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Robin from PromoManagers writes about the ultimate agency nightmare client. His firm acquired the business but the client doesn’t listen to the agency advice. The relationship has been going downhil.
But they are stuck because the agency needs the income but they also recognise this client won’t ever be a huge success with the campaigns they run and won’t make them rich due to the lack of follow-through.
He says
I’ve been part of a team of people working on “the problem child” account for almost a year now. The short of it is that (a) they need more than just marketing to grow their business and (b) they blatantly ignore our recommendations and then complain that they’re not getting results.
This is clearly a failng relationship.
His article was prompted by an Entrepreneur article where the commenters all suggest their ‘best decision’ was to actually fire the customer – interesting that Robin didn’t feel he could do the same. But maybe he’s not the decision maker in his agency.
Symptoms to watch out for – Nightmare Clients from Hell
- you complain to your co-workers A LOT about them
- nearly everything they say annoys you
- you find it hard to think of something positive to say
- when you see them the first thing that jumps into your head is negative or sarky/snide / negative
- you have to struggle to be enthusiastic about your work on their brand
Any others? What do nightmare clients from hell make you do or thing?
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Image by antitezo via Flickr
Is it possible that a creative agency can build a pipeline of new business without having to respond to RFPs as a means of finding new leads?
Two articles in my RSS feed today struck me today as being relevant to this topic
The first is a slide deck from the excellent Courtney Pemberton and Tom Ross
Where the presenters contrast Schipul - a 37 person web development firm who do low-budget websites and lots of them; with Four Kitchens a 12 man operation whose average web development budget is $250,000. Which firm would you rather do new business development for? I know my response!
And the second is a USA Today expert opinion from Steve Strauss. He details the hideously comic-if-it-wasn’t-so-awful conference call with a web development team who fail to deliver even a basic understanding of their prospective client’s business. I am sure it happened just as he recounts
•They internally scheduled the wrong time for the call (we are on the west coast, they were on the east coast).
•Once the call started, 15 minutes late, two of the folks on their end couldn’t find the website we had asked them to review with us on the call.
•The boss was not on the call at the start and they scrambled to find him.
Finally, 10 minutes into a call that was already starting 15 minutes late, the boss jumped on the line. He didn’t really know the purpose of the call, or who I was, or what we were doing, and so asked “So just what is it you do again?”
Are you disorganised in your new business process?
Making new business happen is one of the 7 steps in our new biz dev process. Internal team management in advance of and during briefing calls is a ‘hygiene’ factor. It is necessary as the underpinning to a solid new business pipeline.
Reading John McTigue’s lovely rant about How to shop for inbound marketing services made us smile. He is a client side marketer. He says all the catch phrases we spout “partnership” and “lasting relationship”. But read carefully and agencies cna learn how best to present themselves to a new client.
He writes
The companies and people who seek our services are woefully unprepared for the relationship building, which starts at the first conversation.
Think back to your most recent meeting with a new prospect. What do you ‘normally’ do at that event to start building a relationship?
John’s advice is “Listen to your partner.”
Back in the day, every marketing manager loved using an RFP or a competitive pitch as a way of gathering free ideas that they could implement themselves – sometimes without hiring the agency. But it’s different now.
If you’re serious about winning new business through RFPs you, as the agency, must also learn to listen for the real briefing.
Hearing what the client is saying
John continues in the blog, writing
“They should be telling you roughly what it will take in manpower, time and resources to achieve your objective. They should be able to tell you a range of monthly expenses you will need to get there and what the process will look like”
What this means is you, the agency, knowing exactly what it will take to get the client to the marketing successes he craves – be honest. Tell them the real cost – and do it before you ask about budgets.
Do you?
My check list for first meetings
- I need to know how experienced a buyer the new prospect is – I want to know whether s/he really knows what marketing communications can do and can deliver or if it’s just a ‘catch-phrase’ with little real understanding behind.
- How well does the client know what s’/he wants? Can they articulate real business goals and what do they know about the different inbound marketing techniques that will achieve the goals?
- Do they have a realistic idea about the time, effort and costs it will take to achieve those goals?
So, next time you go off for a first meeting – take a little check-list with you and evaluate your own performance!
Good luck
]]>Today we publish our e-book – the B2B leads research guide.
