Client Horror Stories

In our 12th take at Client Horror Stories, Rachel Smith, PPC Manager at Platform 81, gets us involved in a tale where the actual horror ended up not actually coming from your client, but from your manager instead. Her story (which is told in an enchanting british accent, and accompanied by all sorts of fun british slang) has everything that a good story needs: Drama, hidden information, secret meetings, a really tall guy, and incredibly useful lessons.

Rachel’s narrative teaches us all we need to know when we are the new people in a legacy project, in a much valued client, and how crazy it can get when communication becomes a children’s telephone game. She also gives us some lessons on the type of managers who think that just because they know how to run a business they’ll know how to do everyone’s job better than them, on how to find your way around them, and how to force you into meetings you weren’t invited to.

Today’s story leaves us with a bittersweet taste in our mouths when we realize that, every now and then, we are just going to run into people who really need to be educated on the service that you are selling to them, and not just presenting a report once a month and hope that they understand all of it. In tales like this one, the key is to realize that not everyone can handle the same management style, and that there are moments where you really just have to stand up for yourself and do what has to be done.

Links:

Rachel Smith

Platform 81

Morgan Friedman

In our eleventh take at Client Horror Stories, we have Jess McCarter sharing with us a story that started with a way longer meeting than necessary. One of those meetings where they discussed the solution to all the world's problems. And that was the start of many, many meetings like that.

Jess' tale takes us back 15 years when he was still a young start-up founder trying to climb his way in the custom software industry. He landed a massive client on the East Coast with a very ambitious idea that was way ahead of its time idea. Jess' team was blinded by the lights of this huge contract with an ambitious client. Previously they had worked only on small contracts with a fixed scope. But, of course, the team wanted a client with a vast open-ended project. It was an incredibly bright future, or so it seemed. Unfortunately, because due diligence ended up a very low priority, disaster lurked just around the corner.

With today's story, we learn a couple of lessons on managing clients, especially when we don't have so much experience yet, and when we actually believe in our client's project. And with that comes along one of our highlighted quotes of the day: "The only thing worse than no contract is a bad contract." And with that line, Jess pretty much summarizes everything there is to know about encountering the client version of the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none."

Reaching the very end of this tale, we learn that not every lousy client is a bad person and that working hard and being honest really pays off. Even if it's a couple of years later.

Links:

https://www.jessmccarter.com

Jess McCarter

Morgan Friedman

In this week’s take, we receive Paul Stephenson, founder, and CEO of 47 Insights, who tells us a story on going back to working with clients after many years in consultancy, and how to take a harsh come back to the industry. All along his hearing process, we have the chance to take on a lesson or two on following our guts, being able to detect yellow flags (and realizing the moment where they start getting darker), and know how and when we should settle boundaries.

Client Horror Stories’ 10th take (Yay!) is a great opportunity to figure out which type of business we should avoid working with, and when’s the moment to press pause and back down. Paul here teaches us 2 key points for life: First one it’s that sometimes it’s ok to leave a project, opportunities will always come along. And the second one is that everyone is smart and rational until the friend of a friend gets rich by doing something they are not doing.

Paul here narrates the whole story of how a new ambitious start-up managed to drag him into their own internal process (Trello and Slack included) and created a whole mess with his productivity system. So much that not even Paul’s intentions to be always 100% honest and communicative were able to solve it.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

In our 9th take of Client Horror Stories, we have Josh Silverbauer, CEO of Great Big Digital Agency, opening up with the line “When you are a CEO, saying “yes” can take you very far, but sometimes you just reach a point where you wished you’d said “no ``''. From then on, he tells us a tale protagonist by a (former) celebrity of the holistic environment whose only concern was to remain famous and his partners with very strong opinions about absolutely everything.

Josh’s story has the usual randomness and drama that we love but includes a twist that’s both rare and inspiring to witness: the ability to admit when you’ve also got yourself to blame. Months and months of meetings just to choose a logo, a print artist wallpapering the office with your web designs, social media haters raging against your client, and a $120.000 blog are just a couple of the keywords for today’s episode.

Josh leaves us with a couple of lessons on the whole concept of saying “no”, as well as being able to express to a client what’s necessary for their project to succeed, and the ability to draw a limit on what you will not be willing to take back and forth anymore. Sometimes clients simply won’t get it, and sometimes it’s all a matter of figuring out what “value” means for them, and making sure you are fulfilling it.

Links:

Josh Silverbauer

Great Big Digital Agency

Morgan Friedman

Literacy quotes (from every culture):

"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Batman: The Dark Knight

Today’s Client Horror Story is the short version of a horrifying scandal with Will Haire, CEO & Founder of BellaVix, as the protagonist along with the kind of person that has a Zoom call while he drives. In our 8th take, we bring you a tale full of drama, randomness, and emails telling people that they are a complete piece of a**, and all of that in just 30 minutes.

Will’s narration takes us on a trip of discovery of the many aspects that build a proper and bright deal, including hiring the right project managers (you know, those that are so good they become your client’s go-to to talk trash about their partners), doing the required background checks, and even making sure that you are talking with the person that is actually making the decisions.

So today's story leaves us with a big lesson on trusting our instincts and listen to them when something seems weird at first (even if it’s just a promissing young man), making sure that our brands are correctly represented in every possible aspect, and Will’s personal advice on how to deal with horror clients: Just recommend them to your competitors.

Links:

Will Haire

BellaVix

Morgan Friedman

On our seventh take at Client Horror Stories, we receive Stephanie Schwab, CEO, and Founder of Crackerjack, who tells us a story that sounds weird from the beginning, even if she only realized during the interview, when a colleague that you met 3 weeks ago has a project that appears to be a match made in heaven for complementing what both your companies do.

