Confidential Account @ConfidentialAcc: Basically using drinks + sex after to show a client “a good time” to seal the deal. Your views on this? is it common?
ANSWER:
This was actually in the plot of last week’s “Mad Men”. Not sure if you saw it.
I used to run an agency so I know what this is like. I was wining and dining clients every day and night. It’s brutal. Clients would call me up at three in the morning thinking they were my best friend and asking my advice on their jobs, careers, etc . I would go to charity events just to impress clients. I said to my therapist (actually my ex wife’s astrologer) that I felt like I was never myself. That I didn’t even know who I was.
So what would happen? I would land the worst, awful clients. People who thought they could be 90 days late on the bill. People who felt comfortable asking for bribes under the table. People who would manipulate their noose around my neck until I could barely breathe.
Here’s what you want to really do to build clients of your agency: Be the Source. If you are not good enough to do something, tell them. Direct them to new vendors. Give them advice on how they can make their whole company better, on how they can make their lives better, on how they can look better in front of their boss. Be Google for your clients.
Google actually does nothing but direct you to other web pages. Google itself has no content. And that’s exactly why people go back to it.
Let the client know that the one thing he can always count on you and he can’t count on from anyone else is your Word. Once he relies on that then no other word will be good for him except yours.
I ran an agency for about about five years. It was painful. But the best clients were ultimately the ones who trusted me. The worst clients were the ones I paid bribes to. And yes, they were the worst by far.