Client Service
Client service is not a department. It is a discipline.
The work of an account person is not to relay messages. It is to filter, clarify, interpret and protect the work — to reduce the distance between the client and the best version of the thinking.
The Art of Client Service
The book that shaped a generation of account people. Plain principles, hard-won, still useful — and arguably more useful now than when first written.
The Triangle: Relationship, Trust, Work
Relationship builds trust. Trust gives clients permission to buy brave work. Great work strengthens the relationship. Any single side, neglected, weakens the other two.
Listening as a Professional Skill
The brief is usually hiding inside the client's ramble. Listening is not waiting to speak; it is hearing what they did not quite say.
Reducing Friction
Every small action either builds trust or spends it. The best account people are quiet removers of friction so the work survives the meeting.
Teaching Account People to Think, Not Relay
A career in service is a career in judgment. The job is to be the smartest person in the room about your client — and the most useful one in the room for the work.