For those in PR agencies, clients are our lifeblood. The ability to build and manage strong client relationships, more art than science, is one of the most important skills today’s PR professional must master.

In my article "The Ties That Bind: Building Better Client Relationships," featured in PRSA's Public Relations Tactics and PRSA's Tactics Online, I share how you can start to build client relationships that are stronger, beneficial and reciprocally satisfying.

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The ties that bind: Building better client relationships

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September 2, 2008

By Ken Jacobs

The following article appears in the August 2008 issue of PR Tactics.

For those in PR agencies, clients are our lifeblood. Indeed, many corporate communications leaders run their departments as internal agencies, treating various brand and corporate partners as valued clients.

The ability to build and manage strong client relationships, more art than science, is one of the most important skills today’s communications practitioners can master. The following tips will help you build client relationships that are stronger, beneficial and reciprocally satisfying.

Listen
The stereotypical, cringe-inducing PR practitioner talks constantly, hardly catching a breath and barely allowing the client to speak. Don’t let this be you. The most successful practitioners in our field employ the No. 1 rule for building client relationships: They listen.

We can only be valued counselors and partners in building our clients’ businesses if we frequently ask the right questions and listen carefully to the answers, using what we learn to craft thoughtful, practical and valuable recommendations.

Next time your client is sharing critical issues with you and solutions are formulating inside your brain, don’t automatically share them. Listen and then listen some more. Quite often, the most important client insight is the one they’re about to tell you. Make sure you hear it.

Understand their world
Before we can offer truly strategic counsel to clients, we must understand their worlds, inside and out. Particularly at the beginning of a client relationship, it’s critical to read what they read, attend the conferences they attend, visit the blogs they visit and, most important, talk to them. That’s the only way to fully understand their marketplace issues, competitive pressures, measurement standards and definition of success.

Understand their fears

Respected industry leader Steve Cody, co-founder and managing partner of Peppercom, says understanding client business issues and designing tailored strategic solutions is one of the best ways to ease client pain. The more we create strategies and campaigns that help our clients — and their bosses — the more success we’ll have becoming a valued partner.

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The ties that bind: Building Better Client Relationships