If you ask most radio people to define “client,” they will reply, “customer.”
But there’s a difference between the two.
A customer is someone who gives you money in exchange for goods or services.
Marketing legend Jay Abraham points out that if you check the dictionary, however, you’ll discover that a client is someone who is “under your care and protection.”
If you view your advertisers as clients instead of customers, your entire attitude changes.
If it’s just a customer, you take their money and — assuming it’s within your station’s guidelines — do whatever they want.
But if it’s a client — someone who is under your care and protection — you’d never let them air a commercial that you know isn’t likely to produce profitable results.
“But,” you say, “the customer is always right.”
Perhaps the customer is, but the client isn’t.
Let’s say you go see your doctor.
“What’s the problem?” the doctor asks.
“Well, Doc, I’ve got this nagging cough. And I’ve made a list of five medications I want you to prescribe for me.”
“Okay,” the doctor replies.
Is that doctor acting professionally?
Or does the word “quack” leap to mind?
A professional does not automatically do whatever the client wants. Instead, a professional is committed to doing what is best for the client.
Often that means educating the client, just as the physician might have to educate the patient.
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This should be a must-read for all salespeople. Unfortunately, if I forwarded it to them, they’d read the first sentence and forward it to the sales assistant, who would then forward it back to me. Great piece, sir!
I’ll take a chance and forward it to sales…hopefully they’ll get through most of it! 😉
Thank you for expressing this sentiment so eloquently. If you don’t mind, I’m totally going to copy and paste and use this over and over. Question: would you say the same is true for the client relationship between VoiceOver professional and client? I have a client right now whose scripts make me cringe and I wonder what’s going on at the ad agency where they’re being written. When I hear/see those ads I am embarassed – not because I didn’t do a good job, but because the ads are so horrible to begin with and I know they are a complete waste of money for my client. I am nervous about bringing up my feelings about these ads because I am not their media buyer. Should I suck it up and be honest, or keep my mouth shut and just perform the scripts as they are sent to me?
@Jennifer: No, I wouldn’t say the same is true for most VO/client relationships.
Usually, they want you to voice the copy “a certain way” or in a “certain style” or simply until “it sounds right” to them. That’s the job they’re hiring you for: to voice the copy the way they want it to sound.
If they also ask you to write the copy and, perhaps, create the entire ad campaign, then your ethical obligation to try to make sure they’re doing the right thing kicks in.
But as a hired voice (sorry, that’s how they think of you), pointing out to the client that the ad copy sucks rarely does anyone any good.