Subscriber KS writes:<\/p>\n
“I’d like to be taken seriously for my experience and knowledge,
\nand yet I can’t seem to convince clients to do as I recommend.<\/p>\n
“Bob, do you have any advice on convincing clients to listen to
\nyour recommendations?”<\/p>\n
KS may not like my answer, but the fact is clients will never do
\neverything you say.<\/p>\n
HB, a famous consultant in the 20th century, once famously said:
\n“Only half my clients take my advice, and of those, they listen
\nto only half the advice.”<\/p>\n
If you do the arithmetic, you see that only 25% of HB’s advice to
\nhis clients — and he was a well-respected expert in his niche of
\nmanagement — was followed.<\/p>\n
Likewise, figure only 25% of your advice will be followed,
\nmeaning 75% won’t be.<\/p>\n
And in some cases, client reasons for ignoring or going against
\nyour recommendations are legitimate and the correct decision.<\/p>\n
What are those reasons? I’ll give them for freelance copywriters,
\nthough many may apply to you, even if you are not a writer.<\/p>\n
>> First, the client may have already tried what you suggest,
\noften multiple times — and it did not work.<\/p>\n
Not being on staff, you didn’t know this when you presented your
\nidea. But they did, since clients have a knowledge of their
\nefforts and results superior to yours.<\/p>\n
>> Second, the client virtually always knows their industry,
\nproduct, technology, talent, and market better than you do.<\/p>\n
>> Third, as Tom Peters said in In Search of Excellence, people
\ndon’t argue with their own data. They may trust you to a degree.
\nBut they usually trust themselves more.<\/p>\n
>> Fourth, you get your fee no matter what. You risk nothing on
\nthe project. On the other hand, it is the client’s money, not
\nyours, on the table. There is a limit to what they will risk on a
\nnew idea or plan, especially one they do not fully buy into.<\/p>\n
>> Fifth, no one knows everything or is right all the time.
\nIncluding you and me.<\/p>\n
Biggest mistake vendors make: Getting all huffy and puffy,
\narguing with the client endlessly, and not listening when the
\nclient says “thanks but no thanks” to your idea.<\/p>\n
Solution: Defend your copy or idea reasonably and briefly; then,
\nif the client still does not agree, acquiesce pleasantly.<\/p>\n
Also: If you think the client’s way will kill results, say so
\npolitely in a brief email follow-up — and save a copy so you can
\nprove you advised against their plan if it should fail and they
\nblame you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Subscriber KS writes: “I’d like to be taken seriously for my experience and knowledge, and yet I can’t seem to convince clients to do as I recommend. “Bob, do you have any advice on convincing clients to listen to your recommendations?” KS may not like my answer, but the fact is clients will never do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1621,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions\/1621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}