A quick look at how to find the name of the right person at the business you want to pitch. Using both free and paid-for resources, we illustrate good websites to use and the tools they offer new business development professionals who are trying to start conversations with prospects.
Enjoy and download your own copy here.
There are times when apologies are needed in business. Sometimes we can say it with good grace – other times a forced reply through gritted teeth is needed.
Take a read of Benjamin Ellis on fine form writing about “Making an Apology”.
He writes “as a bare minimum I expect
- A genuine acceptance that what happened was wrong.
- In as far as is reasonable, an explanation of what went wrong and why (i.e. does the offender understand? Is it under control?) – Not everyone agrees with this one.
- A commitment to a) put it right and b) ensure that it doesn’t happen again (i.e. lessons learnt).”
Have you ever had to make an apology in business?
Can you tell us what the key things you felt needed to happen
What were the customer reactions?
Did something good come out of the situation?
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Can you app your way to better health? Of the apps downloaded 26% are only used once and a tiny percentage use them. Few medical apps have FDA approval but they are going to require this – approved ones are airstrip, mobile medical imaging. Are apps changing behaviour?
- B.J. Fogg @bjfogg Director of the Persuasive Technical Lab, Stanford teaching persuasive design
- Jane Sarasohn-Kahn @healthythinker Health economist working sometimes for Edelman
- Margie Morris @margi-emem – Senior Researcher at Intel, clinical psychologist
- John de Souza @john_desouza President & CEO of MedHelp – the largest online community and medical app site
- Gigi Peterkin @gigi_peterkin – VP Digital Health Edelman
#healthapps
Is there one landmine to consider when delivering a health app?
Fogg - sloppy thinii9ng about behaviour change – there are about 15 types. Each is different.
Sarasohn- Kahn - apps that focus on the individual are data silos – the real value is when these can connect to other kinds of data in the health ecosystem so the clinical record can be connected to the objservstions of daily living
de Souza – the focus should be on consumers not on patients.
Morris - assumption that people set health goals and follow them in a logical and steadfast manner. There’s a lot of variation in motivation – we need to address social factors here.Sarasohn-Kahn - There are around 8000 health apps. The Mandala of health slide. around the person is transport policy, family, spiritual life – all drive health. Health can be complicated – you may want to track many things in a day e.g. diabetes. More chronic diseases means you seek health information online less = dis-engagement. Health app users are mostly young and don’t have a high burden of chronic conditions. Edelman health engagement study.
de Souza – everything is mobile now. Patient needs Research: #1 request is better ways to communicate with your doctor – people want this. They also want an awareness “where am I compared to other people?”, third is a baseline so I can track periodically.
Fogg - focus of health behaviuour – Managaing chronic conditions, preventing diseas, optimise wellness. Personal, peer or professional. Slide 3×3 of health tools. There were few social peer apps for maintaining health and less for support group for chronic group peer. There are clinicans using diagnostic apps. Shows where the opportunities are. The money is on the left side of the slide.
Morris- consistent and persistent behaviour change is rare. Apps to address mood – uses experience sampling and physiological sensor work to indicate stress – great video. Congnitive Therapy to get people to assess if they are over-reacting. Peer tools for mental health.
De Sousa – apps need to be relevant to both the user and the caregiver/doctor. Find the engagement and keep that use up. It has to be inclusive and on multiple dimensions – holistic. Nike shoe app – when you get injured you can’t use it and the Nike person got depressed and I ‘killed the avatar’ because I was swimming not running. When they use the app and if it fails or they can’t understand it the first time they use it you’ll lose them for ever.
Fogg - Behaviour change – epiphany, new context, baby steps. Designing for baby steps and succeed your self-efficacy goes up and you change the context of your life. 7 words Trigger the Right Sequence of Baby Steps. It’s very hard to do. konw the goal and find the baby steps to get there…. it’s a huge idea. There are systematic ways to plan for these and design for them.
