Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

I think that you should choose your clients carefully because when you provide your service and it works, then those people are going to tell their friend about your services. So, its better to be truthful in the beginning and tell them that you can or can't do the job.

Nancy,

I think you should be realistic when you talk to the customer. IF they have great sales people and your job is to create an influx of requests......you've done your job.

If your job is to drive people to the website and the site stinks...you should be paid based on the traffic.

So it really depends on expectations.

Michael

I agree with Michael. When you enter into any business relationship, you must first clearly understand your clients goals and expectations. Before you enter into a relationship, make sure you agree with the expectations and agree on mutually beneficial objectives. If in your professional opinion, these objectives are not achieveable, you must decide if you want to take on this client. Remember, it's your professional opinion and advise they are paying for.

It depends on what your business goals/needs are. There's nothing wrong with only wanting to work with winners. However, what's more important to me than their potential for success is their personality (since I only want to be in "relationship" with someone I can communicate effectively with). If you have a good relationship with your client, and if they ask your opinion for their success, you can be honest. However, also be willing to be wrong - and have a "can't lose" die and a "dud" be a monster success.

Marketing is results.

Though we often forget it, we marketers all exist for that singular purpose only. Anyone who tells you its all about the creative (or that its about anything other than results) is wrong.

That said, results measurement involves much more than tracking sales. Units out the door on a given month, week, day or year depends on myriad factors that often have nothing to do with advertising--or any other piece of the marketing pie for that matter. If I'm selling home mortgages, for example, I may be the world's best marketing person, but in this market I'm going to need more than a month to month sales trend line to measure my impact. Measurement is crucial, but like anything that applies to assessing, predicting, and analyzing human activity it's very complex.

Because having good answers is important to our clients, it's also important to us. Offering us more specifics I'm sure will net you more helpful responses.