Getting Authority

This is the written script of Halftime, episode 36 of the Makers of Sport® podcast. Halftime was a short show on the off weeks between interviews where I wrote and read on topics in professionalism, entrepreneurship and business for creatives in sport. The episode aired May 11, 2015; the audio is on SoundCloud and the show notes live at makersofsport.com. The show's opening and closing announcements are trimmed here.

On this episode I’m going to be discussing the topic of authority. Getting authority with your clients. Now I don’t mean in a jerk way – being a prima donna and crying to clients about ideas. I mean in a strategic way. Selling your expertise. Where your client trusts and value your opinion and will listen to you. Where you aren’t just the clients hands, digitally pushing pixels as they metaphorically stand over your shoulders telling you were to put things.

To begin, one must keep in mind that not all clients will be receptive of these new practices I’m going to teach you. Especially the ones you have had a relationship with for a long time and they are used to you being their yes person. As an industry overall, we have done a terrible job selling the right solutions to clients and we have given them too much power over us. Many of them in my experiences view us as technicians, creators that are simply there to execute their ideas because they themselves do not know Photoshop. I believe this to be our fault as an industry. Somewhere along the line, creators as a professional partner was dropped and our industry became a bunch of “yes men and women”. Yessir, whatever you want, sir. Where do you want me to put the logo, ma'am.

If you look at the designers of yesteryear, historic names we have all studied such as Paul Rand, Massimo Vignielli, and Saul Bass. These designers were not “yes people”. They did not succumb to whatever the client asked them to do. You see, as designers, we are visual communicators and problem solvers. It is our job to solve problems with our creative skill and learned knowledge, a knowledge that we continue to build on over our careers. The clients job is to give us the parameters in which to solve those problems. Not solve the problem itself by providing an idea for us to execute.

I don’t adopt the “customer is always right” mentality. This is not McDonald’s. What we are providing is a service, a service that strategically helps clients get their messaging across to a set of users, fans, customers, etc.

When Paul Rand was asked by Steve Jobs (whom we all know is a very adamant person when it comes to his own ideas) to provide a design for Steve’s NEXT computer company – the company Steve founded when he was fired from Apple – Steve asked if Rand would be providing multiple solutions so he could comb through them, add his own input and finally select one to go with. Paul simply stated, according to Jobs, “No. I will solve your problem for you. And you will pay me. You don’t have to use the solution. If you want options, go talk to other people. But I’ll solve your problem for you the best way I know how. And you can use it or not, that’s up to you, you’re the client, but you will pay me.” Now based on this, we see that Paul set expectations ahead of time when it comes to working with him as a designer.

“No. I will solve your problem for you. And you will pay me. You don’t have to use the solution. If you want options, go talk to other people.”

We should all take a page out of Rand’s book when it comes to setting client expectations early. One of the ways to set these expectations is to always have a contract, clearly stating what you will do for the client. Provide in the contract what you will leave with the client as deliverables. Also provide a payment schedule requiring a deposit up front. Payment terms can vary, sometimes creatives will require 50% up front and 50% upon the remainder of the project. If the project is a long, drawn out project such as a large rebranding or a website, you my set the payment terms in time frames or when specific deliverables are met. Such as the up front payment, payment upon deliverable of first round of concepts and final payment upon remainder of the project.

Doing this establishes you as a professional. It shows the client that you have been around the block a time or two and are not some green freelancer in your momma’s basement. Even if you are a green freelancer in your momma’s basement, you should have contracts on all that you do. That is the reality of being a professional. Design is not art. It can be art, but design is to provide something for an end user. It is commercial, it is business.

Another way to establish authority and trust in a client relationship is to have a well-thought out, clearly defined process. Perhaps even publish that process on your site so clients can see before choosing to work with you what it is. State that process in your proposals to reiterate it and assure the client you will arrive at a solution based on this process. It helps establish trust and lets the client know that you aren’t just fiddling around waiting on inspiration to start or throwing concepts at the wall until something happens.

This process becomes a part of your value system. You stick to it, don’t bend on it. Big corporations have policies. They do not bend on policies. Think about trying to get paid from a University or some corporation that will attempt to not bend on your payment terms because they have some bureaucratic policy in place. You too can and should put policies in place in your business. Processes that you stick to no matter the client.

I recommend viewing design as more than simply a visual art, but rather a strategic tool that is used to help improve bottom lines for clients, increase customers, and solve problems. We as an industry often complain about not having the respect of lawyers, accountants or other professionals, but that is because we as an industry overall have not strived to prove ourself worthy of it. Think about it for a minute, you have contributed to this. I know you have. I have also contributed to this in my early years as a freelancer. We become known to clients as prima donnas.

The big problem with providing visual solutions is any human being with the ability to see, also has the ability to make a subjective opinion on said visual solution. It is our natural reaction to be subjective when looking at visual elements. Everyone has different personal aesthetics and tastes. And because design for so long has positioned itself as art, we leave too much up to subjective matters. Art is subjective. Design is objective.

One can achieve authority in these situations by selling their design and making sure that the design decisions made were made based on objective measures such as research, strategy and knowing the client’s industry. Prove to the client that you have learned about them and not just made visual choices because you liked them. Sure, our opinions on aesthetics as designers matter much more than non-designers because we are trained, we understand composition, layout, typography and color theory. But simply stating this training is not something many clients care to take serious when it comes to respecting you as the authority. You have to prove to them your intelligence. Don’t over talk them but explain to them in ways they understand why the design choices you made are right for them and their company.

