Greetings friends! Checking in with a brief entry today. Basically, to let you all know that I am, in fact, still alive. But also because I feel guilty for not blogging in awhile. I recently renewed my commitment to churning out some great content for you all… but then I started a new job.
I’ve been at this new role for about a month now and in this 30-day period, there has been 1 day where I have NOT worked at all. So yeah. It’s a tad intense. But I am really enjoying it. And I hope that things normalize after the holiday craziness begins to wane.
But anyway, I am writing today with a purpose: to rant! So let’s get down to it!
I recently experienced a situation with a client whereby I recommended a very specific approach to an exclusive Facebook deal they wanted to offer to their fans. Although I argued my case with impeccable rationale and professional aplomb, said client basically looked at me and said, “Yeahhhh… no. We’re going to do it this way.”
(Then what, pray tell, are you paying ME for?!)
It was difficult for me to watch because I knew that they were setting themselves up to fail. And sure enough, fail they did. And when results turned out to be lackluster, who got the finger pointed at them? Moi.
“Why did this happen?”
“How could you lead us down this path?”
“Why didn’t this [completely nonsensical and old-school marketing] approach work?!”
“Social media is a joke. It doesn’t work. It’s not for us.”
Le sigh. Sometimes I feel like I am forever in the seat of blame for clients’ decisions that run counter to my recommendations. It’s a tough game to play, because I will never turn the tables and tell a client, “Ahem, YOU ignored my suggestion and insisted we do it this way. That’s why it failed.” I’d like to think I have (a bit) more tact and maturity than that.
Because this very scenario occurs more than I’d like to admit, I feel as if my social media mantra has become a bit of an “I told you so,” which is neither very fun nor graceful. It’s left me wondering how I can better steer clients in the right direction. I’ve decided to try something that may or may not help, but will at least arm me with some more ammo: I am building a repository of blinded case studies to illustrate these types of situations. That way, I can share them with potential clients and hopefully enlighten them before we make a collective mistake and waste their budget and my time.
Who knows, it could flop. But I’m willing to give it a whirl.
What about you guys? You deal with this in your businesses? How do you make your case to clients or management and what do you do if they take a different approach and it flops?
Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen
