INBOUND 2015

1. INBOUND15
Good afternoon everyone!

2. Thank you
for joining me
today.
(Glad to be back at INBOUND!)

3. How many of you deal with clients?

4. Account people have long been the
“keepers of the relationship” with
clients.

5. ??????
??????
??????
??????
Is account
management
dead

6. Account management used
to do strategy.
Get it right the first time.
Own your mistakes.
Be proactive.
Communicate.

7. “Know my business.”
For many shops, Planning has
largely co-opted that terrain.
Own your mistakes.
Be proactive.
Communicate.

8. “Know my business.”
Get it right the first time.
Account management used to
oversee execution.
Communicate.

9. “Know my business.”
Get it right the first time.
Own your mistakes.
“Project Management” does
much of this now.

10. v
With clients, Planning is viewed
as, “the voice of the consumer.”

12. Project
Management
is viewed as,
“the voice of
authority.”

13. Account
Management
?

14. ??????
??????
??????
??????
Does account management even
have a voice, and…

15. ??????
??????
??????
??????
If account people lack a voice, or worse,
lack a role, what does this mean
for agencies and the clients they serve

16. This is what we’ll explore today,
with a discussion called…

17. INBOUND15
What Clients Want
And How to Give it to Them
Robert Solomon
Solomon Strategic

18. My view is largely shaped by the
conversations I’ve had with scores of
agency people about,
“what’s not working.”

19. The staffers I’ve spoken with -- founders,
CEOs, account people, along with folks in
Creative, Planning, Production -- varied
in background, tenure, and experience,
but were remarkably aligned in their
views.

20. Five things emerged from these
in-depth conversations:

21. 1. Account people are
unclear on their roles.

22. “‘I won’t; I can’t; that’s not
in my purview; that’s not
my job’ seem to be
common here. People don’t
know the job they should
be doing.”
For example:

23. For example:
“Everybody defers to
everybody else: ‘I don’t do
social; I don’t do media.’
Roles and responsibilities
aren’t clearly defined.”

24. “Know my business.”
2. A failure to communicate – internally
and with clients – is a concern.
Own your mistakes.
Be proactive.
Communicate.

25. “Communication
between departments
is an issue. We need to
have everyone working
towards a common
goal.”
For example:

26. “Communication is a
BIG thing; there’s a lot
going on and we need
to do a better
job to
surface issues.”
For example:

27. “Know my business.”
Get it right the first time.
3. Clients seek ideas from account
people; are frustrated by their absence.
Communicate.

28. “We need to bring
more strategic ideas
to the table, beyond
what’s expected.”
For example:

29. “The focus is on the
numbers, timeliness, and
status of things, rather
than ideas.”
For example:

30. “Know my business.”
Get it right the first time.
Own your mistakes.
4. Account people struggle to get
budgets, schedules, scopes right.

31. For example:
“We need to make sure
there are no surprises.
Clients hate surprises.”

32. For example:
“You win business
based on creative and
strategy, in that order.
You lose business
based on execution, or
lack of it.”

33. “Know my business.”
Get it right the first time.
Own your mistakes.
Be proactive.
5. Account people need to do a better
job managing client expectations.

34. For example:
“We need to set expectations
properly. If we don’t set
those expectations, clients
lose faith and trust in us. We
also need to manage
expectations internally.”

35. For example:
“We have crazy clients;
they have become way
too demanding. We
need to manage
expectations.”

36. 1. Account people are unclear on their roles.
2. A failure to communicate – internally and
with clients – is an issue.
3. Clients look to account people for ideas,
and are frustrated by their absence.
4. It’s a struggle to get the “small things” right:
budgets, schedules, scopes of work.
5. There’s a need to do a better job of
managing client expectations.

37. Agency people
understand what’s wrong,
but don’t seem to know
how to fix it.

38. Clients want agencies
held accountable…

39. “Know my business.”
Communicate.
for budgets
and schedules...

40. for strategy...

41. And, above all,
for ideas.

42. Agencies
themselves want
to be
accountable…

43. for the commitments they make…

44. for the
work they
present...

45. And, when
they happen,
the mistakes that occur.

46. In the agency, the people best positioned
to be accountable are…

47. Account people.

48. So, is account
management
dead?

49. Absolutely not.

50. But account management
must reclaim being the
“voice of accountability”
for the agencies they
represent.

51. Account management is the
“voice of accountability.”

52. To do this, account people
need to become expert at
both ideas and execution.

53. Or as a colleague puts it, be the

54. ??????
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How do we
become 2nd
best at ideas

55. If you were here last year,
you heard me speak of two
ways to be more creative:

56. The first is…

57. Supported by this guy:
“Simple can be harder than
complex: you have to work
hard to get your thinking clean
and make it simple. But it’s
worth it in the end because
once you get there, you can
move mountains.”

58. And this guy:
“Complexity is
your enemy. Any
fool can make
something
complicated. It is
hard to make
something
simple.”

59. The second is…
Asking exactly right questions.

60. Simply ask,
“Why can’t we try X,”
followed by,
“What if we pursued Y?”

61. Embedded in every
perfectly framed
question is an answer –
an idea – waiting to
reveal itself.

62. To these principles
I’d like to add three
others…

63. There’s an agency that
worked with a client in
the wireless business.

64. The client believed it’s customers
were higher income professionals.

65. Instead of simply
accepting this as fact,
the agency wanted to
see for itself…

66. So it set up shop in the
client’s stores, where it
could watch consumers,
note the questions they
asked, and how they
transacted business.

67. Two weeks later, they
arrived at a simple but
powerful insight:

68. The client was missing its market(!)

69. Instead of having higher income
professionals as customers,

70. “Know my business.”
Get it right the first time.
The client actually was serving working
class, lower income, urban dwellers.

