My Thinking
The Pine-Sol Approach to Value
Soap gets foamy and dries out your skin. That’s how you know it worked.
Pine-Sol® smells like concentrated Christmas tree, so you know it’s safe to eat off the kitchen floor.
Selsun Blue® tingles, or so I hear.
None of these are a result of active ingredients — they’re additives to reassure the customer.
In the agency business, the work we do is valuable, as is the process we follow. Too often the value we deliver is invisible to our clients. It’s hidden behind “the creative process” or “the tech team”. We need something the client can smell to feel reassured that we’re making progress towards their utter domination of the market and ascent up the corporate ladder. These are our additives and they usually come from account people.
What additives do you use?
For one, open the kimono and let your client experience the inner-workings of the agency. They might learn something, which is valuable to them and you the next time they need a revision to that deliverable or a rationale behind your huge cost estimate.
Share your reading list with them. If you are what you eat, then you might be an expert on the things you read. Share it on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn or whatever you use to connect with clients. (hint: if you’re close enough with them to use Facebook, you’re doing something right)
Take time to design your reports. I’ve been using SproutSocial to manage social media for clients, and I love their brand-able, eye-candy-studded, PDF-able reports. My clients are equally impressed.
Holiday gifts.
Picking up the phone instead of email.
Always staying positive.
Providing unexpected ideas.
Showing passion for something boring of theirs.
These are all account management additives to keep clients in love with you and the service your agency provides.