So the first yellow flag comes up when he brings in the fact that he’s not actually partnering up with you, and simplifies it with a short “You bill us, and we’ll bill the client” to make things quick and easy. So how surprising must have been to find out that, in fact, they were also being outsourced by the company the client was actually hiring, right?

So this messed up chain of command that looked much more like a children’s phone game obviously needed to end up blowing, and the blow up involved everything from delayed payments, micromanaging, and even end up talking sh*t about your not-so-partner on the phone with the main company.

This story gives us a lesson on confidence, integrity, upfrontness, and being able to call for an attorney once the situation begins to get weird. And all of it in the times where “Influencer Marketing” was just called “Working with bloggers”.

Links:

Stephanie Schwab

Crackerjack

Morgan Friedman

In our sixth take at Client Horror Stories, we have FM Byers, CEO and Founder of SM Digital Partners telling us a tale that involves drama, diversity, round tables, and maybe too much ambition.

Our story begins with a random meeting on a cruise that soon would be followed by a two-year-long back and forth that included everything (from product developments, translators, many flight tickets, and even elementary-school children) except an actual written contract or agreement.

FM’s tale tells us everything we need to know on how to handle cross-cultural clients, take risks, explore our patients, and realizing that sometimes it’s just time to go. This story gives us a lesson or two on how to be genuine and create real value, and just take a moment to come to a conclusion: Maybe people just won’t get it, and maybe our ideas work, but the timing just wasn’t right.

Links:

FM Byers

SM Digital Partners

Morgan Friedman

Literacy quotes:

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” - T. S. Eliot

In the fourth take of Client Horror Stories, we receive Roger Parent from Digital Position, with a tale that could be classified also as an Employee Horror Story. Today’s narrative includes everything from betrayal, drama and friendship, along with over 10 lessons on managing not only clients and employees, but also every human being relationship you have.

Our story begins with a guy bursting into tears in a desperate ask for a job, and our guy Roger really trying to help him, even when he could not afford him. So an unexpected solution came in the shape of a new client who also had an open position in his business, who’d work side by side with Roger’s agency: A win-win-win situation, right? Well, if that was the case then we would have no story to tell.

Roger’s narration involves budget blow ups, account destructions, ghosting, contract-escaping manners, and even the creation of a brand new separate strategy. However, as we reach the ending of the story, we end up with the sour taste in our mouths that even the most loud and chaotic stories can end up really quiet.

As this tale develops, we’ll have the opportunity to be a part of Morgan and Roger’s moral debate on human nature and expectations, as well as taking advantage of everything that there is to learn here (and I don’t just mean management tips, but also Shakespearean quotes). The bottom line we end up with is pretty simple: Mental health, teamwork and happiness always have to come before money.

About Roger: 

I'm a dad, an athlete, and a guy who started a marketing agency because most of them suck. Culture is everything, and I'm lucky to have a team full of amazing people who "get it", truly care about the work they do, and are able to have a ton of fun through it all.

Literary Quotes:

“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is. To have a thankless child.” - William Shakespeare, King Liar.

“Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 94.

Links:

Roger Parent

Digital Position

Morgan Friedman

In our third episode of Client Horror Stories, we have Jason Pittock, CMO of ClickGuard, telling us a passionate and gripping story about making huge deals with big fishes while you are still a reckless (and naive) 21-year-old.

Filled up both with a British accent and Argentinian slang, this story takes us to 6 years ago in the streets of Palermo, Buenos Aires. Back then, Jason, who was a very ambitious and smart young man, happened to land this millionaire deal for the company that he was working for and didn't hesitate for a second before he agreed.

From the beginning, we have a feeling that bad luck was chasing him down: A surprisingly pregnant project manager, broken elevators on delivery day, and a fully flooded storage basement were only the first signs the universe sent Jason to tell him to back off. However, being a persevering and responsible person, Jason continued to do everything he could to accomplish this deal until the very end, when a lawsuit for 50% of the job value arrived.

This story includes everything from lawyers with food stains in their shirts, clients stalking you at the beach, and even calling your dad for some advice. Reaching the end, Jason leaves us with some very valuable lessons on boundaries, mental health, and the importance of telling someone to back off when needed.

Links:

Jason Pittock

ClickGuard

Morgan Friedman

In take three of Client Horror Stories, we have Manar Hussain telling us an unbelievable and soap-opera worthy story about a client who showed up on a Friday afternoon saying: “I need to launch on Monday” and ended up, not only with no launch but also hidden under a desk.

Manar and Morgan agree, from minute number one, about how much of a red flag is that someone comes in with an emergency of those characteristics because it makes very obvious the fact that someone before made a really huge mistake. However, being the nice guy he is (and considering how worthy the payment was), Manar said let’s do it and jumped into it.

Decided to focus his entire attention on achieving this goal, Manar got together a team and signed just one work condition: Giving his best efforts to make it happen. Everyone was working crazy and meetings continued happening every two hours to make sure that term was accomplished, when, all of a sudden, they lost access to the servers and were completely ghosted by the same client that started up as the neediest and thankful in the entire world. Having realized that they had been kicked off, Manar and his team got into this intense “Geek-Moral debate” and stress crisis about how much effort they should put given the situation that could have easily been avoided with a simple “Stop working” text.

This story’s dramatic twist includes not only what they learned from it but also a bunch of gossip they learned the days after the incident: “Geek moral debate”, “Hiding under desks” and “reputation of not paying until a lawyer’s involved” are just some of the keywords. Manar here leaves us with some very important business lessons: Decide prior to the beginning what you will do if at some point you don’t get a satisfactory answer and always sign a contract.

The last highlight here is that, if you pay attention, you’ll notice Manar called this experience “the most fun he had had in months”.

Links:

Manar Hussain

Morgan Friedman