How much are People Pleasers costing your agency?

What’s a People Pleaser I hear you ask? It’s a person who feels a strong urge to please others, even at their own expense. They put other people’s needs before their own. Within an agency they agree to pretty much everything the client requests regardless as to whether it’s achievable, right or commercially sensible. In some ways it’s a great personality trait within ‘client service’. In other ways it’s a serious problem, for both the agency and the individual.

Recently in a Negotiation workshop I had an agency director say “we’re over-indexed with People Pleasers” I did a double-take while I realised what was being said. The director went on to say “We’re frightened to say no to clients or push back”. Then a week later I had an agency CEO say to me “we’ve made an art-form of over-service”. (And he was definitely not proud of the fact) I’ve had several agencies tell me the scale of their over-service is a serious problem, ranging from 20-35%. That means that for every 100 hours the agency works for a client, they only charge the client for 65-80 hours. So for easy maths let’s imagine an agency which had revenue of ￡5m so at 25% over-service a quick calculation says that if every hour was charged to the client, that’s another ￡1.25m revenue and that is straight to the bottom line. What impact would that have on profits? Ok it’s unlikely to happen that the over-service is stopped completely, but each 1% (of the 25%) is equivalent to ￡50,000 additional revenue, without working harder or longer hours or even increasing rates. Now that’s worth trying to achieve. What other industry accepts such madness?

The tell tale signs of a People Pleaser:

• Accepts unrealistic briefs
• Happy with non-existent budgets or small budgets that the client expects will achieve miracles
• Takes on unachievable deadlines
• Unable to say no
• Avoids conflict
• Accepts the blame when delivering late on the client’s unachievable deadline
• Thinking over-service is the same as great service
• Says “but that’s all the budget the client has got” OR “it’ll be an investment”
• Unwilling to increase fees or rates even when the cost of living/inflation makes the levels untenable.

Why is it such a problem? It’s such an easy and expensive mistake but unfortunately many agency folk make the mistake all the time. They think they’re doing the right thing. They do the clients ‘bidding’, they’re reactive, not proactive. (Reactive is not the same as responsive) This behaviour positions you as a do-er, an implementer, a supplier. The client starts to see you as an expensive commodity. Once the client sees you as a commodity, easily replaceable, then price becomes the key issue for the client, not our value to the client. Mistakenly they thought the client would see them as a partner, a trusted adviser and the client would want to throw them even more business. That couldn’t be further from the truth!

There comes a time when you have to stop crossing oceans for people who wouldn’t even jump a puddle for you.

I specialise in working with agencies and helping them grow profitably. I see the price that agencies (and their people) pay for this wrong behaviour. I understand the need to win clients, retain clients and avoid losing them. I understand the need to keep the client happy. There are better ways!

Slow down and really think about how you can deliver massive value to the client. How you can help your clients stand out from their competitors and grow their business. Be prepared to challenge your client, respectfully. Be prepared to say no. Stop apologising for things you shouldn’t be apologising for. Be prepared to have a point of view different to the client’s, based on insights and knowledge. Think about how you can be a true business partner for your clients helping them navigate and win.

Be the person your senior client turns to first when they have important challenges to overcome and ambitions to achieve. Think about how you can be seen as critical to your client’s business. Produce and deliver brilliant work. Again and again. Is it easy? No. Is it worth it? Yes. It will feel uncomfortable to begin with.

I work with really successful high performing agencies and I also work with those who are struggling and continue to struggle no matter how fast they run, no matter how many briefs they chase, no matter how many hours they work. The high performing agencies do the right things most of the time, not even all the time. It starts with the senior agency team, their mindset, their attitude, their behaviours. When agencies get it right, work becomes more fun. When we’re having fun we win more clients, produce great work and make more money.

So how much are those People Pleasers costing your agency? What’s the cost to the individuals in terms of their self-esteem, career progress and maybe even their mental health?

Chris Merrington is the author of “Why do smart people make such stupid mistakes?” - A practical negotiation guide to more profitable client relationships for marketing and communication agencies, sales teams and professional service people. He regularly runs online and live Masterclasses and Workshops with agency directors and sales teams in the areas of Negotiation, Trusted Adviser Selling and Business Prospecting. Chris Merrington is a professional conference speaker and business growth consultant. He can be contacted at [email protected]