When to Say “No”

As CEO of a public relations and reputation management firm, I have had the opportunity over the years to work with a large variety of clients. Some of them have been start-ups and others are multi-billion dollar corporations. For our company, it’s not the size of the client that matters – we understand how to add strategic and tactical value across the corporate life-cycle. However, choosing the right client is a very big deal.

Like many start-ups, we spent our early years accepting just about any work that came our way if we had the skills and talent to deliver on the needs of the client. But we have learned some important lessons along the way that have made our client selection process much more effective today:

• Select companies with accessible, involved C-suite executives. We can only perform at our best when we are working with a company at the strategic level, and are considered a strategic partner.

• Select companies that are willing to align their budgets with their expectations. We can certainly help companies outperform their budgetary constraints through smart strategy. But we cannot take a start-up budget and produce Fortune 500 results.

• Select companies with a high level of integrity. Are the company’s actions aligned with how they represent themselves? What is the evidence of that integrity?

• Select companies with a true passion for taking their company to the next level. We are most energized by clients that challenge themselves – and us – to achieve great things.

• Select companies that respect and trust our expertise. We can’t perform our best work in an environment where our recommendations are disregarded.

Ultimately, our selection of a client is even more important than a prospective client’s selection of our firm as their agency. We know our people and the value we can bring to a client, but the client can only know those things over time, once our partnership is established. It is our responsibility – and a measure of our integrity – that we are up front with prospective clients regarding our selection criteria. It is also vital to the interests of both parties that we say “no” to new client relationships when that criterion just can’t be met .