Five tips for understanding client context
Change is a constant. And change is also the key to unlocking more strategic conversations that can build greater advocacy with our clients. Many of us feel that we know a lot about the businesses we work with, but understanding and tracking the change is where the opportunities lie. What’s shifting for our clients? How are external forces like the competition, regulations, supply chains and some of the bigger, global trends impacting them? What does this mean for the future and how they’re preparing for it?
Engaging with clients about their broader business challenges is an effective marginal gains strategy for building stronger client relationships. Jennifer Crowley, Client Partner and Digital Sustainability Lead at Kin+ Carta is someone recognised for her ability to tackle such conversations. Jennifer joined me in episode 53 to share her perspectives on how to really get to the heart of client matters. If you want to move the dial of your client dealings from being seen as a ‘supplier’ to a ‘key strategic partner’, you’ll be interested to read this summary of Jennifer’s top tips.
1. Have patience
It’s important to remember that, as brilliant as any agency may be, we are not the centre of our client’s world. Having patience can balance the enthusiasm, pace and ambition that agencies are renowned for. Clients have budget constraints, politics, and real-life human problems to deal with, just as the rest of us do. Sometimes, ‘right now’ isn’t the right time to develop a client conversation in a particular direction — but that doesn’t mean that an agency can’t have processes in place that prepare for this eventuality.
2. Prepare the right, bold questions
Certainty is an illusion. Far more interesting spaces for conversation and collaboration can be created by the power of a great question. However, great questions can only be crafted on the back of diligent research. Audit the information about clients and prospects that’s readily available to uncover their challenges. For example, look into their sustainable development commitments, carbon offset strategies and environmental targets. Demonstrating that you have taken the time to understand these business issues will convey respect and begin conversations that the C Suite will want to be part of.
3. Demonstrate common values and ambitions
Being able to highlight how your agency has values, challenges and ambitions in common with a client provides effective conversation stimulus. Approaching client problems from this angle is often a more diplomatic ‘way in’ because rather than pointing a finger at a failing, it displays mutual vulnerability. No one has all the answers when it comes to important and complex issues like gender pay gaps and subconscious recruitment bias. The goal is to collaborate, demonstrate empathy, be honest about the weak spots and work together to try and create meaningful change.
4. Take action
On a similar note, taking tangible action with respect to some of the key issues of our time shows that you can walk the talk. It’s hard to have authentic conversations with clients about addressing business-level challenges responsibly if the agency’s own initiatives seem apathetic. Across the creative industries, we have all contributed to many of the problems of today, like mass consumerism or gender bias in marketing, but we can also be a massive part of the solution.
5. Know that C Suite conversations are not the preserve of big agencies
Positioning your agency as a critical, strategic partner for client business-level issues isn’t dependent on learning a dark art. For agency owners, this is often just about making (and protecting) the time required to develop an awareness about the issues that clients face, to monitor the evolution of these issues, and to prepare for and initiate considered conversations at the right time.
It’s my belief that a really key differentiator of the best-performing agencies is the fact that they have a process in place that supports the tracking of issues and trends and enables more informed conversations with clients. This requires a commitment of time that leaner servicing models may prefer to overlook. However, at a time when every client business will have been affected on some level by the pandemic, and as issues like sustainability, diversity, inclusion and equality continue to gather force, ignoring these opportunities to address client pain points is missing a vital trick.
To listen to my conversation with Jennifer in full, tune into the Small Spark Theory Podcast, EP53: Understanding client context .
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