The Art of Client Service

Chapter 12Live the Client's Brand

Years ago, I worked for an agency that was one of three sharing a major financial services account. The client decided to consolidate its work with one shop, and invited all three incumbents to pitch for the business. I led the team representing my agency.

The shop I worked for was young, a little light on reputation, and very short on capabilities. We couldn't begin to equal the depth of resources of our competitors. The two other incumbents were bigger, better known, and better connected with the client.

We knew we were overmatched, but instead of being intimidated, we used our underdog status as motivation. We already knew the client's business, having worked on it for more than a year. But we acted as if we didn't, and went “back to school” on the whole industry. We dug deeply into issues and worked relentlessly to uncover insights that would help the client grow its business. We invested time in understanding what each person on the client team expected from its agency, and we made a strong final presentation.

To everyone's surprise, we were the client's choice. It was a big win for us.

Sometime later, after having gotten to know our lead client, I felt comfortable enough to ask him about the pitch and why we won. “All the agencies were good—any of the three could have done the job for us,” he said. “What really impressed us about your shop was how you spoke our language. You sounded like one of us. You demonstrated that you knew what we ...