The Power of No

Endemic to the client/agency relationship is an “ask” too far. For an agency runner, trying to grow, pivot, expand, employ or simply survive it is incredibly difficult to tell a client (current or potential), “no”. Not only to keep your integrity intact, but if your client believes you will do anything, eventually you will be unprofitable and they will be gone. I have seen clients ask for unbelievable things that in retrospect just smell bad and had nothing to do with the actual scope of work. Which is all to say, be ready to say no. To compete and close new business, there is tremendous pressure to just paper the deal and get the invoice out. Try to resist that. A scope of work that never ends with a budget that does, a timeline that is “ambitious”, KPI that are based on politics not data, a pitch with no champion: all good reasons to keep you hand on the trusty grip of “no”. Easy to say, hard to do.