Are We But Prostitutes?

An attention grabbing title I know, but necessary I feel.

I was reading Mr Bawa's post here and looking at the comments. Now I'm no advertising or creative type but I do have some experience of dealing with them and maintain a fascination for the ad and media related side of things.

The specifics aren't actually relevant to my post, though they'll probably interest others. What struck my eye was the comment by thekillromeoproject, who I hope will allow me to address him as TKRP, and the subsequent response by Mr Bawa, who I hope I may address as NB, despite the fact I'm not a friend, though I do come in peace. I don't possess the technical knowledge that enables other bloggers to link to comments so I'll just paste NB's reply here:

"Kill Romeo, Really ???? If so it is unfortunate. But in that case the agency concerned should have fired the client? Did they ? Why did they give into client's unfair, unethical demand? Why did they endorse the mockery of the client then? Why didn't they walk out ????"

It sent my mind off on a not very tangential tangent, of business and music, of the prostitution that I and many have to do in our everyday lives.

As a co owner of what is now a medium sized company I report to several sets of people. The old adage that you don't answer to anyone when you work for yourself is a total fallacy, just ask anyone who runs their own show and they'll agree. I'd give this advice to any person starting up a business today; you will report to many people and, if Lalith Kotelalwala wants to borrow any money from you, then think very carefully.

I report to the shareholders, of which I am one, the staff, my fellow directors and our customers.

This means that I'm often at the mercy of all of them, it means that frequently I have to put practical considerations before my pride. It's a bummer, yet it's just business life.

NB's comment reminded me of the many times I've had to bite my lip when talking to a client, the occasions when I know that the customer is being wholly unreasonable, but to say no would be to the short term detriment of my business.

On the other hand there have been many times when I, or my fellow Directors, have said no to unreasonable demands because we feel that the client has pushed too far and that our business can withstand the negative financial consequences of the decision. We entered 2008 having lost our largest client for exactly that reason, we had refused to give the customer a credit for something that we knew wasn't down to us. It was a big and painful choice but we thought it was the right one. The result? We lost the client and most of our efforts to gain new business in 2008 went towards getting us to the position in which we finished 2007.

Would I do the same again? Too right would I, but it hurts.

There are other times when we have to prostitute ourselves, when we know that the customer is wrong, but that other old adage that you never win an argument with a customer comes into play. While I'm thinking about it I wonder if there's such a thing as a new adage. Maybe I'll make one.

I don't know what the reasoning and logic behind the specific case mentioned by TKRP was but surely all business people have been in the situation when you want to bin a client because of unreasonable and / or unethical demands but have quite simply needed the revenue.

We have one customer who's so quick to get on the phone and rant and rave at the slightest hint of a problem, no matter where it's come from, that I wonder how on earth she actually makes it into work in the morning without getting beaten up by someone she's been rude to. At least one other person in my company as well as myself have actually asked her not to swear to us on the phone. It's unacceptable and I know that sooner or later we'll tell her that we're no longer prepared to deal with her under the circumstances. The problem for us is that one of our competitors will.

That's the business side. Over in my other life, the music side, there's a parallel, one that I reckon all musicians will relate to, maybe even us drummers. It's simple and it's dichotomous. It's the fact that we, the band, usually have to make continual choices between playing what we like and playing what the audience like. Of course this doesn't apply to the world famous artistes that normal folks like us pay fortunes to go and see. No, it applies to lowly covers bands playing in pubs on a Friday night to an audience who want to sing along and just have fun.

You know something, I hate I Predict A Riot, I can't stand Brown Sugar and if I see another forty something person pretending they're in the video for Teen Spirit I think I might even contemplate, quite seriously, knocking over one of my cymbal stands, not so it would fall down, just to make it wobble a bit. But we often have to play these songs, because we're there to try to help people have a good couple of hours.

The perfect scenarios for me would be to own a Company that could do exactly as I wanted and to be a musician that only ever played the songs I wanted to.

But it won't happen. I bet even Bill Gates has to play a song now and again that he hates and I'm sure Dave Grohl occasionally has to grovel to a customer he hates.

Or something like that.

Thoughts please people?