Steve’s blog :
random musings of a professional scribbler

Why I think it’s OK to argue with clients…

It is said that ‘clients get the agency they deserve’.
It’s a sentiment with which I sympathise.
After all, who amongst us has not thought, at one time or another, “Have it your own way” – when confronted with an obdurate MD whose mind remains closed to our carefully honed concept or sure–fire strategy.
The best thing, surely, on these occasions, is to smile sweetly, acknowledge that “This is the way it’s always been done” and bid a strategic retreat to the bar – secure in the knowledge that our invoice is secure, and future projects will be forthcoming.
Well, there’s a case for that, of course. But I’d rather argue the point. Even if it costs me future commissions.
Fact is, though the client may not ‘deserve’ it, I prefer to stand by my instincts and experience. After all, they pay me for my expertise.
If they choose not to act on that expertise – remaining unmoved in the face of empirical evidence, based on proven principles – it’s their call. But I’ll have done my job – and maintained my integrity.
Which means I get to sleep nights.
Does this attitude make me an ethically upstanding fellow – a model for consultants everywhere?
Or a misguided ingénue, who has it all hopelessly wrong?

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