Thought Bubble - Open, Honest and Transparent
VIDEO: 4:56 mins
AUTHOR: Robert Craven
Are you open, honest and transparent? You may claim to be, but are you really? Listen to this video short from Robert where he talks about how to live by the values that you claim to have.
Transcription:
Robert Craven 00:00
Hi this is my unconfined pink with you session really are a quick, quick round really, for many agencies claimed to be open, honest and transparent. It's all over their website, it's in there and valued. It's what we stand for. It's what we die for. But it just simply isn't true. They aren't open, they aren't honest, or they aren't transparent. Just look at the way they they handle and deal with clients. For instance, they often say stuff like we work with moneyless this small businesses, big businesses, independent businesses, charities, not for profit government, you know, you cannot be all things to all people who can't do that. It's just simply not possible to be such a thing. Some clients are better than others. So why not admit that? Why not say no, we are not good for our we don't work for we don't give the best value. It is simply divinest. To claim to be all things to all people. What you are, if you're really great at certain things back to that what do you want to be famous for pieces?
Robert Craven 01:09
So why did you say we do everything for everyone? You know, you'll be maybe you can't do government work? Maybe you're not good with charities, maybe you're also with professional services. So why not say that? Because you're shortchanging everyone, if you take on work, that you're okay, you're going to do the work and you're gonna get an OK reputation. So you're not doing the client any favours, Mr. Transparent. And certainly, you're not doing yourself any favours because your reputation will come out for doing mediocre work with people who think you kind of okay, as opposed to, as I said, if you specialise in professional services, only a professional services of a certain type of a certain size with a certain attitude, then that there be that engagement. And there be that involvement. And because of that you do the awesome work that you would get known for. So open, honest, transparent, you're not you're not open, honest, transparent about prices, systems or processes are what you do, you go through this, most of you go through it only when we need to, we don't want to, we don't want to share our prices, because then our competitors will no, that's totally nonsense. Most of the people you work for you work for your competitors, most of your pricing strategies are designed around pricing strategy of use all your competitors do so that the notion that you don't want other people to know that your prices are is nonsense, if you're open, honest and transparent, if you're proud about what you do, if you have confidence that you add value, so I struggled to see why you're not prepare to share prices.
Robert Craven 02:44
Because if you are working with effective, when you're really good, when you're really communicating, you're really engaging, then your price point will deliver awesome value, your price point blown deliverables and value if you're in a mediocre place, then this is just about you getting your head around being open, honest and transparent. So these are the people we like to work with. These are the people we don't like to work with. Yeah, this is what we're really good at, this is what we're not so good at. If you want your product, and I tell you who's really good at that, they're really good at that. If you want to understand the market space, you could also go and talk to other people, we are not the only people who deliver this service. But agency a only work with people within 30 miles of Bristol, agency B tend to like working with medium and large sized businesses agency see is made up of freelance and so that sometimes you will get you will not get the same person that you had the day before. You don't have to be massively critical. You don't be critical that other people you just need to explain the difference. Because let's be honest, if you don't tell them, you don't tell them this stuff, they're going to figure it out for themselves. And wouldn't you rather than figure it out on your website, in your time with your brand, understanding your attitude and what you and what you stand for, which they will pick up through the way you communicate with them. So just to conclude, open, honest, transparent, I didn't think we are I think we say we are but we aren't really I think we are holding ourselves back by not revealing behind the kimono, so to speak, because most agencies don't reveal behind the kimono they pretend to and clients not that stupid, they know they know what's going on. Could you just fill in this form? Could you just come along and do this? Could you just do this? It doesn't have to be that way. You can have far more open, honest, transparent relationships with clients. And the way you do that is by being open, honest, transparent. Thank you very much.