{"id":1392,"date":"2020-10-15T16:14:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T15:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2020-10-15T16:14:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T15:14:30","slug":"more-wise-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/more-wise-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"More Wise Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Cog Blog<\/a> a couple of weeks ago contained some lessons I\u2019ve learned over the years, illustrated with real-life examples. I asked the great Cog Blog reading population \u2013 an ever growing not to mention discerning group \u2013 to contribute to the follow-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One that did, and who didn\u2019t insist on anonymity was Pam Vick, ex Leo Burnett, now running Caspia Consulting<\/a>. I\u2019m grateful to Pam, whose \u2018lesson learned\u2019 is below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To recap, I listed four lessons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Love \u2018the work\u2019<\/li>
  2. Take responsibility<\/li>
  3. Clients are always right, except when they\u2019re not<\/li>
  4. It\u2019s the client\u2019s money<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Here are some more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lesson 5: Be polite; be professional<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The other day I timed how long it took me to type \u2018I\u2019m really sorry I had to cancel our meeting, something unavoidable came up. I will I promise refix.\u2019 It took 20 seconds, and I\u2019m slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It really isn\u2019t hugely hard to be polite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I was a media agency guy I was (apparently) known for being easy to get in to see. This wasn\u2019t altruistic; I always thought there was a chance that the person I was seeing would have a good idea that I could use and naturally pass off as my own. After all, no-one knows their product better than those selling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now that I\u2019m a consultant with neither a title nor any corporate infrastructure around me I find it extraordinary how rude people can be. Like many others I\u2019ve been kept waiting for hours, not had calls or emails returned, and had meetings that had been set up for weeks cancelled without any explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I get it that people are busy. A dog chasing its tail is busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One major media agency was asked to see us by their largest global client. We duly arranged to come in to see the executive mentioned with a presentation, involving thousands of pounds worth of kit and prototypes (this was a gaming business). Reminders and invitations were sent and acknowledged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Come the day, the person concerned a) forgot we were coming; b) hadn\u2019t bothered to invite her colleagues (the client asked us to be sure to see the whole team); c) hadn\u2019t booked a meeting room; d) with bad grace eventually agreed to see us in the agency\u2019s basement caf\u00e9; e) spent 10 minutes telling us about her forthcoming holiday; f) had a secretary come over 10 minutes later with a trumped up excuse that she had to leave to go somewhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At no stage did the executive apologise or even admit she had made a mistake. There was no suggestion of a follow-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I can\u2019t help but smile when I\u2019m approached for advice by people who ignored the present me for years whilst they were in a big job, but who are now suddenly out on their own and think that, all of a sudden I might be helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Of course, I always see them. I might learn something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lesson 6: Celebrate the craft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    None of us really knows how advertising works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What we do know is that some advertising has worked, and some hasn\u2019t. And we\u2019re quite good at explaining why, after the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Some of the most useful sessions I was ever involved in within agencies were the ones spent with multiple clients just chatting over the latest award winners, the stories behind them and what made them great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Be they Cannes winners, or IPA Ad Effectiveness awards entries there are always lessons to be learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Spending time with clients talking about the craft of advertising, or media planning, with no specific agenda and no pressure works well and communicates far more than perhaps you might think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lesson 7: Don\u2019t prejudge the channel (with thanks to Pam Vick at Caspia Consulting)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When a prospective client calls to ask for advice it\u2019s surprising how often they\u2019ve already decided what they need to do to solve their marketing problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For instance, what they know they want is quite often a brochure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why? \u201cBecause we don\u2019t have one \/ need a new one\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s remarkable how often clients start from the wrong end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The need is not for a new version of the old thing, but to think through such basics as what you want to achieve and who you need to reach to achieve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Then you get to move on to the fun bit; deciding on the strategy and the (mix of) channels best suited to achieve your goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The answer may be a new brochure. It probably isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lesson 8: Saying it isn\u2019t the same as doing it<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I once worked for one of the largest market research businesses in a global role. Early on, as the new boy, I was invited to present to the UK management team on what I was planning to do, as part of a \u2018vision away day\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The team were clear as to their vision: they were going to stop being researchers and start being consultants. That way they could move to a different fee structure, and charge more (I paraphrase, probably unkindly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There was no talk of hiring people better suited to the new vision; no talk of bringing in a different type of graduate; no talk of retraining, restructuring or cutting out the deadwood to encourage the new growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In their minds it was simple. They had smart people, all that was needed was a clearly articulated vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When banks discovered marketing back around the early 1960\u2019s it was always said that the key word in the title Bank Manager was Manager. Once a Manager you could manage anything, your skill was transferable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here\u2019s news: it isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Cog Blog a couple of weeks ago contained some lessons I\u2019ve learned over the years, illustrated with real-life examples. I asked the great Cog Blog reading population \u2013 an ever growing not to mention discerning group \u2013 to contribute to the follow-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1394,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions\/1394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}