The Art of Client Service

Chapter 37Judgment Overrides Any Rule

Martin Puris, co-founder and former CEO of the great agency Ammirati & Puris, has said,

The job of account executive is the most difficult in the agency business. It's an intellectual high-wire act.

The two fatal mistakes an account person can make are to become either the client's “man” at the agency—or the agency's “man” at the client.

Both fail.

A good account person gives us objectivity, commitment, insight, and—above all—truth.

Martin is not an account person. He is a writer, famed for having penned “The Ultimate Driving Machine” for automaker BMW, but here he is saying the job of an Account Executive is “the most difficult in the agency business.” In this he shares a view with former Ogilvy Chair Shelly Lazarus, who you'll recall asked, “It seems so simple. Why is it so hard?”

So, why is it so hard?

It is no small challenge to counterbalance client demands with agency realities, and to manage money and time when both have become increasingly scarce. An even bigger challenge is to have the judgment needed to do and say exactly the right thing in exactly the right way to exactly the right person at exactly the right time.

Some account people seem to have great instincts about this. But I'll bet if you look deeper, you'll find that there's more to their judgment skills than just good instincts. I'll bet you'll find that the account people with the best judgment are the ones who made mistakes and learned from them. Their good judgment ...