Career Growth

Be A Partner NOT A Vendor

Leading clients is a contact sport. It’s one of the most important things I learned while at Account Executive College. This means that if I’m going to lead our clients successfully, I must be in front of them consistently and speak with them frequently.

 

This constant contact requires the utilization of certain tools and principles by which to abide. In this blog I want to discuss how it is important to be a partner NOT a vendor for your clients. Clients will often try to do more on their own, so you have to be there to lead and advise them during your relationship so they realize the impact you can make in their marketing efforts.

 

The deeper the relationship you can build and the better leader you can be for them, the less they will want to explore other options when the new “in” thing comes along.

 

Having said that, here are three ways to help you be a leader for your clients to help guide them through the changing media and marketing landscape.

 

Tod Meisner

 

Look For Inconsistencies To Fix 

An easy way to get quick wins early in a client relationship and a tactic that will help gain their trust for the duration of the partnership is to look for brand inconsistencies. Once you’ve identified the areas you can help correct for them, immediately tell them, “we can fix this!” This can be as easy as suggesting better content to post, better times to post it or making sure all social profiles have consistent bio information. Prioritize the importance on these projects and knock them out quickly and effectively. Your client will be impressed that you solved, what seemed to them, complex problems more quickly than they could. This will help you earn immediate trust.

 

Take Work Off Their Plate

One of the first questions we ask when we start working with new clients is, “what keeps you up at night?” Actually, we begin to ask that question well before we’ve signed on as the agency of record, and then we reiterate it again during our first meetings. We want to take work off our cleint's plate very quickly and be known for the problems we solve for them. If you are consistently making their workload lighter, you’ll start to become a trusted adviser for them. They will come to you when they’re considering making a decision or will ask that you be in meetings that impact their daily workload. This action goes a long way in building up lasting trust.

 

Always Show Value

The final step in becoming a trusted partner and earning long lasting confidence from your client is for you to always show value. The first two points listed above will help you establish quick value and value during the early stages of the new relationship. But, being able to consistently show value will make a partnership last a long time. Value can mean many things to many people. In the case of a client partnership it can be in the form of offering ideas, solving problems, being available when called upon, sticking up for your client when they face internal strife, meeting and exceeding deadlines, and generally just making their lives easier.

 

I mentioned zero-cost client service initiatives in the first blog of this series and being a trusted partner is also a way to bring your agency tremendous returns at zero cost. Following these above steps will also help you gain various levels of trust with your client that can lead to a lasting and productive relationship.

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A proud ESFJ and Nurturer, I’m a challenger of people. I remain deeply concerned about the relational health and harmony of my teams. I am committed to protecting values and principles while understanding how certain actions, behaviors and initiatives affect people. Let's connect on Twitter: @todmeisner