Responding to Negativity (They Say, You Say)

Although negativity most often affects the brainstorming part of the creative process, it’s equally destructive in the last stage – the merchandising phase – when you’re packaging and selling the idea to someone else, like a supervisor or a client.

As a creative director, I’ve had more than my share of debates with clients about the quality of an idea, and in my experience, their objections fall into five basic groups.

They Say, You Say

For each legitimate objection, here are some suggestions for a response.

If they say: ‘That idea isn’t us.’

Link the ideas to the values or principles of the corporation or organisation.

Incorporate testimonials into your presentation. Show why other people – experts, influential people, the target audience, consumers, employees – like the ideas.

Expand from your personal point-of-view. Show how other people helped to create the idea. Talk about how they like the idea or campaign, or how they’ve helped adjust the ideas into their final form, or how the idea changed their perceptions about the topic, organisation, product or service.

Find/earn endorsements. More than testimonials, endorsements from key audiences can demonstrate that you’ve had conversations with end users to test relevance, appropriateness or usage. I’m a big fan of going to talk to the audience directly to get their input or advice. (See Design Thinking in which talking with end users is a vital aspect.) In each interview, ask ask to take photographs, capture quotes, film video to use in the physical presentation. Once we invited one of the key influencers on Instagram to attend the presentation with the client for an interactive discussion on how to proceed.

If they say: ‘The idea is too expensive.’

Trial or test your idea first. An idea doesn’t need to roll-out fully at launch. You can implement a “big idea” in a small area – in one department, on one floor, in one market – to test it with its end users before a full roll-out.

• A former client didn’t have the budget to launch a new product nationally. Instead, we launched in one city as a “test.” In each case, we learnt what worked and what could be improved. With improvements in hand, we went back to the people holding the budget strings and asked – and received – more money for a “re-launch” because we were able to show more impact with less risk and waste.
• For a big employee initiative at MasterCard, we tested messages and employee materials in a small office – St. Louis (with 120 people) versus the HQ office in Purchase, New York (650 people). The small launch helped us to fix things we didn’t see ourselves, which improved the program at its global launch a month later.

Implement the idea in stages or phases.

Roll out the program audience by single audiences.  To win endorsement of a municipal regulation, we went neighbourhood by neighbourhood, starting with the easy ones to pick the lowest hanging fruit before we moved to more difficult markets so we could refine our messages.

If they say: ‘The idea is too big.’

Use case studies from similar companies or organisations to show how thinking differently helped to create a new paradigm or a successful business outcome.

Use scenario planning to show what would happen if the idea was implemented or created.  More importantly, what would your organisation’s response be?

If they say: ‘The idea is wrong.’

Include the client in the brainstorming phase so they feel like they’ve already contributed to the idea.

Isolate the part the client believes is wrong. If you don’t isolate it – but continue to brainstorming more ideas – you’ll fall into creative churn (endless brainstorming with diminishing returns). If your client can’t define it exactly, brainstorm with them to determine what it is.

Present several ideas instead of one or two. But, be prepared to say which idea you prefer. You don’t want to look like you can’t – or won’t – stand behind the best idea. (Check out the ‘creative speedometer’ idea here.)

Isolate what aspects of the idea(s) they like. This may be where you start the next brainstorm, but only if you get some constructive and specific feedback.

If they say: ‘The idea is too risky.’

Share the risk.  This one is a tough one, because the truth may be difficult for some people to understand. Big Ideas always involve risk. So, don’t make the client take on all of the risk themselves. If you’re a true partner with your client, you should share the risk 50-50. How can you demonstrate how you too are taking a risk?

Develop an issues management plan to complement the campaign. Show how you can manage or contain any potential risk.

Determine in advance the risky areas, and show how you have taken explicit steps to either counter-act or manage the risk.

It’s Important to Differentiate Between Negativity and Confusion

It’s important to differentiate between a client’s negativity and their possible confusion. Often, an ‘objection’ from your client is simply a request for more information, not a condemnation of your idea. As you finalise your proposal to sell the idea, ask someone fresh to review your document to ensure you’ve covered everything, specifically …

• Have you answered every possible question?  Is there anything you might not have considered?
• Have you considered every situation or scenario? What might go wrong, and what would you do?
• What are the worst possible questions, and how would you answer them in a positive and constructive way?

Creativity is a hard thing to do in a normal situation, but it’s especially difficult when you have to be creative on the spot. Give yourself ample rehearsal time, which includes handling the Q&A. You ruin your credibility if you can’t answer a question concisely. You don’t want to consider afterwards: “Gee, I wish I’d thought to say ___ at the time”?

How else have you managed negativity when selling an idea to a client or second party?  Please add your thoughts and comments below.