An account man came into my office and put some ads on the desk.
He said, “The client wouldn’t buy them.”
I said, “Why?”
He raised his eyebrows and said, “I don’t really know.”
I said, “Did you ask?”
He puffed out his cheeks and said, “I didn’t think it was my place.”
I said, “Well do you have any idea?”
He sighed, shrugged and said, “Not really.”
I said, “Nothing that can help us?”
He was getting really bored, he said, “Afraid not. Sorry.”
I said, “Okay thanks.”
When he’d left I called his boss in.
She sat down.
I said, “What the fuck is going on, on this account?
We can’t sell an ad, and we can’t even be fucking bothered to find out why the client doesn’t want it.
And yet it’s on brief and it’s been through research.
What are we, a fucking shop?
Do we just keep showing the client different ads in different sizes and shapes until he sees something he fancies?
Does the creative department have to keep cranking out ads as a substitute for account handling being able to sell them?”
She said, “It shouldn’t be that way.
The ad was on brief, I checked it before it went.
I’ll call the client and find out what’s going on.
I’ll get back to you with a reason why this one is wrong or a new brief.
And next time I’ll take it down to the client myself.”
And she left.
The art director, who’d been sitting there watching this, sat up.
He said, “I don’t understand. The account man, who got us into this in the first place, behaved like a prick and you were polite to him.
His boss handled it properly and she got a bollocking.”
I said, “He’s useless. He’s been here several months and everything we give him turns to shit. He doesn’t care.
He thinks he knows it all and he doesn’t want to learn.
There’s no point in wasting breath bollocking him. He won’t be here much longer.
But his boss, well she’s really good.
That’s how she got to be his boss.
It’s worthwhile having a row with her because she’s got a brain and she cares. She’s going to be here a long while and she’s part of this company’s future.”
A few years after that exchange, I read an interview with a famous American Football star.
He talked about when he was a rookie.
It was his first day at the club.
In training the coach spent all day reaming him out, non-stop.
He couldn’t do a thing right.
The kid was totally destroyed.
He went back to the locker room thinking his career was over.
He sat on the bench with his head in his hands.
One of the older players slapped him on the back.
He said, “Looks like you’ve got a great future ahead of you kid.
I’ve never heard the coach spend that much time chewing anyone out .
Normally, if he thinks they can’t improve, he just doesn’t talk to them. But you, boy, I guess he thinks you’re gonna be great.”
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The moral of the story is: Care about the important things…passionately. Don’t waste time and effort worrying about the things you cannot change. He was never going to change, you were able to see this. Great post. Could save a lot of faffing around.
Top post.
wonder where that account guy is now.
off-topic but i’ve had difficulty loading the site recently dave. anyone else find that?
(Now I’m just addicted to this dialogue between blogs, great.)
http://ex-blank-page.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-reply-to-daves-great-posts-4.html
Hi Vinny,
I can well believe you have trouble with this site.
When I load a post from home I do it on a Mac and it looks okay, like yesterday’s.
When I load it from the office I use a PC and I can’t use any formatting, like today’s.
If you have a real problem you’d be doing me favour by emailing James about it.
He’s a young planner and he’s out IT guru who sorts this out for me.
jam…@cstadvertising.com
Dave
You really can’t fail with balanced reciprocal programming. At base level, this just comes down to regenerated third-generation capability. The solution can only be facilitating digital time-phases.
Dave, I’ve only recently started reading your blog. This post is probably one of the best things I’ve ever read. Thanks for sharing it. I’m certainly going to share these wise words with as many people as possible. I’m an account guy and found your words inspiring. Cheers. Troy
Cheers Troy.
Great account guys are where any agency starts.
There’s a saying in American basketball, “You can’t shoot the ball if you ain’t got the ball.”
Maybe creatives are the ones who score, but great account guys are ball-winners.
[...] too short, passionate | I ended up on Creative Director Dave Trott’s blog today. His latest post recounted him bollocking (his words) an account handler’s boss because the account man hadn’t [...]
[...] Dave Trott’s blog is fast becoming one of my favourites - a regular must-read. I particularly love this tip on great management. [...]
Ha, Dave - finally.
For years, suits have been telling me they ‘don’t like my ads’.
I ask them if it’s on strategy.
They say it is.
So I ask tjemwhat’s wrong.
They say ‘they don’t like it’.
By the way, these are different suits.
Just that they expect ads that are less spot on.
For example, one suit once asked me to do ads for a phone.
Thebrief ws that it was the cheapest.
So I banged on that.
He said he couldn’t sell the ads becase they made the phones look cheap.
Anyway, my point is, many times, I don’t agree with the brief.
But I don’t have a choice.
It’s been signed off by all.
So, if I have to come up with answers for something I don’t quite agree with, least the suits should try and sell what I’ve done.
Dear Dave
As William Goldman penned for Butch Cassidy you’ve, “got vision whilst the rest of the world wears bifocals”.
Hi - did you ever think about going along and trying to sell the ad yourself?
Gmoney.
Absolutely right, I always made sure creatives had the right to be there when their work is presented.
Personally I only ever went along when an account man I didn’t trust was presenting my work.
Fantastic blog… Just started running through it, looking forward to reading past postings, great stuff!
To Disagree.
It’s interesting to have another point of view.
If you want to resubmit your comment without the last two words, I’ll post it.
Hi Dave,
First-time reader — dropped by from The Times list.
I think I can guess what Disagree’s two words were, because I had the same (?) reaction.
Since you can obtain a similar or better result from not being obnoxious to a subordinate, why choose to be obnoxious?
Besides that, there are already enough —— ——s in this world. There’s no need to join that cohort.
Hi Mike,
I wasn’t obnoxious to the subordinate, I was polite.
He’d proved repeatedly that he wasn’t interested in changing, I’d given up on him, and so eventually he got fired (politely).
I was obnoxious to the board-level account director, who subsequently became MD, and is now CEO of an international company.
There’s no point being rude to people you don’t respect.
And, of course, I accept we disagree on this.