Saying No to A Client Requires Guts, Smarts and Some Savvy

By Ron Owens aka "Just Another Ad Guy"

Letting a client have his or her own way will keep an account only so long. When things start to go badly, the client who made you his “yes-man” or “yes-woman” will just a readily “throw you under the bus”.

Saying “No” to a client becomes important when there is something important at stake. Then, you may have to risk saying “No” to avoid an even bigger risk. It’s your job to protect the client, if you possibly can, even if that means protecting him from himself or her from herself. At the same time, you have the obligation and responsibility to protect the agency. You’ll try, while you’re about it, to protect your colleagues and co-workers on both sides, and of course, you’ll also be looking out for number one. Sometimes it is possible to cover for all those people at once and sometimes you have to sort out just whose interests have first claim.

Whether or not you say ”No” depends as much upon what you hope to gain as what you may try to avoid. You might do some good for yourself by speaking up. Or, maybe professional pride won’t let you say “Yes” to something. You might see a way to do better by a client, the agency, the public, or all three. You might gain a degree of self-respect. Or, you might simply gain ground on a principle.

Some people seem to say “No” all the time and get away with it and others say it once and get nailed. The difference is not who they are so much as what they were attempting to accomplish. It’s the difference between trying to change what a client wants to do and trying to avoid responsibility for it.

Preventing the client from doing something or getting him or her to do something else instead is tougher than just washing your hands of responsibility. You may not be able to do it no matter how hard you try, but the harder you try, the more of a risk you will be taking. You know your client and only you can judge the situation when it arises. For that reason, I cannot give you definitive guidelines about why, when, and how to go about doing it. I can, however, give you a few hints based on my experience that may help you sort things out for yourself.

Over my many years in the advertising business, I have compiled a mental list of when to say “No” to a client:

  When he or she wants you to lie for him or her

  When he or she tries to get you to go along in trading racist or sexist jokes

  When he or she wants you to take responsibility for a decision that should be his or hers

  When he or she asks you to hire somebody who is outside of your responsibility to hire

  When what he or she says he or she wants is obviously not what he or she needs

  When he or she wants you to take drugs or get them for him or her

  When he or she insists you have another drink when, you, in fact, have had enough

  When he or she wants you to cheat on your wife or husband, bad mouth an associate, reveal confidential information about yourself or someone else

  When he or she just wants company and you’re expected home

  When he or she asks if you are absolutely positive something will work

  When he or she asks if this is the only way something can be done

  When he asks you to fire somebody you know is doing a good job

  When he or she asks if this is the best you can do and you give some doubt that it is

  When he or she asks you to give to or support a cause you believe is wrong

  When he or she asks you to fake or “fudge” research results (ditto bills and / or receipts)

  When he or she asks you to get him dates, give him gifts, or travel to a conference on your own time but to leave your wife or husband home

  When he or she repeatedly meetings in non-business hours or on weekends

  When he or she wants you to cover for his repeated incompetence

  When he or she wants you to do something that may cause him or his company harm

  When he or she wants to play it safe and there’s no safety in what he wants to do

  When you sincerely believe you have a better way to do something

  When everybody around him is “yessing” him and he needs to hear “no” from somebody

  When he asks if you agree and you’re sure he won’t think less of you if you don’t

  When he asks you to charge him less than you charge your other clients

In general, the place to say “No” is in private. Try not to disagree in public unless you are deliberately seeking a confrontation. The time to say ”No”, if at all possible, is before a decision has been made, not after. Unless it’s a question of conscience. If it’s a question of conscience, then anytime is the right time. The only other thing I can say on this subject is try not to “shoot from the hip”. There are few things as easy to do in this world as to disagree. Before you say “No” to a client, take a moment to ask yourself if it really makes any difference. Then take another moment to ask yourself if there isn’t some way you can accomplish what he or she wants and what you want as well.

Ron Owens is a Past President, Ad Club of Metropolitan Washington; former Governor, 4A’s Mid-Atlantic Region; Lt Governor, Region III, American Advertising Federation(AAF); Co-founder & Principal, LMO Advertising; VP, Bozell Worldwide; Director, Advertising & PR, Pitney Bowes, Inc; former VP, Director, Diversity & Inclusion, TMP Worldwide; President, Ron Owens & Associates, a consultancy specializing in business development, diversity & inclusion, & multicultural marketing. A frequent guest lecturer at many regional colleges and universities, Ron can be reached via [email protected].