Balancing the client and agency vision

It's never easy - being in the middle of this circus, the great balancing act - balancing the needs of the client and that of your team and agency - Account management, client services or whatever you wish to call it is an art as much as it a science of social and human behavior - it's success or failure ultimately lies with your team and their ability to transcend the many bumps along the way.

As account people we are thrust into learning not just about the clients' business but about the client themselves - we often forget that they are human beings too, with needs, wants, desires and a personal vision for their brand. But truly listening, probing and asking the right questions is what ensures the agency gains the insights to understand the business challenge and allows for well rounded ideation for solutions to come to fruition.

Too many times we as account people get stuck on the daily details, not that those details aren't significant, but it's vital to keep the big vision in mind to keep us striving to think big picture.

Clients sometimes tend to forget this too in their briefings to agencies and thus it's our mandate, our duty to ensure we challenge and investigate our consumers mindset and the competitive landscape to grasp what our success metrics need to be and how the creative we produce will ensure we achieve these.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg! Account management is also a windy and unchartered adventure into managing our own agency bravado,creative attitudes and our client's high expectations for the agency - but really it's about getting everyone on side, team work is key. It's preached many times, but put into practice far too little in most situations.

To succeed for our clients, we need open dialog throughout the life cycle of a project and the client/agency relationship. Too often we assume we know or may know what our clients are seeking or what our teams deem to understand about a brand or the mandate of a project - hint - assume nothing.

From my years in the business I've learnt that besides the creative brief, team mentoring, project plans, financial analysis, WIP analysis, account status calls, briefings etc. - the list of duties seems only get longer - a truly great agency and it's account team understands that by having an open door of communication between the client and itself is the key to success. Clients need to feel they can knock on our door and no matter how stupid their question may seem to some, we can tackle that question with poise, insight and empathy and craft a solution. Because at the end of the day, we, the agency, should never assume we know more then the client does about their brand and we should feel just as comfortable admitting we don't know it all - our mandate is to learn from our experiences and take that experience realizing that each new brief presents an unique challenge that requires a customized solution.

So the next time your client comes knocking your door with a great vision, nurture it with openness and a willingness to learn how make the vision a reality and create an idea that truly delivers.