The myth of the "dumb client"
"Hur, hur, make da logo bigger!"
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
You didn’t win the pitch.
Maybe it was a phone call. Maybe it was clear before you even left the conference room. And you’re not even back at your desk before someone says:
“They don’t get it.”
“They’re not ready for it.”
“It’s too good for them anyway.”
Everyone, and I mean everyone, says it at one point or another. I used to say it a lot early in my career. Creative work is an emotional, personal endeavor. No matter how much you try to remove yourself from it, it hurts when someone else doesn’t feel the way you do about it. So everyone says those words, at one point or another, in the heat of the moment.
But do you believe them?
A lesson from the comedy club
I love stand up comedy. Like most creative pursuits, it’s inherently personal and often judged by its mass appeal. But if a comedian bombs they don’t walk off stage saying, “That audience was too dumb.”
They have to face the cold, hard truth that their work didn’t connect. The jokes didn’t land. And they can’t show up the next night and do the same things that didn’t work the first time. They have to take a long, painful look at their material to learn, grow, and do better next time.
What’s this got to do with creative presentations? My point is that in almost every case clients:
“Don’t get it” because it wasn’t explained in ways they could understand.
“Weren’t ready” because no one prepared them for it.
Or the work was “too good” because a great idea is terrifying. Unique. Perspective-altering. It is the conceptual equivalent of a tactical nuke. And you just lobbed it into the meeting without proper safety gear or even an instruction manual. How are clients supposed to react?
This is a really important truth to face. Because once you do you realize…
There are no dumb clients.
I can already hear the screaming. I know, I know– I haven’t met your client. But I don’t have to.
Because (say it with me now) there are no dumb clients.
There are scared clients (who need you to guarantee them, reassure them, and have their back as you build an idea that’s never been done).
There are inexperienced clients (who need you to start at the beginning– nope, even further back than that– and help them understand this thing that is your expertise but totally alien to them).
There are bad clients (who may gaslight you or your company, insult you or your team, or throw you under the bus at every opportunity).
But none of those are dumb clients.
They’re all difficult (hell, practically every client is difficult in some way) but it’s your job to communicate your creativity in a way that they can understand. To address their needs. Your work should already do that. Otherwise, it’s not great work.
But what’s obvious to you may not be to them, and it’s that disconnect that kills the best ideas. Hence, clients “not getting” your unmitigated genius.
But they’re not supposed to. After all, this isn’t their area of expertise. It’s yours.
And that’s fantastic news! Because…
When you’re the problem, you’re the solution.
“Hang on, Baldy,” I hear you say, “Just where do you get off saying I’m the problem?”
Listen, you want to be the problem in this scenario. Here’s why:
If you’re the difference between success and failure, then success is within your control.
It’s difficult –often impossible– to fix your audience. But you can fix your pitch.
I (polite cough) know a guy who could help there.
Look- this presentation stuff is hard. And most creative types are stuck making it up as they go along. I am not at all surprised to learn your internship/post-doctoral/portfolio program didn’t teach Expert Persuasion 101. Mine didn’t either.
Our training didn’t include it because the ideas themselves are the single most important thing. Without those ideas, there’s nothing.
But the second most important thing? Explaining those brilliant ideas to the people whose help we need to make them happen.
Want to get better at that? A good start is to dump the myth of the dumb client.