Ramping Up New Clients

When you begin working with a new client, you must get up to speed as quickly as possible. You have to learn their industry, their place in the eco-system, competitors, suppliers, etc. Without direct access to the decision makers, this can be a very cumbersome. Research loops--reading and more reading--can go on forever.

So this past week was a wonderful opportunity for me. I started working with a new client just three weeks ago, and immediately was asked to travel to Nashville and then Vegas. That's where I was this past week.

Traveling for a brand new client is akin to speed dating. You have to take in new information as quickly as it comes in and then act on it. At the conclusion of your trip, you realize you've gone through the ramp up process much faster than you would have any other way.

What does that process consist of? For now, I've got it down to three major levels.

1. Existence - Hopefully, by the time you win the business you know the client exists. But you need to understand the "being" of the operation. Put simply, this is the what does my client's existence mean to me as a consumer?
   
2. Alphabet Soup - Once you understand the simplified version what your client does, you need to learn the entire industry eco-system. Acronyms and jargon -- in other words, alphabet soup -- are the next thing you need to learn and understand. If nothing else, you need to get yourself a very good cheat sheet.
   
3. Confidence - Although it may sound hard to believe at the beginning, eventually you start to feel like you know what you're talking about. You can articulate what you know clearly. And, with confidence, you can also articulate what you don't know.
   

Travel or no travel, you've got to keep learning to stay smart for your clients.

The plane image comes from Flickr and can be found here.

Changing the World, One Client at a Time

I got into PR in college because I believed it was the field that had the ability to make change. More than journalism, more than finance, communication changes perception. Yesterday, I wrote about being drawn to writing, how it's inspiring to learn, teach and share ideas. For all these reasons, I believe it is public relations and communications more broadly that promote true shifts of the mind.

Consequently, and despite the ease with which we burn out or become jaded, we communicators must remember that we have the ability to make or break the companies or organizations that we work with.

Working with startups, I see the potential next generation of technologies. It's a blessing and a curse--while the excitement runs high, so does the significance of the work. A single, well strategized media placement can make the difference between a VC signing on the dotted line or needing to find a new job, client, etc.

Technology changes the world everyday. But what if no one had ever heard of the major players we're now familiar with? What if Gates had never been conscripted to create DOS? Would we do without our iPhones?

Communication can make or break a new technology. That's one way to change the world.

Got Sick Last Night & Didn't Get This Post Up: Clients and Competitors

Wasn't feeling great last night, but I went to bed with a blog post in mind.

I wanted to talk about blogging on clients' competitor. One of my clients that has yet to launch has a competitor in the space that I'm actually interested in trying. I worry about the ethically issues. If I try it out and write about it--regardless of what I say, there's the possibility of it being taken all wrong and coming back to me in that light. If I right something positive, then I've given a competitor publicity. If I right something negative, it looks like Astroturf.

So clearly, I haven't written about this topic yet. What do you think? Can I review a product or service on my blog knowing it's a client's competitor?