The Art of Client Service The Classic Guide Updated for Today’s Marketers and Advertisers 3rd edition by Robert Solomon ISBN 111922828X 9781119228288

Chapter 1: What Makes Great Client Service?

Part One: How to Be Great with Clients

Chapter 2: Account Management’s Role

Chapter 3: Achieving the Next Level

Chapter 4: Transforming a Career into a Calling

Part Two: Winning New Business for Your Agency

Chapter 5: New Business: What It Is, Why It Is Important, and Why You Should Give a Damn

Chapter 6: How to Contribute Before, During, and After Pitch Day

Pre-Pitch Prep

Presentation Timing

The Design of the Room Where You’ll Be Presenting

Assessing Client Culture

Seating the Room

We Come Bearing Gifts

No Dead Bodies

Your Props

That Question Again?

Have a Checklist, Check It Thrice

It’s Not Over Until It’s Over

No Phoning It In

Chapter 7: Getting to Yes

Part Three: Beginning a Client Relationship

Chapter 8: In a High Tech World, Be Low Tech

Chapter 9: What Success Looks Like

Chapter 10: Always Manage Client Expectations from the Outset

Chapter 11: Be Multilingual

Chapter 12: Live the Client’s Brand

Chapter 13: Ask, “What Do My Colleagues Need to Create Great Advertising?” Then Deliver It

Part Four: How To …

Chapter 14: Run a Meeting

Chapter 15: Brief a Colleague

Chapter 16: Write a Conference Report

Chapter 17: Perfect the Perfect Scope of Work

Rule Number One: Do a Scope of Work. Yes, Do One!

Rule Number Two: Make Certain Each Scope Fully and Precisely Describes the Tasks You and Your Agency Are to Handle

Rule Number Three: If You Are Unable to Clearly Define the Work to Be Done, Build Contingency Dollars into Your Fee Estimate to Deal with the Unexpected

Rule Number Four: Avoid Adding a Disclosed Contingency Amount to Your Fee

Rule Number Five: Instead of a Contingency Fee, Include Language that Protects Your Agency

Rule Number Six: With Fixed-Fee Scopes of Work, Be Sure to Include a Clause that Stipulates a 90-Day Fee Review

Rule Number Seven: With Retainer-Based Scopes of Work, Be Sure to Include a Monthly Fee Reconciliation Clause

Rule Number Eight: Make Your Letters of Proposal Serve as Your Scopes of Work

Chapter 18: Craft That Schedule You Need to Create

Chapter 19: Build a Better Budget

Chapter 20: Draft a Letter of Proposal

Chapter 21: Create a PowerPoint Presentation

Part Five: Formulating the Brief That Drives Great Creative

Chapter 22: Take the Word Brief Seriously

Chapter 23: What Makes a Brilliant Brief?

Chapter 24: In Writing the Brief, Provide the Client’s Perspective

Chapter 25: Know When to Look It Up; Know When to Make It Up

Part Six: Establishing Trust With Clients

Chapter 26: Great Work Wins Business; a Great Relationship Keeps It

Chapter 27: Client Presentations Are as Important as New Business Presentations

Chapter 28: Always Ask, “Does This Advertising Pass the ‘So What’ Test?”

Chapter 29: Don’t Fall in Love with Good Work; Don’t Fall for Bad Work

Chapter 30: Choice Is Good

Chapter 31: Fight About the Work with Colleagues; Fight for It with Clients

Chapter 32: Do Not Sell

Chapter 33: Bring Your Clients into the Process Early and Often

Chapter 34: Respect What It Takes to Do Great Creative

Chapter 35: Credit Is for Creative Directors

Chapter 36: We Are Smarter Together Than We Are Alone

Chapter 37: Judgment Overrides Any Rule

Chapter 38: Ideas Are the Currency We Trade in

Occam’s Razor

That question again

The power of observation

Discipline, accidents, and idea formation

Apple’s 1984

Puppy Love and Lost Dog

Life Goes on

Part Seven: Building Long-Term Client Relationships

Chapter 39: Make No Commitment without Consultation

Chapter 40: Take on the Coloration of Your Clients; Do Not Compromise Your Character

Chapter 41: Never Forget It’s a Business

Chapter 42: Once a Client, Always a Client

Chapter 43: Going Rogue

Part Eight: How to Deal with Unhappy Clients

Chapter 44: Always Think Endgame

Chapter 45: No Surprises about Money or Time

Chapter 46: Deal with Problems Head-On

Chapter 47: If Things Go Wrong, Take the Blame

Chapter 48: What Happens When I Screw Up?

Chapter 49: Getting Fired

Part Nine: Regaining Client Trust

Chapter 50: How Happy Clients Help You Gain New Ones

Chapter 51: Five Client Challenges to Agencies

1. Account People Are Largely Unclear on Their Roles

2. A Failure to Communicate—Internally and with Clients—Is an Ongoing Concern

3. There’s a Need to Do a Better Job of Managing Client Expectations

4. It’s a Struggle to Get Budgets, Schedules, and Scopes of Work Consistently Right

5. Clients Look to Account People for Ideas, and Are Frustrated by Their Absence

Chapter 52: Five Client Service Principles to Believe In

Show Up

Follow Up

Speak Up

Make It Up

Never Give Up

Acknowledgments: Remember to Say “Thank You”

Postscript

Dressing the Part

A Bunch of Books to Make You Better at What You Do

On Communicating

On Client Relationships

On Creativity and Advertising

On Strategy

On Business Leadership

Five New Books

About the Author

Index

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