How a visit to a war museum in Saigon improved my client service skills
In advertising, one of the first responsibilities a new account exec is given is maintaining the WIP document. “Always put the client’s logo first, make sure our logo isn’t any bigger than theirs” are a couple of the prescriptive directions given. The reason for this should seem self evident, to show you’re putting them and their interests before your own. This, of course, is only a small thing but one of many small things that add up to demonstrate we’ve got our ‘self orientation’ in check.
In my five years in advertising I can see that account execs everywhere have taken these two instructions seriously. Never have I seen a WIP or presentation deck with the client logo less prominent than the agency’s. There is one thing I’ve seen a lot, usually right next to the logos that lets the agency down, quite often this mistake is made by junior and senior staff alike. I have to confess I used to make this mistake too until I recalled a visit to a war museum in Ho Chi Minh City.
I was walking around the museum with a young American tourist. He was wondering what all these references to the “American War” was. “Don’t they mean the Vietnam War?” He asked. Indeed from his perspective they did. The problem was the Vietnamese had been involved in many wars on their own soil over the centuries. For them all of them we’re a ‘Vietnam War’. The one unique circumstance about this one for them was they were fighting a country they’d never fought before, the USA. Hence ‘American War’ was what the unique identifier for that particular conflict.
Far too often I see this same external perspective applied to the naming of strategy decks, proposals, WIP documents, creative presentations etc. I see titles like proposal. Useful for the agency to identify that proposal amongst the piles of other proposals for other potential clients. The problem is from the client’s perspective it says nothing. They know they work for the company they work for and probably have a huge pile of proposals from prospective agencies.
To win and keep business we need to show clients we’re oriented towards their needs and are capable of seeing a business problem from their perspective. If we fail to do this in the title of a document then we’ve lost them before they’ve even turned a page.