Written by Bill Mitchell
“How do we sell food to people who wouldn’t want it if we gave it away?” A client began an input meeting with that refreshing statement. You’ve got to love a straight-shooter like that. The same client who told us to take another week when we already had good stuff, but maybe not great stuff. He trusted more time might yield better ideas.
Thinking back over the scores of client customers I’ve had the pleasure of working with, some stand out as being enablers of “great” work.
One client said she knew we could be funnier with our ideas, and maybe she was inhibiting us in some way. Actually, she wasn’t, but I’d run through a wall for her because she wanted our best. It showed up for her company at the cash register after the spots ran, and in her office trophy case. She wanted breakthrough and she embraced her role in getting us there.
Creative thinking, from start to finish, mixes the strategic and logical with the completely ethereal and unpredictable. You cannot sit down and “have great creative ideas” any more than you can just “fall madly in love.” It happens when it wants to. It’s temperamental, but you can increase the chances of it happening well for you.
Great input is at the top for enabling superior work. Knowing which points to make, and which to leave out, is paramount. It takes discipline. Confusion in the form of too many facets to the information only slows down idea production. It erodes confidence and the ideas suffer.
“Do you have what you need?” That’s a question I could never hear enough from a client. Precise information gives us the “permission” to take “creative leaps” into areas never seen before.
Can we please agree that good is the enemy of great? Okay, “good” comes with the notion that you might sleep a little better at night. “Great” takes courage, but when it gains acceptance, it stays longer with people. And it sells better, too, due to precise thinking.
Partnering with creative people takes unique skill and patience. But what feeds creativity like nothing else is a very short list of facts that make complete sense. We need to know why your product deserves acceptance with a target audience. A target we can easily picture in our minds. We can find plenty of ways to deliver creatively when we know “what” it is we’re delivering.
It takes a good measure of confidence to creatively think. But I believe it takes vast amounts of courage for clients to approve ideas never attempted before. Great clients typically get what they deserve: great work.
