What to do when clients take advantage of their agencies (advertising, PR, digital, media, etc.)? Get assertive! These slides are from a Lunch and Learn program given at multiple agencies in 2014.

1. The Assertive Agency
Changing agency/client
dialogue to stand up for the
value of our work
© 2014 NeoCortex Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Discussion: How do clients
take advantage of agencies?
© 2007 NeoCortex Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. What to do?
© 2007 NeoCortex Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
James
Madison had
a good idea

4. Agency Bill of Rights
We, the Agency, have the right to…
• Payment for our work
• Ethical treatment
• Respect
• Fairness
• Clarity
• Truth

5. What should
we do when
clients violate
these rights?

6. Silence is rarely a
good option
“Delivering a difficult message is like
throwing a hand grenade. Coated with
sugar, thrown hard or soft, a hand
grenade is still going to do damage….
Choosing not to deliver a difficult
message is like hanging on to a hand
grenade once you’ve pulled the pin.”
—Stone, Patton, Heen, Difficult Conversations

7. Useful ways to
speak up
1. Respond, don’t react
2. Explore conflicts
appreciatively
3. Say “yes, and…”
4. Assert your interests
5. Use objective standards
6. Create mutual-gains
solutions

8. What is assertive self-expression?
• Exercising personal rights without
denying the rights of others
• Expressing feelings honestly and
comfortably
—adapted from Alberti & Emmons, Your Perfect Right
© 2007 NeoCortex Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

9. Assertive language choices reduce
aggressive conflict
Assertive choice Aggressive choice
“This is what we can do…” “We can’t do that.”
“Let’s look for solutions we
can all feel are clearly fair”
“That choice is unfair”
“With that option would come
some undesirable
consequences…”
“If you do that, we’ll do this
(threat)”

10. Role-play exercise 1
Situation: Client calls asking for another round
of revisions, but she’s used up the three rounds
included in the rate card. You call to ask her to
authorize a new purchase order for the
additional hours needed.
© 2007 NeoCortex Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

11. Questions to ask yourself
• What’s at stake?
• Does the client see himself/herself as the
victim?
• Is this negotiable?
• What happens if I move hours to another job?
• Will I be setting a precedent?
• What outcome can we both live with?

12. The next time it happens…
• Remember your Bill of Rights
• Respond, don’t react
• Choose assertive, not aggressive language
• Create mutual-gains options
• Feel good about how you’ve dealt with it
© 2007 NeoCortex Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.