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In the age of excessive adjectives, overblown praise and fake friendships, it’s easy to see how people get wrapped up in insincerity in relationships. Watching an episode of The Voice and hearing the incessant “I love you!” and “You are the greatest!” platitudes uttered from a judge to a contestant to whom he or she just met, you might believe that all your “Friends” on social media are really your friends.
A world built on insincerity can skew your priority-making ability. Who isn’t drawn to the praise, the good feelings, the brightest star in your sky? Sometimes you get lost in the words because they play on your emotions. Your sense of direction can get lost and for a while, there is no GPS in the world that can bring you back. Until you lose something important.
For two years, I worked at a small advertising agency in a big city. The world of advertising is its own beast, as they say. I primarily worked in recruitment advertising which was a great field. We worked with great employers and helped them attract employees. It was sincere, fulfilling and we met a lot of great human resources experts.
There were times when the agency was trying to attain a large product client, and it was all-hands-on-deck to complete research, artwork, copy and ultimately the final proposal. One time, the agency did a top-notch proposal and won the account of a start-up tech company. This was the late 1990s/early 2000s and tech start-ups were a risk.
Despite the risk, you could feel the team members’ energy after the win. Small agencies always celebrated a new account, because that meant jobs were secure and the partners might be able to make a few new hires. Losing an account could mean the converse; you knew the employment knife would start slicing somewhere. Part of the energy came from the whole team working together because it was a dynamic team. Almost everyone got along and it was the kind of job you looked forward to every day.
The other part of the energy came from executing the winning campaign ideas. They were big, bold and the creative artwork was inspiring – “COMPANY NAME HERE – Bigger, Stronger, Faster.” We visited the new clients’ offices and they were sharp. Located in a tall building on a double-digit-labelled floor, the clients were so complimentary and we got the idea that we were the greatest. The courtship was blossoming.
And then, like The Voice contestant that gets eliminated in the first Knockout Round, the showers of compliments stopped coming. So did their payments. The company was floundering and couldn’t pay their invoices. The creative ideas lost some of their shine, because the client couldn’t sustain the cost. Ultimately, the agency had to drop them as a client, at a loss, because there was no blood from that stone. The company filed for bankruptcy in early 2001 and was bought out in late 2001.
As I said, advertising clients come and go. When you get a new client, you believe in them and do your best. Our agency did an amazing job for them until we just couldn’t anymore. The damages sustained were heaviest on the agency’s balance sheet. Untold amounts of employee time were spent on obtaining the new client and then getting the new ideas off the ground. So much of that is unbillable time (think: collateral), but the plan is always to make that up with a healthy, long-lasting client relationship. The other part of the damage occurs within the employee ranks. When the whole team pulls together, they feel like they have skin in the game. There were fantastic brainstorming sessions, lots of extra hours and for some team members, an almost laser-focus on winning the account. When the client is so quickly lost, the balloon of energy and excitement is rudely popped, left to flutter and land in a corner that no one remembers. Team members hope that no other clients are lost because that could mean layoffs. You feel like the big, bold work you put in is now unusable. Like you’ve put your focus on the new, shiny and complimentary client and ended up getting kicked off the proverbial show.
It is hard for a small agency that has an all-hands-on-deck approach to getting new clients or doing other very large projects. There’s only so long that your team members can participate because of their regular over-stressed workload. Existing clients can take the brunt of divided time, as can the patience of team members. So once the shock fades, it is then that the GPS directs you back to your more reliable clients. Maybe they aren’t the biggest clients or even the most complimentary. But you know them and they know you. They are the real deal and your GPS always knows their locations. There’s a level of genuine respect on each side and even if they never say, “I love you,” you know they do.
