Commentary

In Peter We Trust

One of the most valuable lessons of my career came early. I was a young account manager and I had been assigned to our agency's largest and most profitable account (a combination not always the case). One of the reasons it maintained its unique status was due to a little-known agency legend named Peter Rabar.

Peter began his own career as secretary to the agency's founder. He simply took care of things, and over time he gained the founder's trust. With that trust came increasing responsibility including client management -- and ultimately, management of the agency's largest account. And once he got that job, he did it masterfully for the next three decades.

He did it with intelligence and discipline and an unmatched dedication to learn and to grow the business, not just to improve his craft. He would say that the best way to do well for the agency, the only way, was to do well for the client. And for all that time he did it with one assistant (hence the profitability). I was fortunate to be one of that group, one of "Peter's assistants" for a time.

advertisement

advertisement

One day, the client's CEO retired and a new one was brought in from the outside. We were asked to prepare for a full day's briefing and planning session at the client's office where, because of the close relationship and time spent there, Peter also maintained an office.

The meeting began and what followed was a clinic on the value a professional services provider can bring to a client's business. We covered items large and small, strategic and tactical, from industrywide trends to policy issues, to competition and campaign results. In each instance, when the critical questions were asked, the room turned to Peter. He provided answers, he taught, he coached. He held court with humility. What was revealed was that he knew so much more than the advertising; he knew the business. He was the continuity for the business.

When the meeting ended, an executive who had attended for only part of the day, and had not met Peter, asked me the question that provided the lesson. "Excuse me," he said, "does Mr. Rabar work for us or for the agency?" I responded that he was my boss at the agency but noted to myself that it was perhaps the single greatest compliment any agency professional could receive.

We hear much today about the challenges of maintaining long-term relationships between clients and their agencies, and we shouldn't minimize them. Unbundling and rebundling into collaborative teams, advanced and pervasive technology, specialization and siloed organizational design, all conspire to focus attention on specific and complex tasks rather than the reason we're doing them. It's as if the aura of doing advanced search and mobile and social marketing has become the end itself.

Peter always reminded us that we do what we do to grow the business. Priority #1 is to learn the business, understand the customer and how they experience the brand, internalize that concept -- and, most importantly, take responsibility for the client's health and growth.

One of the giants of the modern agency, Ogilvy's Shelley Lazarus, said recently that a great relationship between client and agency was like a good marriage. "It's trust, very open dialogue and a presumption that this relationship will continue to get stronger." Well-said.

All change begins with attitude change. If we hear often enough that the days of long-term client relationships are over, then we can make it true. Peter would remind us that it need not be the case -- and for the sake of the business, it cannot be the case.

Are long-term relationships a thing of the past -- or a key part of our integrated future? What do you think?

Next story loading loading..