THE ART OF CLIENT SERVICE 58 THINGS EVERY ADVERTISING & MARKETING PROFESSIONAL SHOULD KNOW

ROBERT SOLOMON

1. Define success. 31. Be brief, be bright, be gone.

2. Be multilingual. 32. Lead the meeting, don’t tyrannize it.
3. Live the client’s brand. 33. Always follow up.
4. Agree on a strategy, a budget, and a schedule. 34. Judgment overrides any rule.
5. Always manage client expectations from 35. Credit is for creative directors.
the outset. 36. You cannot lead an account from your desk.
6. Take the word ‘brief’ seriously. 37. Avoid the dark side.
7. Know when to look it up; know when to 8. Great work wins business; a great relationship
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make it up.
keeps it.
8. Make the creative team partners in the brief.
39. We are smarter together than we are alone.
9. In writing the brief, provide the client’s
40. Make no commitment without consultation.
perspective.
41. There is no NO in your client vocabulary.
10. Get the client’s input and approval on the brief.
2. Before you tell clients or colleagues what
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11. Ask, “What do my colleagues need to
you think, tell them what you know.
create great advertising?” then deliver it.
3. Before you give clients what they need,
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2. Always ask, “Does this advertising pass the
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first give them what they want.
‘So What’ test?”
44. How to write a letter of proposal.
13. Don’t fall in love with good work.
45. The Zen of PowerPoint.
14. Don’t fall for bad work.
46. In a high-tech world, be low-tech.
15. Choice is good.
47. Always think endgame.
6. Fight about the work with colleagues,
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fight for it with clients. 48. No surprises about money or time.
17. Do not sell. 49. Deal with trouble head-on.
18. Bring your clients into the process early. 50. If things go wrong, take the blame.
19. Respect what it takes to do great creative. 51. What happens when I screw up?
0. Client presentations are as important as
2 2. Remember the personal side of
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new business presentations. business relationships.

21. No understudies on presentation day. 3. Take on the coloration of your clients,

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but do not compromise your character.
22. No scenery chewers, no dead bodies.
4. No matter how social it becomes, never
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23. Be prepared to throw away the script.
forget that it’s business.
4. The more informal you want to be, the
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55. Once a client, always a client.
more rehearsed you need to be.
56. Make an investment in your personal style.
25. Know your opening cold.
57. Invest some time (again) in these books.
6. Better to have it and not need it, than
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need it and not have it. 58. Remember to say “Thank You”.

27. Support what you say. 59.

28. Listening is more important than talking.
29. Start on time, end on time. 60.
0. Have an agenda and stick to it
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(most of the time).