How working with difficult Clients improves us

Like it or not, tricky Clients are bound to cross our career paths now and again. Whether, for example, they are unreasonable or impossible to please, a demanding retail 'quick turnaround' business, a risk averse corporate, an account of numerous stakeholders with differing opinions, bean counters, idea killers or those simply prone to changing their mind, servicing them is not always an experience we relish. But a business reality we can't ignore is the simple fact that they are the lifeblood of our business, and even the most successful and innovative of modern Agencies are reliant on at least one or two 'difficult' Clients - the kind who can make our colleagues' eyes roll at their very mention.

Given a choice, many 'suits' might shy away from working on Clients dubbed as challenging, laborious or demanding. But rather than dreading or avoiding difficult Client experiences, perhaps we should aim to put our hands up and embrace what we can learn from them. In other words, perhaps we should run towards the fire, rather than away from it.

In many instances, the pressure and stress of working with them can feel overbearing but once we get into a rhythm and start to get an understanding of their expectations, we can come to realise how we've grown and actually benefited from the experience. Indeed, demanding Clients can offer some of our best career opportunities for professional development.

How so? For starters, they often call us out on our bullshit.

Much of what we do in the lead up to our big reveal - the actual presentation of our ideas, is smoke and mirrors - the warm welcoming committee, lavish catering, flashy meeting rooms, slick leave behinds, self-congratulatory case studies, brand trapeziums, the nature-led slide images....the list goes on. The toughest Clients will see through our puffery and ask that we cut the crap and get to the 'idea'. Knowing in advance that this is likely going to be an eventuality pushes us to focus our efforts on what matters most and lift our game.

Clients who don't challenge our responses to their briefs or push us to strive for 'more' can cause us to become complacent or overconfident - to settle on our first ideas. Although often frustrating at the time, Clients who appear dissatisfied or underwhelmed with our efforts, shine a light on areas we need to tighten and push us to dig deeper usually for the betterment of our ultimate outputs (whether we openly admit it or not). A recent Harvard Business Review article, backed up by scientific research, asserts that working relationships where conflict is prevalent, disagreements are commonplace and tensions often are running high tend to generate considerably more innovative outputs than those produced through harmonious business dealings. Food for thought.

In addition, working with a difficult Client enhances our ability to listen. Rather than dismissing any negative opinions from our Clients we should embrace what they have to say - after all, who understands their business problems better than they do? Truly listening and taking their criticisms on board shows them we care about what they have to say and genuinely want to improve upon our subsequent solutions as a team.

Further to the above, at no other time in our careers is communication as essential as it is when dealing with a demanding or challenging Clients. Opening clear channels of communication and managing expectations with transparent and clearly defined milestones sets us up for success when servicing Clients who demand much from us. Being on the front foot by proactively sharing regular updates, scheduling frequent face to face meetings and tracking projects with WIPs documents, timelines and budget trackers are methods we might seek to adopt for ensuring our Clients are kept in the loop throughout. Once these processes are put into place, they can offer us a degree of comfort. We can be assured that everything is being captured, tracked and monitored mitigating against the risk of something slipping through the cracks and ensuring our Clients are aligned and their expectations are being managed.

Tricky Clients can also improve our ability to solve problems, be flexible, diplomatic and think on our feet. We can be placed into situations where the art of compromise becomes critical to the long term status of the Account. And we can find ourselves in scenarios that require us to step up and demonstrate our leadership skills, charm or knack for winning people over - traits that are sharpened much faster when working with Clients that repeatedly challenge us.

Indeed, they can help us become more goal-focused. Sure it can feel at times like we don't agree on much with any difficult Clients we work with. But what we will always agree on is the importance of reaching our collective goal. Our common objective, drive and ambition for a positive outcome almost always serves as a uniting factor. Remembering this helps us keep things in perspective and stay on task. The goal is what ultimately matters when all is said and done and that drive can actually be the key factor in building lasting bonds with our colleagues as well.

Whilst working with challenging Clients teaches us how to compromise on occasion, there will be situations where saying 'no' is the only way forward. Instances where as an Agency group we fundamentally disagree with a Client often places us as Account services professionals in the position of breaking the news to the Client - that no, we will not budge on our assertion that our solution will work as is (for example). Doing so strengthens our assertiveness, builds our confidence and demonstrates that we are not subservient 'pushovers' or 'yes men' and that we genuinely believe and standby our work.

Dealing with difficult Clients can make us want to give up. But if we’re able to navigate those relationships successfully without throwing in the towel, we can come away from the experience with a myriad of professional learnings. Plus our efforts often don't go unnoticed by our higher ups. Challenging Clients are often well known across the Agency as just that. 'Taking one for the team' without little to no complaints and acting the 'quiet hero' earns us the respect of our colleagues and superiors alike - who fully understand the value of what we do.

Yes it can be challenging, and gruelling at times, but what we stand to gain in the long term from working with difficult Clients far exceeds any short term frustrations we experience throughout the journey. We need to remember that our jobs shouldn't be about receiving praise, compliments or positive feedback — these are our Clients, not our mates, and as long as we’re delivering great outputs for them and achieving the agreed upon goals, nothing else should matter to us.

Job interviews often feature the inevitable question: "tell me about a time you've worked on a difficult Client and how you approached it". The reason so much importance is often placed on this is the fact that tricky Clients are everywhere, in every industry. Employers aren't looking for staff who can change their Client's behaviours, they're looking for leaders who can manage expectations, be clear communicators and accept challenging Clients for who they are and adjust accordingly. Embracing this approach need not be stressful or unpleasant. Ultimately, upon reflection, when we look back at our careers, our difficult Clients might just be the ones to whom we owe the greatest debt of gratitude or have the fondest memories of. Many of us reflect back on our favourite school teachers in the same way. The strict ones are often the ones that stand out as being the ones we benefited the most from.

Apple visionary, Steve Jobs was famously difficult, petulant, and tough with the people who worked for him. But his treatment of people, though not laudable, emanated from his passion for perfection and his desire to work with only the best. Understanding that a difficult Client isn't doing so out of spite or malice, but rather because they care deeply about their business goes a long way to helping us work effectively with them. It can often be a long and bumpy road, but when we arrive at our destination the view is almost always worth the trouble we endured to get there.