Show Me Your Battle Scars

The pitch is over and the team are returning to the office.
“How did it go?” you ask.
“The pitch went well but when it came to the Q&A it was a different story”
"They asked some really tough questions."
"I don’t think they really wanted us there.”
And then they retreat to their respective desks to lick their wounds.
Ok, so here is an easy question
If you were responsible for half a million pounds (or a whole million or two), would you be fawning over the first person to walk in?
Would you act like their new best friend?
Of course not.
It’s not just agencies that have had a tough time.
Clients are under more pressure than ever to deliver ROI.
So they need to be absolutely sure that they’re backing the right team.
How good are you under pressure?
How well do your ideas hold up, how badly do you want this opportunity?
How good are you at measuring achievement?
It may look as though they’re checking their Blackberry and ignoring you, but I can promise you they’re hanging on your every word.
They’re rooting for you to succeed, so get out there and shine.

Money’s Too Tight To Mention

Have you seen the news lately?

The United Arab Emirates are finally finding that this global recession of ours isn’t scared off by mid-40s temperatures.

They’re struggling, the same way we were back at the end of 2008.

Now I’m not about to start piling onto their woes, but it’s telling that the region’s fiscal irresponsibility is finally catching up with it.

I’ve been fortunate enough to spend some time in the Dubai and take some fantastic briefs out there.

The projects and clients may have differed, but there was always one universal theme.

Every single meeting I had, someone, somewhere uttered the immortal words

“Money’s no object.”

But as has been shown in the last couple of weeks.

Money is always an object.

If you insist that it’s not, then you’re overlooking the commercial realities of the venture you’re about to embark upon.

It doesn’t matter how rich you think you are, you still need to think about real business objectives and ROI.

Otherwise, you’re going to run out of that ‘object’ pretty quickly.