REAL-WORLD INSIGHTS

Published: May 21 , 2018
Author: Brian Buck

It had been three months since the start of our relationship with our new client. My team had bent over backwards keeping the client happy. Every day the phone rang with a new demand or a new priority. When we got those calls, my team would do their best to convince the client it wasn’t a good idea to change direction so often but eventually, they would acquiescence and do what the client asked. Everyone believed that’s what we needed to do make them happy. ​​​​​​​ At our first quarterly review, the team was excited to hear how they were doing. The client started the conversation by saying, “We’ve never seen this before, but you have become known as the agency of No”. My team was devastated. They felt like they went the extra mile, every time but yet it seem to go completely unappreciated. Turning this around wasn’t going to be easy.

Published: May 14 , 2018
Author: Brian Buck

“We can’t sign an annual contract”. That was the bad news from our newly acquired client. We fought hard and beat out 8 other agencies to win this business from a highly sought after top tier brand. Unfortunately, things started to go awry before we even got started because they wouldn’t agree to our standard terms. We faced the difficult choice of either walking away or do something we haven’t done. Here’s what we did, and it wasn’t easy…

Published: May 09 , 2018
Author: Alan Smith

I’ve been on jury service this week. Fascinating. Can’t tell you anything about the deliberation, against the law. Could tell you about the verdict, but not going to, not relevant to my story (oh go on then guilty!) The thing that I really enjoyed watching was the to-and-fro between the various advocates in the court, and indeed the judge. I do not want to be flippant about this in any way, as in the end, the cases dealt with some pretty traumatic events in people’s lives, but as a keen observer of behavior and our reactions to it, what a microcosm to behold.