positive experience.

Client service should be aware in such circumstances, that their performance is being measured in real time, and strive to operate professionally and with finesse. The Client should be hardly aware of the Agency's labour, or their efforts to minimise the number of times the Client is touched and inconvenienced.

New relationships are most endanger of a negative Client experience. To mitigate the risk, client service should spend ample time during pre-sales educating the Client on their process, procedures and expectations on the Client.

Forming a solid foundation of trust and connectivity with the client before the project begins will improve the chances of a positive client experience.

With so many service providers to choose from, the deliverable has become a parity. What differentiates Agencies now is the Client experience. A positive experience will be the catalyst for ongoing work and referrals.