These are difficult times, difficult markets, difficult circumstances. Everyone feels it. Many acknowledge it. Some overcome it. The financial guys call it a shakeout: smaller fish are gobbled up by larger, insolvent companies go bankrupt, and shops evaporate for lack of customers.
In times like these one emotion seems to predominate: fear. You can feel it in almost every industry. And while there are signs that the economy is changing, fear seems to be the operative force at work today.
There are three specific fears I see at work in advocacy development. The first is fear of the client. This fear was well in place before this economy sent everybody running for cover, but has been exacerbated by the prolonged downward spiral. We work in an environment where the singular goal seems to be to please the client at any cost. Now don’t get me wrong. My goal is always to please the client. But the nature of my consulting relationship precludes me from doing whatever is expedient just to keep the client happy. The client has engaged me to give them my best advice on achieving their communication goals. They’ve come to me because they don’t have that expertise. I respect my clients tremendously, but I’m not in fear of them.
What we’re really talking about here is the fear that you won’t get the second call. In fact that’s short-term thinking. Will you get the second call if you withhold your expertise from your client, and the project goes belly up?
There’s a second fear that I see very often these days in pharma communications: the fear of failure. This fear paralyzes innovation (something we need more of, not less). Because budgets are tight and the future is a bit unknown, the safe bet is to not take any risks, challenge any norms, or change any practices. If there was any fear guaranteed to keep us pinned to this downward spiral, this is it. What we need now, to pull us out, is a dose of creativity and courage. At a recent ad board I took a bold stab and stopped a meeting ten minutes from the start to redirect it to where I knew the client wanted to go, but wasn’t heading. That change in direction and tone resulted in the outcome we were looking for. Could the client have gotten pissed off and sent me packing? Sure. But I was betting that in all our preparation, we had built a rapport of trust in my judgment. The bottom line is, if you’re not willing to make a mistake you’re never going to advance your position.
The third fear I see is fear of the community in which we work. We have the privilege of working with some of the most educated and brilliant people on the planet. That’s one aspect of our work that I love. I have met some of the most amazing, passionate people in pharma. But the tendency for those of us who don’t have all that medical education and training is to cower under its significance. If you find yourself taking on a position of mental inferiority you don’t have a clear understanding of what you bring to the table. I wasn’t invited to the party for my expertise in pharmacokinetics. I was invited for my expertise in communications. It’s with this understanding that I approach each member of the project team. I bring my expertise and they bring theirs, each of us learning from the other. What’s more, the project is completed with excellence—because each has played his or her part to the fullest.
Pharmaceutical communications is at a turning point in its development. Kicking this fear thing in the head will help us move forward. Honest communication between client and agency will produce the desired result.
