The client who lies to you; in the magazine business, information is our life, and misinformation - of any kind - our gravest danger

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 1995 by Josh Gordon

If you have a good memory, or just keep good notes, you win eventually discover that one of your clients is, or has been, lying to you. In some cases, he or she will tell you that one thing is going to happen, and then something quite different occurs. In other cases, the "lying" is more subtle--a matter of withholding information, deliberately or not. Thus, you fall victim to a basic truth of selfing: As a buyer, you have access to the big picture; as a seller, you don't.

When you are faced with one of these lying or misinforming clients, the first thing to do, for your own sanity, is to start documenting everything. Keep notes on conversations, and track all business transactions in detail.

Next, you have to find out what is really going on. Often, what appears to be a deliberate lie on the surface is revealed as something quite different when you start to dig. Here are four situations that account for most of the "lying" by clients I have encountered.

Things have changed, and you are out of the decision-making loop. The media buyer tells you, "Don't worry, your book is on the schedule." One week later, the media budget is slashed and your magazine is cut. Did the client lie to you? No. A better question to ask is, when did the media buyer find out about the budget cut? Did he or she call ahead of time to warn you that your schedule was in jeopardy so that you could react constructively, or did you find out when the insertion orders went out and you didn't get one? If it's the latter, you are clearly out of the loop and have to get back in. Don't come off like a whiny space rep who lost the business to someone else. Use an appeal to fair play to get your day in court. Tell the client that the best media decisions are made in an arena of open dialogue where all sides have an opportunity to be heard. And hope that next time you'll be given the opportunity to respond.

You are dealing with a client who is out of the loop. If a client tells you a lot of things that don't pan out, it is possible that that person is just not in the decision-making loop. If you suspect your client is not seriously involved in the decision-making process, you must find out who is and then influence that person.

You have misinterpreted something. Because agency people are under more and more pressure, my conversations with them seem to get shorter and shorter. If you are like me, you have many working relationships with media planners whom you talk with frequently, but each conversation lasts only a few minutes. In such a situation, a simple misunderstanding can easily happen. Mention that it occurred in hopes that it will not happen again, but keep the dialogue about it small. Don't make a big scene; put your ego on hold and move on.

You are dealing with a hopelessly disorganized client. Sometimes the reason a client tells you one thing and then something different happens is that the client forgot to follow through. Disorganized clients are very dangerous. If they goof up, you are the one who suffers. I had one client who had missed several key deadlines. Once the pattern emerged, I realized that if I didn't help him get organized, my book would suffer. I became his personal organizer. I called him weeks prior to key closings, double-checked to see that his forms for directories were in, and helped him get his press releases out. It's nice to think that most cases of "lying" can be explained as something else, but what if you are dealing with a client who is deliberately lying to you? Perhaps the client is sending you a message about your relationship with him or her, or about the situation he or she is in. Consider the following four messages:

Your client thinks that being honest with you is extra work with no benefit. Honesty, and disclosure in the buying process do take time for the buyer. He or she may think, "Boy, I'm doing this space rep a favor sharing this information. Then when he gets it, he gets upset and raises a big stink. Who needs it!" If you are perceived as a waste of time, a little white lie is often the time-saving short-cut the client will use to get you out of his hair. The client says, "We are not buying any space right now. We don't even have budgets." But he may know that the budget will be handed to him tomorrow.

This type of situation often occurs when the client does not believe you are listening to him or her. The client explains why you are not on the buy the first time. You ignore the objection and go into your canned pitch. Next time around, however, your client may not waste time explaining, and a little white lie will seem justified. Somehow, you have to convince the client that you really are listening and appreciate what you are hearing.

Your client does not trust you. Ad space is a marketing tool, and an explanation of why it is being bought, or not bought, usually reveals the company's marketing plans. If the media buyer is afraid you will blab his marketing strategy to competitors, he may withhold it from you. If this is your situation,. stop trying to sell space, back up, and sell yourself as someone who can be trusted. This is easier said than done. Building trust takes time, but you can begin by presenting yourself as a professional who can keep sensitive information confidential.