Popular client misconceptions

I’ve always worked on the premise that my colleagues and I work as extensions to our clients’ own teams, as if they have a PR and marketing department without all the on-costs and employment issues. In the main, this has worked extremely well because there are so many benefits for the client.

There are, of course, some exceptions to the rule. Well, there would be, wouldn’t there?! These take the form of some strange misconceptions that some people have of what working with consultants is all about. I’ll give you some examples of some of the questions or comments I receive …

Will you halve your fee and work for [peanuts]?

Er, no. Would you?

It still amazes me that people expect others to carry the burden of their bad planning, lack of forethought, or queasy management. If you’re setting up a serious business then you need a proper business plan to ensure you know where you’re going and you need a realistic budget to get you there, not least of which to let people know your business is there as well as encourage them to buy from you. You’ll need enough resources so you’re not working 24/7, and an exit strategy in case it all goes horribly wrong.

By the way, it’s perfectly ok to have a kitchen table business and know you want to keep going as a micro-business. If your income pays the bills and you have no desire to scale up, that’s absolutely fine. Whatever works for you.

But please don’t assume you can ask other small businesses (or even larger ones) to work for peanuts because you want the service, expertise, experience and professionalism but don’t want to or can’t pay for it. That’s just not fair, and actually it’s quite insulting. And yet some do. Well, you know what you get if you pay peanuts! Think honestly about how you’d feel if it was someone expecting you to do the same.

I’m paying you but I won’t listen to you

Then you’re wasting your money. When we ask our clients for something, there’s a good reason. When we suggest a different way of doing something, explain to us why it won’t work rather than dismiss it out of hand. We’ll likely have tried it successfully somewhere else or know a business where it’s worked well, hence the suggestion.

If you think you know better than us then again, you’re wasting your money. You’ve chosen to employ consultants, why not focus on running your business and let us take on the job for which you asked. After all, you’re the expert in your business, not us. Let us work with you to help you make more money, be more successful, get better known, or whatever your objective is.

Social media is free so why am I paying for it?

You’re paying for our expertise and experience in PR-led messaging and communications. There’s not only the time spent creating messages and supporting graphics, inputting and scheduling, we build up your follower/fan base, create and join in conversations on your behalf, respond to inbound messages, and manage your reputation this way too. We work to your business plan objectives, goals and targets. We don’t spend oodles of time creating massive reports at the end of the month when you can check your insights for free yourself, but we are continually monitoring what’s happening online for you.

I don’t have time to send you stuff, can’t you do it yourself?

Well no, we’re not mind-readers. You know what’s going on in your business, in your teams, with your clients/customers, and in your industry. We rely on your commitment to the partnership to give us ample input so we can, in return, help you.

On the other hand

These are just a sample of the comments I hear from potential clients. It’s not all like that, of course. We have had and currently have some wonderfully switched-on ones. 

They’re the clients who say:

• What do you need from me?
• I’ve created a really tight brief so you know exactly what we need
• We couldn’t have done it without you
• Our sales are up 40% on this time last year – thank you!
• Wherever we go, people recognise our company name and brand
• We’ve recommended you to our own clients

That’s what we like to hear!

If you’d like to be one of the select band that make up the Chimera Communications client base, get in touch with me now - jill@chimeracomms.co.uk 

What makes a good Chimera client? 10 reasons why it could be you

One of the questions we asked ourselves on a recent team awayday was ‘What does a good client look like for us?’ and we thought we’d share the outcome of our ideal PR, marketing or social media client.

1. You want to grow your business, and you understand that’s what we want too
2. You value PR, marketing and/or social media
3. You understand these take a while to bed in and evolve, so you are happy to apply patience when you don’t see immediate results
4. You’re able to regularly tell us what you and your business are doing, so you don’t expect us to read your mind
5. You respond as soon as you can to our questions, respecting that there are good reasons why we want to know, and if you don’t know the answers, you do your best to find out
6.  You value our years of experience, skills, abilities, qualifications and professionalism, and don’t necessarily think you know better (although of course you certainly do when it comes to your own business)
7. You’re prepared to invest in our service and understand you need to pay us the going rate as we’re unable to work for free; well, would you? And you treat us as you want to be treated: you settle our invoices on time, every time
8. You don’t expect us to be available for every call or email, and you trust that we’ll get back to you just as soon as we can
9. You listen to our professional suggestions and work in collaboration to pick the most appropriate to put into practice for your business
10. You trust us to be part of your team and work with us every step of the way

We’re very fortunate with our clients and know that how we work best works best when you work well with us. 

