Niko Herzeg Marketing

So last weekend I went to watch Up in the Air. A movie about a guy (Clooney) who fires people on behalf of companies (or as he likes to say: he helps people steer their boat through desperation towards the dim light of hope…before throwing them of the boat and telling them to swim).

His life is turned upside down when a young MBA (played by Anna Kendrick) comes in and figures out that by doing the firing online and from one central location, the cost of business can be reduced by 85%. Clooney tries to convince her that this is not as clearcut as Kendrick thinks it is.

The contrast between Clooney and Kendrick serves as a nice backdrop for some practices we all know but sometimes need reminding of*:

Kiss ass vs Kick Ass Kiss a little to Kick alot, or not..there is no golden rule to start with just a result to end with.

Clooney is ambiguity. Kendrick certainty. She is the one with the demands and the firm beliefs about how the world should work. He is more comfortable with the idea of working with how the world is first to get the world to work how it could be.

This post flows from the previous post, but focusses more on the process of selling our services. Bells and whistles matter (to a certain extend of course, whether we care to admit or not). Awards, good offices, smart suits, leggy blonds, the truth, famous clients, solutions that make money (plain hard cold cash). They all matter.

Suppose you are a brand new manager from some FMCG company and you would know the truth about the way most of our solutions come into existence.

“Take in a load of information, letting this all simmer, working towards and hoping that what the brain comes up with will be something profitable and competitive. Because to tell you the truth, we really have only so much control over whether this will be a hit or not.”

You’d have to be walking in some pretty comfortable shoes to go “ok….appreciate the honesty and I acknowlegde that there are no garantuees, but let us proceed anyways”. Most clients are not like that from the start.

They need, and should be given, an appropriate shock/comfort ratio to transition from non (or not enough) participatory to participating (fully). The politics of business is perhaps to some shallow, but not to be underestimated or be ashamed of.

So unless you can always choose partners who, within their culture have embraced ambiguity (because they are owners of the business and have lived it themselves, or they know that conventional methods will not help them achieve their goal of topping the leader), remember that there is no shame in kissing a bit of ass every now and then.

Because given the right encouragement and results, most clients will grow with the agency and start to develop solutions that can bring out the full potential of a business.

So don’t sit in the corner sulking : “They don’t understand how it should be”. Show and prove in terms the client understands. Remember: a leader without followers is just a person walking alone.

*For arguments sake I leave the morality of working for/with a company that fires people for a living out of the equation. Same goes for the actual movie. No accounting for taste.