CLIENT SERVILE

Google makes the same assumption that many people make. Search for client servile and it assumes that you really mean Client Service. No, I really don’t. In the new marketing world order of connected eco systems, multiple specialists, flat structures, consensus management, and a general lack of lunch… how does an individual in the department formally known as Account Management service their client’s business, do the right thing without falling into servility. Either to the client or to other increasingly powerful forces.

The heart of the issue, I think, is about vision. Increasingly, it’s difficult to work out whose vision we’re following. In a way, this is a Good Thing as we collaborate and co-create in order to make sense of a complex world. In a previous post I wrote of the momentum of the ideas themselves carrying the day as they contain a certain power of their own. But that’s not enough, who’s best to know what good looks like? 

It was often the Creative Director; he was the source of authority and represented the pinnacle of the skills that were missing from the client organisation. But increasingly the creative solution is something that may not play to their traditional strengths.

It was often the Client; you’ll have read in Campaign the argument put by Britvic CMO Matt Barwell (and others) that creativity is increasingly found in client organisations themselves. So Clients are also undergoing identity crises as the lines between them and their agencies blur, along with their skill sets. The days of a client employing an agent are over. Are they still best equipped to lead massive multidisciplinary multi agency teams or are they key players within that team?

Increasingly it’s a Planner, oodles of vision with a desire to create. Are the architects of the strategy best placed to also decide what the creative solution looks like? Maybe.

Someone was telling me about how the army breaks its hierarchical leadership model when necessary. When pinned down by a sniper, whoever thinks he knows where the sniper is shouts point. From then on the point man's in charge, directing the fire until point changes.

Which brings me back to the account person attempting to service her client. In many ways, being on point, I believe she could be best placed to orchestrate the creative solution. The value we can give through the stitching, both in origination and in deployment are massive. There’s a big BUT here. Account people need to rise to the challenge. This may be the golden age of the account person but our traditional training hasn’t equipped us for it. To do what’s right for our clients we need to do more than manage the process and build relationships. We need to be deeply involved in our product, inputting, steering and shaping the solutions. Making not managing. It’s never been a better time to be in Client Services, but only if you’re not client servile.