Make your clients love you? Start with what they hate.

One of our favorite workshop leaders at SVC is Ted Leonhardt. He not only built a small design firm into a large one, but he also had the opportunity to serve as executive creative director for the entire Fitch network of design shops around the world.

Late last year Ted led a workshop at SVC where he shared some of this findings about building stronger client relationships. A good starting point, according to Ted, is to find out what irks clients about their ad and design agency relationships and start from there. And that’s exactly what Ted did.

So here, in condensed form, are some of the top gripes clients have about their marketing communications partners:

“Don’t try to sell me anything.”
Clients, like the rest of humanity, can smell a sales pitch a mile away. And, like most of us, they resist, even if the ideas proffered are good ones. Instead, always put your suggestions in the framework of, well, suggestions that are offered in the spirit of helping to solve a client’s business problem.

Finally. A decent book on getting into advertising.

As a school that helps art directors and copywriters develop their portfolios so they can land a decent job, we’re always on the lookout for good resource materials that will help in the cause.

We don’t find very many, but we forgot to look under our own noses.

Dave Holloway, a creative director at Publicis in Seattle (about 8 blocks due west of SVC) has written one of the finest books we’ve ever seen on the topic of tracking down the elusive job. It’s called, appropriately enough, Hot to Get the Job You Want and Succeed In It.

Before Dave came to Seattle, he worked in New York at some rather distinguished agencies, and he’s won his fair share of awards (Cannes Gold Lions, among them).

He’s been kind enough to share his vast store of knowledge with SVC ad students, but we figured everyone could benefit from what Dave has to say.

Got work? Staffing firms do and they’re looking for freelancers.

Some would say there’s a sweet spot between working full time for the man and striking out completely on your own as a freelancer. That happy middle ground is doing contract work through a staffing firm. Done right, it can combine the flexibility and variety of freelancing with the solid benefits and the let-somebody-else-worry-about-the-paperwork aspects of a full-time gig.

To find out more about what’s involved with contract work, the School of Visual Concepts invited Dave Cieri of Aquent, Sam Rosen Taylor from Filter, Amy Marshall of Big Fish, and The Smart Dept.’s Tai Hubbert to take part in a panel discussion attended by designers, writers, and other curious freelancers. Here’s a quick summary of their take on temporary work.

So what’s the difference between being employed through a staffing firm and having a full-time job?
It’s a lot like a full-time job in that you’ll most often receive health insurance, vacation time, and education reimbursements. Unlike a full-time job, staffing firms will ask if you’re interested in an assignment and you can say “yes” or “no” depending on the work, the length of the contract, and the pay. The vast majority of contract jobs are performed on-site at the client’s place of business using their equipment.