‘Don’t agree to do anything without taking time to think of the possibilities. Once you have said “OK” you have raised someone’s hopes either falsely or positively. If you want to have a good reputation and be respected for being reliable, be slow to say YES’
MANY of us had to learn on the job and sometimes the hard way but I guess many things were not thought in school and you must learn as you grow in life and in business. As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher. However, the successful ones are those who didn’t stay down in regrets and miss other opportunities.
Being an intermediary between the client team and the agency team is like being a diplomat. Most times it is very difficult to get the people on both sides to understand time management, and the intermediary, which is mostly the client service team, takes the heat.
The client sees you as incompetent and non-cooperative, while the agency team sees you as a liar, wicked, and inconsiderate person. Talk about being between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Sometimes clients brief a project they want to be delivered ‘yesterday’ with the expectation that the client service personnel should create magic and ensure the agency delivers without any need for correction. Usually, the decision to go ahead with a project on the client side takes a while even though the project can only be done at a particular point in time to achieve the business objectives or meet KPIs.
Earlier on in my career, I never said “NO” to the client and always accepted to deliver on any job as requested even when I knew it meant extra working hours for myself and the team. I have been trained to see myself as the client’s business partner whose main goal is to ensure their business success.
However, as I grew older and garnered more experience, I developed a thick skin and learned to say “NO” without actually saying it. I found a way to achieve this without losing focus on the importance of being a partner in business with the client for their business growth.
When I receive a brief from the client, the first thing I do is to put it on the agency’s briefing document to clearly state the background of the brief, objective, target, key message, creative approach, deliverables, budget, and timelines. The timelines will be determined by the number of jobs in traffic and the type of business we are running with the client (e.g. retainership or project-based.)
This briefing document shows the job to be done and the realistic timeline for it. This is then the basis of my discussion with the client in agreeing on when the job will be done. However, most times we deliver earlier than agreed and everyone is happy.
There were situations where members of my team agree to unrealistic timelines with the client and after three warnings and situation redemption, I leave them to face the consequence.
Don’t agree to do anything without taking time to think of the possibilities. Once you have said “OK” you have raised someone’s hopes either falsely or positively. If you want to have a good reputation and be respected for being reliable, be slow to say YES.
*Ogunyomi is a Marcoms professional and behavioral analyst. She left Ogilvy Nigeria in 2020 to start her own agency. She is an APCON member, was a member of the AAAN women in Advertising committee, and the AAAN Event committee. She is currently the CEO of Aspora Nigeria Limited, an integrated Communications, Strategy, and Consultancy agency.
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