Sarasohn-Kahn – The health system – how can these maintain momentum? You have to develop apps with users. The most effective tools and apps have to be user-centric and user crowd-sourced. Incentives to people adopting tools/apps think about the mandala of health. The 2 financiers in US – employer-based private system; [looking at prevention and wellness and new ways of buying and designing plans value-based benefit design using lifecycle. Churn is no longer an issue. Employers want productive and present staff – use tools to engage with their health. In the public sector this will be bolstered by in-health reform by a provision in the Act that Hospitals won’t get paid if they get re-admitted after a first discharge for Medicare patients. They are responsible for keeping them healthy at home after discharge. Work collaboratively with the hospital to adopt tools at the home measuring e.g. CHF weight – a scale that bluetooths the weight to the doctor or coach’s office daily. Home will be the hub of health – TV companies are doing pilots for whole-health programmes. M-health apps will be necessary but not sufficient – part of the tools and incentives.
Morris - what is the role of doctors families and friends in motivating behaviour change? There are many ways social network apps can expose people to positive influencers and role models who aren’t close family members or friends. These have a long way to go. people are starting to use FB to deliver interventions to networks not individuals. You will have a broader impact if a person’s network changes they can make and sustain changes.
de Souza – when you track you get better results. If you include others you track for longer. If you include professionals you get the best results out of that… Doctors say an app has to be medically relevant as well as the consumer’s need. Learn from finance – what you show the doctor has to be different from the end user. What view does a doctor want? A huge personal health record is a liability especially if I don’t read all of it. But if you show me 1 thing relevant to my specialism then I can work with it.
Fogg - we are in the ‘friendster’ stage of the industry for m-health. We haven’t seen the FB of mobile health. I don’t think a monopoly will emerge for health. The traditional health companies probably won’t lead these changes. Ways to innovate in this space – the creators and the subject matter experts are divided so overcoming this is important. Adoption and use are working – but are they changing behaviour? The startups and medical researchers are not connecting enough.
Questions
If we got gamers engaged in the design stage could this improve apps for health
Startups have issues with heavy regulation and long medical decision making timescales
de Souza - now that we have mobile it’s easier if a consumer can go to a doctor with something in their hand then the question comes back what is this can we have it too? Get consumers involved. Fogg - get evidence and show this to insurers and providers who are eager to go with something… they won’t go with it until there is proof. They need the confidence of a pilot.
What is the role for a hospital to do these things?
Sarasohn-Kahn – the most powerful thing about mobile is it’s both social and local. This is what a provider needs – you serve a community bond patients to local providers (Kaiser with green markets). de Souza – beware the Trojan horse – just get the adoption e.g. Microsoft Healthvault pushed Silverlight in order to get it = resistance.
Should we pay people to be compliant?
Fogg – I am not a fan of that. I like tiny successes in a row. building the momentum of success and mark the success (not with cash). This helps to create habits. Maybe use cash to get one-off actions. I’m not sure there is a big difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Look at Qurora, Farmville for recipes of behaviour change to build your app not starting from academic research papers. De Souza - using gaming versus paying in virtual research. We gave stars and when they went to the next level they got different coloured stars and it motivated well.
Have any apps been defined as a medical device? (works for Novartis)
Saraohn-Kahn - regulation. spoke to FDA informally and they think that apps are either informational or prescriptive. The informational are fair game. If they are prescriptive and may lead over to the device area – talk to the lawyers.
Photos of some of the slides presented
Peter Bregman writes on the HBR blog about the importance of correct interpretation of communications – the message versus the “package” [or medium IMV].
Helpfully he gives four steps to follow which will help you to make the best of poor communication situations:
1. Notice. Anytime you feel a negative emotion about something said or written to you, it’s a warning sign that you might get distracted by the package. Anger, sadness, frustration, disgust, and disbelief are all good prompts to go to step 2.
2. Pause. Take a deep breath. Then recognize you’re vulnerable to reacting emotionally to how something was communicated. And remind yourself that communication is hard and often done poorly. Cut yourself, and everyone else, some slack. Don’t assume malicious intent. Don’t take it personally. Resist the urge to be offended.
3. Interpret. Now reread what was written, or think about what was said, and unscramble it. Think about what the person was trying to convey. Search for value. Strive for understanding.
4. Respond. A good rule of thumb is to use a different medium than elicited your emotional response. If a text upset you, don’t text back. If an email set you off, pick up the phone. And when you do reply, ignore the package and focus on the message.
I add a sub-step between 3 and 4.
Time.
