MassCom Magazine

What do you do when a client does not take your advice for a project and things go awry? This is one of the questions I recently posed to a colleague of mine who is one the hardest working PR professionals I know. “Give them options”, she said. “You can tell them it’s best to do it this way and if they decide to do it their way, and things don’t work out, at least you DID tell them. They can’t say you haven’t done your job”, she said. And she’s right. 

• Expect disagreements—As an event planner or PR professional, you will have disagreements with clients from time to time. The fact is you cannot force a client to take your advice. You can point them in the best direction that you know based on your experience as the expert but at the end of the day, the choice is theirs.

• Clients will challenge you-- While you may be the expert, with PR being such a highly creative discipline, some clients will challenge your knowledge and even try to prove to themselves that they didn’t really need you in the first place. “I had a client who didn’t take my advice on a project. They decided to do it their way and things went very wrong. They came back to me and they have never ignored my advice since!” my colleague informed me.

• Give constructive criticism-One of the best ways to point out weaknesses in what the client proposes, is to make constructive--not destructive criticism. Don’t just look for the faults and point them out with a smirk on your face. Suggest ways to improve it.

• Don’t pretend you know it all – Some consultants make the mistake of pretending they know everything and that simply is not advisable. Remember, there’s always something you do not know so don’t make the mistake of acting like you are infallible.

• Don’t curse off the client— As silly as it sounds, there is a motto that a lot of consultants, particularly those with international experience adopt “The client is always right”. Sounds like a bag of bull, doesn’t it? Well, I lost a contract once, simply because I told the client they needed to be more accountable. So start thinking, “the client is always right”, if you want to survive in consulting.

• Know when to bite your tongue-Clients will piss you off from time to time but as a professional communicator, you need to know how and when to respond. Most of the time, If I were to say what I was thinking at the very moment a client draws my ire, I’d probably be without one client today! Learn to bite your tongue, count to ten slowly and sometimes…just sleep on it and see how you feel the next day.

• Learn to take criticism—As the consultant, you’re probably better at giving criticism than you are at taking them. But there will be times when the client takes your advice and things still don ‘t run smoothly, so learn to develop a “broad back”. 

• Walk away- When all is said and done, the consultant who is not happy with a client, has the option of ending that relationship. If you strongly believe that the client’s failure to take advice could damage your reputation, or if the client’s way of doing things is unethical, or goes against your principles—may be it’s time to call it quits.

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