There is nothing worse than dealing with clients who mysteriously turn into creative directors when they have no business being part of the process.  We all know that this happens all the time though.  But the important point to remember is that you will grow and develop by finding clients that expect more of you.  For example…

Bad Scenario:  Someone contacts a design agency and asks, ”We have a marketing concept that we tackled internally and now we need someone to build this out for us.” You then look at the ‘concept’ and realize they have absolutely no idea how to market themselves - yet they intend to control the entire project.

Good Scenario:  ”Here is our budget, we have some ideas, but ultimately would like to hire someone who’s really f$%$’in good in the online marketing realm who can make this campaign work for us.” ”We don’t know enough about this industry and thus we’re looking for an expert in the field who can make shit happen, consult on how to tackle this properly, where to allocate our budget and have the creativity to pull this off.”

Though the 2nd scenario may catch you off guard, these are the types of situation that we should live for - someone paying us to think and perform.  Everyone wins when a client tells us what they need then says ‘go do it, and it better be damn good’. 

Though, I don’t know why this is such a difficult concept in the marketing realm.  I don’t tell my dentist how to drill into my tooth, or a home-builder how to build my house, nor do I ever hire any service provider and tell them how to do their job.  They should already know how to do it.  If they screw something up, of course I’ll ask them to fix it but I’m hiring these people for a reason.  This doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t pay attention to how they are doing something or be involved in the process, but there is distinct reason that I hire a particular company (or consultant).  It’s because they already know how to do their job.  And if they can’t do it, then I’ll know fairly quickly regardless of what the topic is. 

I think that everything (including marketing services) tends to fall into a few categories.  5/20/50/20/5.  There is the top 5% in their industry - the ones who are really freakin’ good at what they do.  These could be individuals, very talented, extremely good and are very comfortable in their industry.  There is the 2nd tier of companies/agencies who are above the rest.  They may more expensive than the others - but you can be sure that if you are utilizing this company, they will absolutely steer you in the right direction.  Then there is the group in the middle where everyone is basically the same - and for the most part mediocre at what they do.  They offer nothing better or worse than most others.  From there it gets worse..and you don’t want to ever hire services from the two remaining categories.

I guess the problem will always be that businesses don’t know how to distinguish from these different groups because they simply just don’t understand or have enough knowledge of the industry, can’t tell the difference between good work from ‘Bob’s Cyber Marketing Squad’, or are forced into action by their competitors and will choose the cheapest option, the easiest option and don’t care whether it works or helps their brand stand out.

In any case, if we are good at what we do, the beauty of this topic is that we work better under pressure.  And finding clients that expect quality out of us is what we should seek.  So if you have a client that allows you to ‘think’, will listen to what you tell them, and expects you to perform, this is a very good thing.  Keep them happy!