Leave some time (overnight is good) for you to reflect on the anger the message created in you and whether your reply will communicate the right message in the manner you intend.
When you read the article, reflect on the male : female responses to the same message. They matter a lot in business and if you’re a woman working in a male environment, you may find you get a better outcome if you use male messaging mores.
The same rules apply when pitching for new business – when you receive a message back from your prospect, can you correctly interpret what they mean?
Related articles
- Don’t Let the Package Distract You from the Message (blogs.hbr.org)
- Image via CrunchBase
Excerpt from Jill Konrath’s “Candid Letter from Sales to Marketing”
Dear Marketing,
I know we haven’t always gotten along. In fact, I’ve been pretty critical of you over the years.
I’ve complained that you’re not doing enough to get us business. I’ve blamed you when our new offerings fail to achieve projected success. I’ve accused you of being out of touch with what’s really going on with our customers and prospects.
The truth is, I don’t want to be the fall guy when I don’t reach my numbers. You don’t either. You’ve been just as hard on me as I’ve been on you.
You’ve criticized my salespeople’s skills, telling everyone in the company that we’re incapable of selling value. You’ve carped about our bonuses, whined about our expenses or grumbled that we weren’t working hard enough.
Enough already. We need to stop this blame game or neither of us will be successful. Personally, I’m at wit’s end. It’s harder than ever to reach our numbers, and I don’t see things getting any easier in the future – especially when I talk to the people who buy our products and services.
You may not realize this, but most of our prospects today suffer from a severe case of Frazzled Customer Syndrome. This is a debilitating condition brought on by excessive workloads, 24/7 availability, information overload, lack of sleep and job-related stress….more
To read the full article, visit the website of Manticore Technology—a leader in demand generation software—and download the full version here.
Disclosure: This is a paid for post.
I was invited down to Maidenhead to meet Melanie Vala and the Quickbooks marketing team following my rant and their subsequent work on improved customer communications.
Melanie is a marketing manager in charge of acquiring new customers.
She explained how the company is very US-centric with a lot of personal taxation management products which are market leaders in their segment. They have started sharing knowledge between the US and UK teams in order to create a global knowledge-base of best practice for social media marketing. They also do customer research with a "follow me home" where they observe customers using their products in their own offices / homes.
It appears that the marketing programme is very PR oriented working on customer acquisition and strong messaging to upsell to new products and mainly being product marketing focused.
There is some channel marketing work with resellers. Interestingly the closest market alignment to the UK is Canada – they think the same way as us. 
The database is UK and Canada sharing with the US on a different platform creating some silo issues.
Customers are differentiated by value in their current segmentation but not by needs at all. And so I thought to give back soe value to Melanie and thank her for her time meeting me, I'd ask the community to get involved.
Any suggestion about how Melanie might create a customer differentiation model for Quickbooks customers? I'll put down my own ideas of what the relevant issues and metrics might be to make up an algorithm?
- company size and type i.e. products vs services
- company complexity e.g. do you use multiple currencies / bank accounts
- book keeper or accountant
- attitude to learning – do you discover for yourself or want to be taught
- response to problems – do you research online or want to speak to a person
- interest in community – participant, reader, lurker or no interest
I think we need a few more…. suggestions please.
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Nice sub-title on the ICA website promoting Clay Shirky'sspeech on4 February
The use of camera phones and recording equipment during talks and events in the Feedback series is encouraged. Snap it, video it, blog it and then share it wit h us.
I like the use of a specific email address feedback@ica.org.uk to collect everything from users who may not yet be familiar with Flickr, blogs or YouTube – they do the running, you provide the content. As Don Peppers says, make it easy for the customer!
If you can't go or don't want to, have a read of David Cushman's interview with Clay on his last visit to the UK.
Here's my review of his book "Here comes Every Body"
And the nice bit where David asks my question in his interview with Clay
]]>Take a look at David Cushman's recent interview with Clay. The whole interview is on video here. I held back linking to it until I'd had a chance to read the book myself!
I replied to a Tweet
from David asking what questions he should be asking Clay. I was
delighted he picked one of mine to ask. "How do educational
establishments examine and test collaboration between students". And
here is the part of the interview where Clay answers my question . He says "That is THE hardest question. And no I don't have the prescription."