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Why We Help Stubborn Clients Heed our Marketing Advice
Clients are intelligent men and women, successful in their chosen fields. When they refuse marketing advice, we take the time to explain it in a different way.
When your toddler refuses a nap, you don’t reason with them. You are the parent with the experience to make an informed decision. And so, your toddler gets that nap. But clients aren’t your children, they are your partners. As a partner, they deserve an equal say when making marketing decisions, especially as they know their own business best.
Still, the client hired you for your expertise. You put in the years of experience and training, toiling in the trenches day after day. Why won’t they take your good advice and do what would be in the best interest of their business?
Clear and understandable explanations are especially important in a business like ours which is at the intersection of marketing and technology. If our clients already knew web development and search engine optimization inside and out, they would be our competitors. Instead, they know things like concrete or real estate or how to run a government.
The Sprocket team prides itself on being able to translate geek-speak into language for folks less interested in technology. But even we stray into jargon at times and when that happens, our clients have every right to ask us to explain ourselves in plainer words. It’s in our best interest that clients understand what we plan to do for them so they can make the best decisions.
Of course, understanding goes both ways. We count on our clients to provide details we don’t know about their businesses and target audiences so that we can build them the most successful digital presence.
Here’s a mashup of two old maxims that sums up our partnership outlook: “When great minds think alike, the customer is always right.”
What that means to us is that we try to put extra effort into explaining the benefits of our marketing proposals. By educating our clients on how they will either save money or make money by using the tools and processes we are advising, it helps both of us to “think alike” and agree on a plan of action.
And if a client still declines our technical advice, we try to back off and re-examine the situation from their perspective. Once we understand what the issue really is, we can usually come up with an alternate solution that works for us both.
Our best clients are not tantrum-throwing toddlers but knowledgeable adults of successful companies. It’s a privilege and a thrill to work as a team with such people so that we can both grow. If this is the kind of partnership you are looking for in an internet marketing company, give us a call and let’s talk!
Photo by RDNE Stock project
This article is an update to “Does Your Client Act Like a Toddler?” dated 3/16/2015.
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Kate Gingold
I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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