How to help your clients maneuver around bad decisions.

In addition to our day-to-day pitching, monitoring, writing, etc… as a PR pro we are also supposed to provide strategic council for our clients, while keeping them happy, adding value to their businesses and having a broad understanding and up-to-date knowledge of industry happenings. Sometimes this means we need to be able to advise our clients on the right action to take and this can mean informing them they are about to make the wrong one. How does one do this and keep their client happy? It’s not easy….

Here a few tips to help you maneuver around an awkward conversation while essentially telling your client…it’s a bad idea.

1. Forward-thinking. This may seem obvious, but resist the urge to tell your client NO without stating your case. Why is the a bad idea? Short term effects, long term effects, help your client project the situation to see the future outcome. Yes, this may seem like a good idea at the moment to promote a certain event or product, but could it hurt your client’s credibility in the future? Our clients tend to get carried away with big ideas, before they get too excited help them take a forward-thinking approach to see what the right actions are.. today. It may seem simple, but explain your case, and be able to back it up with solid reasons that are in place to position your client for a successful future.

2. Brand Consistency. Encourage your client to think about whether or not this  move/decision is “in-line” with their branding and reputation. This is always a strong stance to take, stressing the importance of a strong brand consistency will be a persuasive angle when talking your client out of potentially bad decision. Remind them that you don’t want to disrupt both of your efforts to create a reliable company brand.

3. First-things-first: Some of our clients can be big dreamers or visionaries… if you will, which in many cases is what makes many of them successful. However, having an over-sized dream or goal can be a set back if it’s not handled correctly. These types of clients sometime need us to pull them back down to earth and make them a first-things-first list. Take care of #1-3 before you rattle off what #26-30 will entail. I have experienced clients that don’t make progress because they obsess over the end point. Encourage them to focus on how to make things happen now. Help them take it step by step, often times this will avoid decisions that don’t make sense for your client at the current time. Remember, we are here to give them a plan/campaign for a reason, and those steps should be followed and clearly understood in order to achieve measurable success.

4. Be direct, without being direct. Choice of words is a huge factor in this situation, you can likely find a way to tell your client, “don’t do it”, without using that exact phrase. Encouraging your client to take action with A, B or C… is different than telling them, don’t do D. Push your client towards positive action/movement, rather than pushing them away from a bad idea. Simply re-direct them. Maybe you will be successful in distracting the client from an un-wise release or announcement by suggesting a difference course of action be taken.