November 2011
7 posts
Before Midnight in Paris.
Sorry to be out of touch this past week; as I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Paris, enjoying the shortest week on record. That’s Paris for you.
My wife Roberta and I went there for a bunch of reasons: great walking, beautiful weather – we luckily dodged that freak Nor’easter that assaulted the neighborhood – new food, old friends, and, needless to say, hanging out with our two great...
October 2011
8 posts
Leaving on a jet plane.
I’m about to get on a plane for Paris. Yes, that Paris. The one in France, not Texas.
I’ll be gone a week. I’ll try to post while I’m away, but if I don’t, I hope you’ll cut me some slack.
Before I go, I thought I’d share an exchange of emails between me and Tegan Clarkson, a student in Sally Webster’s Client Relationship Management class at the University of Canberra. Tegan is interested in...
Ideas are easy; execution is hard.
The other day from a colleague called with a book idea; could she run it by me?
Of course! I love calls like these, in part because I relish the enthusiasm of aspiring authors going through what I went through when I published The Art of Client Service.
My caller’s idea has merit, so we began talking about process, about taking an idea and executing it.
Should she self publish or look for a...
10,093 miles, 15 hours, and one question
I remember my first attempt to join an agency. I was essentially on my own and had to grope my way through an interview. Thinking back to those times, I figure I must have done something right, because I wound up with a job at the agency you know as Digitas. On the other hand, Digitas was so desperate for help they might have hired me right off the street.
I don’t need to remind you things are...
Going the distance to win a client.
Buried on page 8 of today’s New York Times Business section there is a weekly “Frequent Flier” profile story on Jesse Itzler, co-founder of the charter service Marquis Jet. After discovering that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck had booked a Marquis Jet for an upcoming flight out of Los Angeles, Itzler abruptly changed his plans, booked and boarded a commercial flight from New York to LA,...
The bad news, the good news, the best news.
About once a day I check The Art of Client Service page on Amazon to see where the book is in the rankings.
Okay, I lied; it’s not once a day, it’s once an hour.
The other day I checked; normally the book is in stock, with Amazon claiming copies ship within 24 hours. But now the site claimed the book “usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks.”
I hate when this happens; if people want a copy, they...
Steve Jobs.
I’ve written three times before about Steve Jobs.
The first was the second piece I posted, published December of last year, called “Art & Copy,” which discussed the television documentary by the same name, and reminded readers that clients matter when it comes to great advertising. Steve Jobs was at the top the client list.
The second was posted in February of this year; it’s called, “Send...
Why coaching makes sense (but don’t take my word...
Enough already with the checklists. Let’s talk about something else.
Dr. Atul Gawande, he of The Checklist Manifesto, recently published an article in The New Yorker, called, “Personal Best,” which speaks to the benefits and opportunities inherent in personal coaching.
Gawande is a terrific writer, and he tells a great story; you should read his piece if you can. But if you don’t, you should...
OMG, not another checklist!
I know, I know, you’d like to hit delete rather than read this, because the last thing you need is another new business checklist.
This one is useful, I swear, even more so than the last one I posted.
The virtue of this list is it pretty well summarizes what I attempt to say over the course of a two-hour workshop, and includes some stuff you might find halfway helpful the next time you’re...
September 2011
7 posts
“Better ideas through failure.”
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal agree on practically nothing, but on one topic there is consensus: you must learn how to fail if you ever are to succeed.
Last week I wrote a post called, “Learning to fail vs. failing to learn,” in which I referred to a New York Times Magazine story called, “What if the Secret to Success is Failure,” and spoke about how knowing how to fail is...
The long goodbye.
Last week I fired our bankers. Yes, those guys, the ones I wrote about on pages xxiii –xxvi in The Art of Client Service. The ones I praised for good relationship-building skills.
Why, you ask? Was it performance?
No. My now former bankers were more than competent, as good as most, better than a few.
Was it the relationship?
Yes. It was about the relationship, or better put, the failure...
Learning to fail vs. failing to learn.
I’m looking at the cover of this past Sunday’s New York Times Magazine; on it is this line: “What if The Secret To Success Is Failure?” Inside, there is a story by Paul Tough, which talks about the need for education that stresses character development over skill development.
This is an article well worth reading, especially you’re among my readers from Sally Webster’s innovative and...
A new business checklist, and why you need one.
I was going to write something about Carole Bartz and her dismissal from Yahoo, tying it to a workshop I recently conducted on Casting and Choreography to Win in New Business. I’d talk about the need for correct casting in new business, then follow with the need for correct casting in a company’s leadership. I figured this would be a reasonably clever way to introduce the Bartz discussion.
...
The art of courtesy.
The other day I received an email from Patrick Donoghugh, who read my book, had nice things to say about it, and wanted to explore the possibility of collaborating. He wrote; I wrote back. Our emails traveled back and forth over a period of days; in the end, we decided to not proceed.
Here’s Patrick’s last email:
“I absolutely understand and thank you for taking the time to respond, an...
The art of listening.
I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am that Sally Webster decided to reach out to me some months back. Sally, most of you will recall, is a “Lecturer” (i.e., professor) at The University of Canberra, in Australia. She recently sent me a copy of The Gruen Transfer, a book and television show I found so impressive I wrote a blog post on it. You’ll find it if you scroll down.
One day I need...
The end of the affair.
In today’s New York Times, I read of the passing of Leo-Arthur Kelmenson, former CEO of advertising agency Kenyon & Eckhardt, and best known for his enduring relationship with Lee Iacocca, the person who saved Chrysler.
I won’t repeat details from the obituary—you can read it if you like —- but I can’t help but lament the end of relationships like the one Iacocca and Kelmenson formed,...
August 2011
7 posts
Another lesson in new business.
I seem to be writing about new business these days; this is my fourth recent post on the subject. You should pay attention, though, because this one is about money.
Agencies can be notoriously tight with dollars, especially when it comes to new business. When I’m asked to work with an agency on a pitch, my way to address this is to discount my fee. In a sense, I am placing a bet alongside my...
What Steve Jobs means to me.
Believe me, I would have much preferred this post to read, “What Steve Jobs means to advertising people,” or at least account people. But with so many people writing about Jobs’ departure – at times sounding more like obituaries than tributes — many analyzing and commenting on his legacy, it seemed appropriate to be a bit more modest, and simply confine this post to me. Just me.
My...
The Gruen Transfer.
I have never been to Australia, but I am a fan of their actors, their music, and Sally Webster. Sally, you’ll recall from an earlier post, is a “lecturer” – in the U.S. we call them “professors” – at the University of Canberra, in Australia.
By way of one of her students, Nala Annous, who visited New York recently, Sally sent me a copy of The Gruen Transfer, conceived, compiled, and written by...
A lesson in new business.
A former client called the other day. He had parted ways with his advertising agency and was seeking a new shop. Since I worked on the account and knew a bit about his business, could I suggest some agency options?
Indeed I could. I described four agencies I thought might be a good fit for his firm, and offered to contact them to see if they might be interested. He gladly and gratefully...