I was once art directing a designer and the person had done this really cool-looking design for a college sports poster. The poster was for non-revenue sports at a school (for you initiated basically that is any sport that isn’t college football or basketball). Anyhow, the composition of this designer’s layout was really nice. Aesthetically I really liked it. However, the person did not have domain expertise, the expertise I discussed in the Halftime positioning episode 30. The designer did not know or understand that giving a sport like men’s golf the visual hierarchy over the other sports simply based on composition of the photos was not going to fly. Any person that has worked in college sports understands that each coach subjectively views their sport as the most important and will fight for it. In this instance, I knew this would not fly. Especially when historically, the women’s volleyball program was much more successful than men’s golf at this school. I nixed the designer’s concept and told them to give each sport equal visual hierarchy. The designer relented, stating that they felt like they should have the opportunity to sell their concept. So I asked them to sell it. Sell it to me. Why do you think this is better? Basically the sell was all subjective. The designer believed it “looked” best. This may be true, but it did not solve the impending sports hierarchy problem and would just allow the client to offer their own subjective opinion on aesthetic. Learn to sell your work. Sell it for reasons other than you think it looks good. I’m sure it does, you are a designer after all. But when selling a design to a client, you need to sell it in a strategic way based off of research and tangible data that can be pointed to as the reasons you made the choices you did and why they will work.

Never be afraid of conflict or speaking your opinion. No one actually likes conflict. But sometimes it is a necessary evil and can be influential in you establishing expertise in a professional relationship. You won’t get punched in the face for disagreeing with a client. If you do, well you should have never chosen to work with that client in the first place because they are a dick. Pick your battles of course but don’t just be yessir, yes ma'am all day when it comes to working with clients. If you allow the client to make a terrible decision, you will be blamed for it. I guarantee it. You need to save the clients from themselves sometimes, even in subtle ways. Focus on small wins and compromises. Famous advertising art director, George Lois once threatened to jump out the client’s New York window if they didn’t buy the concept he was pitching them. It has become a bit of a folk lore in the advertising industry. Now I’m in no way advocating for this, but definitely don’t be afraid to speak your mind. Respectfully disagreeing is undervalued by us designers when it comes gaining respect. Say no to something and fight for an idea you believe in. However, make sure the reason you believe in it is more than you think it looks good, rather, strategically it will work in the client’s benefit.

I have found that larger budget clients respect your opinion much more than clients that are price shopping based on budget. You would be surprised at some of the super large, sports-related brands that shop based on budget and don’t focus on value. That large sports brand is like Walmart. They make billions and can afford to pay you a lot of money. But, they can get any designer they want begging to work with them for basically free, so it will be tough to exert yourself as the authority in that relationship. Psychology is at play here.

My recommendation is to take the smaller clients, the ones you can establish true change, great results and authority. Eventually, after working with so many of these types of clients, you may establish enough authority and expertise to the point where you have great case studies with proven results and the larger client will seek you out. When a client specifically seeks you out because they want to work with you, you will know it. In these instances you have the upper hand. I’m not talking about the blind email you get asking for a quote, but I’m talking about the client that specifically contacted you and only you because you have established a track record of expertise and good work and have become known for something.

I have had the opportunity to work with some very big brands in sports and in the commercial. Some known, some b2b and some on non-disclosure. I can tell you from experience that I’d much rather work with a company or organization that values me as much more than just their digital hands, but a real strategic partner sitting directly across from them and not beneath them. Those clients are a true joy to work with. There is a trust. And I deeply care about them, their results and their brand. The big boys will be fine regardless. As a single creative, we can’t effect that much change in a larger organization, but we can in the smaller ones. The smaller schools, smaller teams, smaller brands. Establish the authority there and you will certainly work your way up to the bigger brands seeking you eventually. The NFL hires a Fraser Davidson, not because he has begged them to work for them, but because he and his company, Cub Studio, have established themselves as a talented professional animation shop providing top quality work in the sports industry.

Lastly, you should constantly be posting content to the web. Newsletters, tweeting, writing, podcasting, etc. to show your expertise. Speak at events if you can. Even locally or in-house at your organization. Showing visuals isn’t enough when it comes to developing authority strategically. If you want to be an illustrator, sure show visuals and you will be fine. But if you want to be a designer, art director or creative director, you need to establish authority by telling the world you are an authority. No one else is going to do it for you. Self promotion and arrogance are a fine line, but you can put out content that helps others, little teasers that maybe help a client do something, learn something, that will act as self-promotion for you. If someone learns something from you, you will be always looked at as the authority for that thing. Teach what you know within reason. Give those teasers and clients will recognize you as the expert and hire you to do the thing they cannot do themselves or even their in-house designer, who has not strategically positioned themselves as anything more than a pixel pushing pet.

I’ll leave you with this. The recently deceased and famous graphic designer whom I mentioned earlier, Massimo Vignielli states in his educational book, the Vignielli Canon, that as designers, we have three levels of responsibility: One - to ourselves, the integrity of the project and all its components; Two - to the Client, to solve the problem in a way that is economically sound and efficient; Three - to the public at large, the consumer, the user of the final design. Notice, the order in which he listed those in our books. We much focus on our own integrity first, then the integrity of the client. Here’s hoping this podcast will encourage you to put that integrity first in working to get respectful authority in your professional relationships with clients.