A few months ago, I visited a potential client who started the meeting by telling me about their intention to fire the person they had hired for digital marketing tasks. They spoke about their plan to hire a marketing agency to reduce the investment in that department, as they couldn’t find someone who delivered results.
Should You Tell a Client They’re Wrong?
A client who only talks about saving money usually wants you to reinforce their idea. It would have been easy to talk about the benefits of paying a bill instead of the costs of an in-house employee, to point out that we don’t have paid vacations, and that if they didn’t want to work with us “tomorrow,” they wouldn’t have to pay any severance. Perhaps that would have been enough to win a new client.
However, over the past six years, we have realized that the important thing is not signing new clients. The important thing is building long-lasting relationships. And that is only possible through honesty, even when it means telling the client they’re wrong.
“Dear xxxxxxxx, the person you’re most concerned about is doing a great job. I know because before visiting you, I conducted a study of your digital brand and noticed very interesting practices. The gaps we observed may be due to lack of time or technical knowledge. But there’s no single person who can be an expert in all these disciplines. I thought you worked with another agency, and in that case, I might have pointed out areas for improvement, but if this is being handled by just one person, allow me to say: you shouldn’t let them go.”
At that moment, the potential client crossed their arms, looked at their phone screen, and shifted their posture. Basically, their body language was saying: “you’ve lost your chance to work with us.”
I had decided to take the path of honesty, defending the work of someone I didn’t know, which apparently was not what the client expected.
My next question was: Do you want to spend less or sell more? I felt their attention return. It’s a simple question, but not everyone knows the answer. I guarantee it! “I want a return on my marketing investment.”
What Was Our Proposal?
My proposal was: “keep this person; they will be our liaison with you. I suggest they handle communication, customer service, and supervise our work. We will take care of all the technical aspects and search marketing.”
The client couldn’t believe it. They had met with me intending to give me the work of one of their employees, and I was telling them that this person would become our liaison and should remain in their organization.
We started defining measurable and achievable objectives, and gradually I noticed the client beginning to feel comfortable again.
By the end of that same week, the potential client had received a financial proposal and, right after approving it, told me: “You have six months to prove I haven’t made a mistake again.”
Three months later, the company was increasing its ROI month by month, growing, had a more committed employee, and a CEO who felt confident in their decisions.
I don’t know if we would have closed more clients using the strategy of “telling the client what they want to hear.” But we decided to stay true to our values from start to finish with our clients: #honesty #transparency #commitment, and thanks to that, it seems we have built strong trust-based relationships with our clients.