Are you the ideal Chimera client? We’d like to have you on board so we can help your business grow. Call us now on 01903 812275 and say ‘ideal client’ for a special 10% off end of year offer.

Is the customer always right?

Despite our in-built response mechanism to believe the customer is always right, is this true?

As a service provider, our clients are buying in our years of expertise and experience, our professional qualifications, adding all of this to their teams and commercial weaponry. Each client has a choice about whether to do this or not, based on their ability to shop around, listen to recommendations and referrals, check out our quotes, hear our initial ideas and choose whether they trust us to deliver outcomes and advice worth taking up.

But how often do we provide our best advice only for clients to ignore it and to come back at a later date saying "We should have listened"? Thankfully not that often, although our reaction is tinged with a slight sadness and frustration that time will have been lost and efforts will have to make up for further slippage in reaching objectives.

If we have toothache we go to the dentist, we don't try to fill the tooth or take it out ourselves. So it makes sense to choose your business advisers, consultants or mentors very carefully - take into account personalities, approach, gut feelings, recommendations, testimonials, previous work, a mutual sense of humour and likeability. Then, trust them or at least give them a chance to prove they can be trusted; because they should be bringing their best work to the table, to the benefit of you and your company.

It certainly takes a degree of confidence and the ability to let go of the reins in favour of someone whom you consider knows more about a topic than you do. Some executives are unable to do this but the ones who do, get the best results. 

Listen to your consultants or advisers, ask questions, calmly consider then make your decision to take their advice, or explain why it might not work. Try a different approach to the issue to make it work if necessary; it may be something has not been passed on correctly or some information is missing. If you decline every piece of advice on the basis you know better, you have to ask: why employ anyone? It's a waste of time, money and effort on everyone's part.

Similarly if there are issues communicating or your relationship of trust is compromised, it's probably better to make a change. 

Working in partnership with a client should be a joy, filled with successful outcomes. We have certainly found that's the best way to work.

Ten years ago today I started my company, public relations and marketing consultancy Chimera Communications. Ten years which have seen governments come and go, the colour of local politics change, the worst recession in living history, the birth of social media, Olympic frenzy, a different James Bond, several different faces of Dr Who, the strange popularity of reality shows (or should that be unreality shows?), freak weather, Jeremy Kyle, America's first black President and now the first papal resignation for nearly 600 years.

The price of petrol in 2003 was around 78p a litre, a onesie was what a baby wore, twitter was something the birds did first thing in the morning and we'd never heard of Justin Beiber. Happy days!

Well, petrol now costs around 139p a litre and despite clients' budget restraints, rapidly changing technology, ridiculous parking prices, the hell of automated phone systems, frustrating customer care via overseas call centres, with the grace of whichever god in which you believe and a prevailing wind, Chimera Communications has survived and flourished.

Key elements which contribute to that fact, I believe, are experience, planning, organisation, self-belief, dogged determination, value for money, flexibility and caring for my clients' businesses as if they were my own. The company is run on the basis of low costs and a friendly and approachable, effective service. There’s no fancy office, ‘Ab Fab’ style champagne lunches or glossy brochures. All my business over the years has come through word of mouth and the testimonials speak for themselves. We work with award-winning clients, businesses of all sizes as well as not-for-profits and charities, all of whom are treated exactly the same.

Of course there have been tough times, like any business. I've learned the hard way that there are occasions when I have to say 'no', that there are clients with whom it's best not to work, that there are never enough hours in the day, and that working all night is really not a good idea. I love working with such a wide variety of businesses and learning just enough about what they do to enable me to do my job. I was invited to become a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations more years ago than I care to remember, and that always stands me in good stead as we have to sign up to a code of conduct which ensures we act responsibly and ethically.

