The powerful lesson I learned from a decade with marketing agencies
Our clients are people, just like you and me.
Really, this is the big reveal? Just hear me out on this.
When I first started my marketing career, fresh out of university, the whole thing was pretty intimidating. As a junior, the first few times I was included in client meetings, I was petrified, especially if someone tasked me with a presentation of any kind! The people in the room looked seasoned, experienced, no nonsense; a wall of ‘executive’. And the way many of my colleagues spoke about clients internally was around catering to them, and stepping tenderly around topics like money discussions or timelines.
Over time, I started to observe something. Oftentimes, our environments shape our perception. Corporate boardrooms, professional attire, pristinely prepared reports, projectors and laptops all kind of add up to a very serious conversation. One person will lead, others may object, people scrutinize graphs, question numbers, and smile and shake hands with ceremonial ritual and say “they’ll get back to you”. But maybe just before the meeting got underway or as it wrapped up and people gathered their things and walked towards the door, something happened. There was banter, laughter, discussion on more human aspects like children, office jokes etc. And it dawned on me: we all have to play roles, and sometimes the constructs around us make us need to play the roles more seriously or intently, but in the end, just like me and my colleagues would kick our shoes off, sip our coffees and laugh at the moment where one of us had used the wrong presentation deck, the clients on the other end would do exactly the same.
We can build clients up to feel like monsters to us - will they like their photos? Will they be ok with the price quote or laugh me out of their lives? Will they leave me a good review or crucify me for something I’ve done out of step? When we have these fears, they snowball and create an us and them mentality which means you always may have your back up. Stressful!
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Our clients are workers, mothers, fathers, brothers, daughters, volunteers, sisters, community advocates, friends, athletes, caregivers, just like us. Their palms probably sweat if they have to have a difficult conversation within their work environment and they have self-doubt when they turn that report in to their boss. They feel guilt if their baby doesn’t sleep or eat as well as the other kids in the playgroup, they cry and eat too much ice cream when fighting with their spouse, and they worry about their financial futures and their children.
Similar to the presentation hack where you’re told to imagine your audience naked to quell intimidation, I started to see beyond the suits and conference tables and started to see the people as people. Pretty soon I was a manager and project lead, and invited often to client meetings to present on behalf of my department. I earned the trust of colleagues and clients alike and I attribute it largely to my ability to understand that we are all people being paid to interact on these specific initiatives and in a certain way, but that didn’t change the person inside. I set aside the hierarchies of corporate culture and spoke to the person and not the position.
When you can fully embrace that your clients are people just like you, looking to fulfill a need in their life, then intimidation, fear and self-doubt can melt away. Genuinely offer them what you have that can fulfill their needs, and then allow them to make a decision. You don’t have to lower prices, throw in the kitchen sink, talk too much, be apologetic, worry how you and your price quote will be received, cry in the shower that they haven’t responded to their image delivery or worry that they hate you and are poking a voodoo doll of you this instant while hitting ‘publish’ on a scathing Google review. You also don’t have to be a slick, fast-talking marketer to market effectively (and the hard-liners who do it this way are a small sub-section of the field.) Connecting and talking as people is by far the most effective strategy I’ve seen.
Approach with an honesty of one person serving another and that can really change the interaction. They aren’t big and you aren’t small, you are equals. Equal means balance - and you go into a relationship and an exchange. Not so terrifying, right?
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