71. This insight –
the product of
simple observation –
led to a radical
shift in its
creative and
media approach,
resulting in a huge
increase in
performance.

72. The wireless client was
not Verizon or T-Mobile;
it was...

73. The agency was not Ideo
or R/GA; it was a firm
called...

74. And the location was
not New York or LA;
it was Bozeman.

75. Yes, that Bozeman.

76. The point:
observation leads to insight;
insight leads to ideas.
You don’t have to be an Ideo
or an R/GA to master the
underlying principle.

77. In an interview
with Charlie Rose,
the actor
Jake Gyllenhaal said,

78. “…freedom is
on the other side
of discipline.”

79. Also in an interview
with Charlie Rose,
the actor
Helen Mirren said,

80. “…accident is very important in art, but you
can only achieve accident in a full way after
you’ve fully mastered technique.”

81. For those of us not actors,
but still striving for
that next great idea,
there are two take-aways
from Gyllenhaal and Mirren:

82. The liberating necessity
of discipline and
technique to the
creative process;
and…

83. The role “accident”
plays in idea formation.

84. The more you are in
control of your craft –
meaning discipline and
technique -- the more
likely that next idea will
emanate from you.

85. Equally important, you likely won’t
create that next great idea sitting in
your office, “at work.”

86. You might well create that
idea in a time and place
where you least expect it,
and need to be open
and available to it.

87. Anybody see the finale
of Mad Men?
Don Draper is not
in the office
when he comes
up with…

88. Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” commercial.

89. Okay, that’s fiction;
what happened in real life
?????

90. There was
a story in
the May 19
New York Times:

91. Serendipity
at work

92. The point:
Ideas can come from
anywhere, at any time,
to anyone, including
you.

93. 1. Follow William of Occam’s rule of simple.
2. Frame the issue with “Why” and “What if”
questions.
3. Use observation to lead to insights that
drive strategy, creative, and media.
4. Understand “Freedom is the other side of
discipline;” gain mastery of your craft.
5. Give license to the power of
serendipity.
Five ways to create more ideas:

94. ??????
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How do we
become 2nd best at
execution

95. You would think client
dissatisfaction comes from
a failure in strategy,
or not having enough
good ideas.

96. That can be true, but
client frustration often
derives from far more
modest things:

97. A budget that’s wrong.

98. A schedule that’s off.

99. Communication
that’s unclear.

100. Clients expect
agencies to be
accountable
for these things.

101. Agencies not only need
to be accountable to
clients for these things,
they need to be
accountable to
each other.

102. Being truly accountable to clients and
colleagues begins and ends with
a well-crafted Scope of Work.

103. Screw up a Scope of Work, and
everything that follows will devolve into a
dog’s breakfast of
derailed deadlines, broken budgets,
and cantankerous clients.

104. “Know my business.”
Get it right the first time.
Let’s talk about what it means to
do a proper Scope of Work.
Communicate.

105. There are
5 rules to
follow:
(Hey, is that Moses, or Charlton
Heston pretending to be Moses?)

106. 1.
Always begin an
engagement with a
scope of work.

107. As surprising as this might sound,
it is amazing how many
assignments lack a well-defined
scope of work, or any scope at all.

108. 2.
Make certain each scope
fully and precisely describes
the tasks you are to handle;
this is especially critical in
“fixed fee” assignments.

109. If you can’t say
what’s included, be
sure to say what’s
excluded.

110. Remember
this quote?
“We need to make sure
there are no surprises.
Clients hate surprises.”

111. Your goal: no surprises!

112. 3.
If you are unable to clearly
define the work to be done,
build “contingency dollars”
into your fee estimate, to deal
with the unexpected.

113. Assignment uncertainty
Contingency amount
Low High
Low
High
The greater the uncertainty, the
more contingency fee you build in.

114. Client desirability
Competition
Low
StrongWeak
High
But be certain to calibrate your fee
contingency to the opportunity.
HIGH
CONTINGENCY
LOW
CONTINGENCY
MODERATE
CONTINGENCY
MODERATE
CONTINGENCY

115. 4.
I strongly recommend
avoiding “Party-of-the-first-
part” legal language; this
might make your lawyer
happy, but it won’t ensure
you get paid in a fair
or timely fashion.

116. The moment your scope even
hints at the word “Contract” –
even though that’s what it is –
the lawyers get called in.

117. Once attorneys get involved, you are
more likely to finish the engagement
before you finish the agreement.

118. 5.
I suggest you write your
scopes in informal, first-
person letter language,
which can enhance the
client relationship,
not erode it.

120. 1. Always begin an assignment with a
Scope of Work.
2. Each scope should fully describe tasks to
be addressed.
3. To deal with the unexpected, build in
contingency dollars to your fee estimates.
4. Don’t write in “Party of the first part”
legalese, which only makes your lawyer happy.
5. Instead, write your Scopes in informal,
1st-person language.

121. If you practice these
five things, scope
creep will decline,
if not disappear.

122. A recap, in case you need it:

123. ??????
??????
??????
??????
Is account
management
dead
To return to a question
asked and answered:

124. Not if account people reclaim the
“voice of accountability.”

125. Clients want agencies
to be accountable.
Colleagues want
agencies to be
accountable.

126. Now we need account people to hold
themselves accountable.

127. If they do, they ensure their
substance and significance,

128. and their agency’s
survival and success.

129. And with that,
I conclude my
prepared
remarks.

130. INBOUND15
Thank you everyone!

131. INBOUND15
What Clients Want
And How to Give it to Them
Robert Solomon
Solomon Strategic