Looking back, as one is prone to do at times like this, my best decisions in recent years were to join Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce, BNI (Business Networking International) and a select range of other professional and networking groups. Networking is certainly the way to go these days for building great contacts and useful, trustworthy and lasting business relationships.

It can certainly be argued there are already more than enough networking groups in the area, and this is where targeting is crucial. You could spend all day, every day going to different events and every week, there are new groups jumping on the bandwagon. The really effective ones are those which monitor business passed, or are proactive in fostering links between relevant members. There is a place for those which meet on a more informal basis, but it’s important for me to be able to justify and quantify the results of precious time and money spent.

I’ve built up really good business relationships with people I can trust, knowing I’m going to be sitting across a table each week or each month when they’ll be accountable for every piece of work done, whether for me or for those to whom I refer them. These include not only professional suppliers like printers, designers, accountants, photographers and lawyers, but electricians, plumbers and lettings agents, even a chiropractor. Much work has come through networking, as well as some introductions to my own associate consultants.

So my advice, should you need it, is to think carefully about who it is you need to target and why. Whether it’s specific professions, ages, gender, business size or location, there are plenty from which to choose. It’s important to remember it’s not only about who is at the networking event, but who those people know and in turn, who their contacts know. And of course, it’s equally important you’re comfortable giving an ‘elevator pitch’ to promote your business or whether you prefer to eat, drink and mingle. Networking can help build confidence and presenting experience, but don’t forget to ask for specific business or contacts you’d like – you need to focus or networking can become a bit of a jolly and a waste of time.

On the whole, the last ten years have been a blast. Huge thanks to all my clients, media contacts, suppliers, networking colleagues, business partners and my merry band of Chimera associate consultants over the years. 

Here's to the next decade!

It always pays to know what your clients do - especially if it means you have to be pampered in the process!

As PR and marketing consultant to a wide variety of different clients, I need to know just the right amount about their businesses. Not too much, as it's their business not mine and they're the experts. Not too little, as I can't promote what they do effectively.


So, purely in the interest of research you understand, dear reader, I couldn't pass up the offer of a spa pedicure at a leading beauty salon in the area, Euphoric, a client I've been working with this year. 


Of course I'd been to the salon several times before, given advice on business matters, PR and marketing, image, branding and so on. I'd even been to take photos for a press release and been there for support my client as she was filmed for her first corporate video. I'd looked at the products and all the state-of-the-art equipment - some of which looks just like something out of Transformers.


I thought I knew what needed to be known about pedicures. But I was wrong. I'd never had a 'spa pedicure' before. 


Now let's be clear - my feet are not my best feature. Far from it. Working as hard as I do, there's very little time for pampering treatments and I have to admit I don't take much care of my feet these days. 


After a warm welcome to the salon, I was encouraged to relax with a drink of my choice and then I met Katie, who would be braving the delights of my plates (of meat, I'm a Londoner). I duly chose a shade of OPI nail polish for my toes I was taken into a relaxing treatment room where a warm foot soak awaited. But the best was still to come...


The couch was just sooooo comfy, the lights were dimmed, the music played something soothing - and Katie started her magic. For an hour and a half, my feet were smoothed, massaged, lotioned, potioned and primped. I lost count of how many times I drifted off; when the lights went up, I looked down at my extremities and shining back up at me was a delightful pair of feet, barely recognisable from the 'before' version! And the bonus was - I felt wonderfully relaxed for the first time in ages. 


So what did I learn from this experience?! I can now promote my client even better with the benefit of having experienced one of their wonderful treatments. AND I'll certainly go back for more in the future, so they've certainly won another client themselves. 


Several questions arise, though ... which treatment will I choose next time, and shall I take my own advice when it comes to experiencing my dentist client's business?!!


Check out Euphoric on www.euphoric-beauty.co.uk to see more about the treatment I had, plus all the others.