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Tales from those on the front lines of dealing with clients. Tales of difficult clients, complex situations, relationship management - and how massive client management problems were solved, and what they learned. Largely those running agencies, but all across different professional services.
Episodes
Friday May 21, 2021
Friday May 21, 2021
On our seventh take at Client Horror Stories, we receive Stephanie Schwab, CEO, and Founder of Crackerjack, who tells us a story that sounds weird from the beginning, even if she only realized during the interview, when a colleague that you met 3 weeks ago has a project that appears to be a match made in heaven for complementing what both your companies do.
So the first yellow flag comes up when he brings in the fact that he’s not actually partnering up with you, and simplifies it with a short “You bill us, and we’ll bill the client” to make things quick and easy. So how surprising must have been to find out that, in fact, they were also being outsourced by the company the client was actually hiring, right?
So this messed up chain of command that looked much more like a children’s phone game obviously needed to end up blowing, and the blow up involved everything from delayed payments, micromanaging, and even end up talking sh*t about your not-so-partner on the phone with the main company.
This story gives us a lesson on confidence, integrity, upfrontness, and being able to call for an attorney once the situation begins to get weird. And all of it in the times where “Influencer Marketing” was just called “Working with bloggers”.
Links:
Friday May 14, 2021
Friday May 14, 2021
In our sixth take at Client Horror Stories, we have FM Byers, CEO and Founder of SM Digital Partners telling us a tale that involves drama, diversity, round tables, and maybe too much ambition.
Our story begins with a random meeting on a cruise that soon would be followed by a two-year-long back and forth that included everything (from product developments, translators, many flight tickets, and even elementary-school children) except an actual written contract or agreement.
FM’s tale tells us everything we need to know on how to handle cross-cultural clients, take risks, explore our patients, and realizing that sometimes it’s just time to go. This story gives us a lesson or two on how to be genuine and create real value, and just take a moment to come to a conclusion: Maybe people just won’t get it, and maybe our ideas work, but the timing just wasn’t right.
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Literacy quotes:
“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” - T. S. Eliot
Friday May 07, 2021
Friday May 07, 2021
In the fourth take of Client Horror Stories, we receive Roger Parent from Digital Position, with a tale that could be classified also as an Employee Horror Story. Today’s narrative includes everything from betrayal, drama and friendship, along with over 10 lessons on managing not only clients and employees, but also every human being relationship you have.
Our story begins with a guy bursting into tears in a desperate ask for a job, and our guy Roger really trying to help him, even when he could not afford him. So an unexpected solution came in the shape of a new client who also had an open position in his business, who’d work side by side with Roger’s agency: A win-win-win situation, right? Well, if that was the case then we would have no story to tell.
Roger’s narration involves budget blow ups, account destructions, ghosting, contract-escaping manners, and even the creation of a brand new separate strategy. However, as we reach the ending of the story, we end up with the sour taste in our mouths that even the most loud and chaotic stories can end up really quiet.
As this tale develops, we’ll have the opportunity to be a part of Morgan and Roger’s moral debate on human nature and expectations, as well as taking advantage of everything that there is to learn here (and I don’t just mean management tips, but also Shakespearean quotes). The bottom line we end up with is pretty simple: Mental health, teamwork and happiness always have to come before money.
About Roger:
I'm a dad, an athlete, and a guy who started a marketing agency because most of them suck. Culture is everything, and I'm lucky to have a team full of amazing people who "get it", truly care about the work they do, and are able to have a ton of fun through it all.
Literary Quotes:
“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is. To have a thankless child.” - William Shakespeare, King Liar.
“Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 94.
Links:
Friday Apr 30, 2021
Friday Apr 30, 2021
In our third episode of Client Horror Stories, we have Jason Pittock, CMO of ClickGuard, telling us a passionate and gripping story about making huge deals with big fishes while you are still a reckless (and naive) 21-year-old.
Filled up both with a British accent and Argentinian slang, this story takes us to 6 years ago in the streets of Palermo, Buenos Aires. Back then, Jason, who was a very ambitious and smart young man, happened to land this millionaire deal for the company that he was working for and didn't hesitate for a second before he agreed.
From the beginning, we have a feeling that bad luck was chasing him down: A surprisingly pregnant project manager, broken elevators on delivery day, and a fully flooded storage basement were only the first signs the universe sent Jason to tell him to back off. However, being a persevering and responsible person, Jason continued to do everything he could to accomplish this deal until the very end, when a lawsuit for 50% of the job value arrived.
This story includes everything from lawyers with food stains in their shirts, clients stalking you at the beach, and even calling your dad for some advice. Reaching the end, Jason leaves us with some very valuable lessons on boundaries, mental health, and the importance of telling someone to back off when needed.
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Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
Tuesday Apr 13, 2021
In take three of Client Horror Stories, we have Manar Hussain telling us an unbelievable and soap-opera worthy story about a client who showed up on a Friday afternoon saying: “I need to launch on Monday” and ended up, not only with no launch but also hidden under a desk.
Manar and Morgan agree, from minute number one, about how much of a red flag is that someone comes in with an emergency of those characteristics because it makes very obvious the fact that someone before made a really huge mistake. However, being the nice guy he is (and considering how worthy the payment was), Manar said let’s do it and jumped into it.
Decided to focus his entire attention on achieving this goal, Manar got together a team and signed just one work condition: Giving his best efforts to make it happen. Everyone was working crazy and meetings continued happening every two hours to make sure that term was accomplished, when, all of a sudden, they lost access to the servers and were completely ghosted by the same client that started up as the neediest and thankful in the entire world. Having realized that they had been kicked off, Manar and his team got into this intense “Geek-Moral debate” and stress crisis about how much effort they should put given the situation that could have easily been avoided with a simple “Stop working” text.
This story’s dramatic twist includes not only what they learned from it but also a bunch of gossip they learned the days after the incident: “Geek moral debate”, “Hiding under desks” and “reputation of not paying until a lawyer’s involved” are just some of the keywords. Manar here leaves us with some very important business lessons: Decide prior to the beginning what you will do if at some point you don’t get a satisfactory answer and always sign a contract.
The last highlight here is that, if you pay attention, you’ll notice Manar called this experience “the most fun he had had in months”.
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