At Praxis, we have sharing sessions where anyone, including non-Praxis employees, can share anything to enrich employees’ knowledge of the PR industry. As a new member of the team, I soon found out that Praxis believes the growth of the individual employee is vital to its business growth. Therefore, sharing sessions are held regularly to better equip the team. I had the opportunity to join a sharing session featuring two fabulous people, Shilla Christanto, VP, Head of Corporate Communication Nestlé Indonesia, and Tuhu Nugraha, CEO of Abnormal Pinkfans.
Both of them were superb! I would love to share what I learned during the session, and I will present the story in two parts. Here goes the first part.
The first part of the sessions featured Nur Shilla Christanto, VP, Head of Corporate Communication, Nestlé Indonesia who worked in a PR agency for several years prior to her current employment. Nur Shilla Christanto, better known as Shilla, shared her knowledge about Client Management or Client Servicing. According to Shilla, a consultant must be a trusted partner to their clients. The question is, how could we become a trusted partner? Here are four ways to become a trusted partner according to Shilla.
1.Bring the client’s purpose to life
We must first and foremost understand our client’s business; understand the challenges and the opportunities within. But it is more than just that. To bring our client’s purpose to life, we must also have a sense of ownership, provide benchmarks and insights to them, and assist them in reaching their goals and purposes.
2. Listen to provide solutions, not problem
Listening is not equal to hearing. In the end, if we want to convince people, we must know what drives them and what motivates them. From there, we can get the picture, analyze the situation, and come up with solutions for our clients. Always provide solutions for our clients, be the solutions, and not the problems.
3. Communicate success, acknowledge failures
As a consultant, we must be fair and honest. Don’t only come to our client only to brag about what we have successfully achieved. Sure, we should communicate our successes. Nonetheless, we also have to acknowledge our failures and tell them what we would do as a response to a failure and how we would do better the next time. Once again, acknowledge our failures. Don’t wait until our client finds out and asks us about them because that would be embarrassing. We have to be open in acknowledging our failures, as open as when we are communicating our successes.
4. Invest in relationship
Our clients know whether we are committed to them just for the sake of work or whether we truly care for them and their business. Establishing relationship with our clients does take time, and therefore, start now! Another point I would like to add here is this: I am a fond believer that maintaining something is always harder than establishing it. Hence, we must passionately and strategically maintain relationship with our clients beyond the call of duty. In the end, it’s all about relationship.
That’s what I gleaned from the first sharing session. Stay tuned for part two!
