Monday, July 7, 2008

Put Words In My Mouth

In an effort to keep clients moving forward on a path to productivity and profitability it's imperative that we (advertising agencies) do as much as possible for them as we can. For example, I have a client who needs a few quotes from eight of its tenants for inclusion on their website. Sounds pretty simple. The client said that she would 1.) Contact the tenants and inform them that I would be calling to do the interviews 2. E-mail or call me with the names and phone numbers of the people to interview and 3.) Write her own quote for the website. Whew!

Just think of the logistics to accomplish all of this. Do you think she'll get the tenants on her first phone call? Will she be able to write her own quote amidst all of her other daily duties? When I finally get the tenants' phone numbers will I be able to reach everyone quickly? What if the tenants can't articulate their feelings? What if I get seven of the eight tenants and the last one is on vacation for the next week? This straightforward activity could take weeks to accomplish.

The solution... Many times we know as much about out clients' business as they do. Therefore, put words in their mouths. Put them in what I call "edit mode". It makes business move much faster.

In this particular case study - What do you think the tenants' would say? What would you say if you were a tenant? It's not rocket science.

It took me an hour our so to write and edit less than 350 words. The quotes were glowing and positive. I e-mailed them to the client this morning and will let you know how I made out in another BizPizzaz update.

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