I failed to collaborate with a challenging client — here’s what I learned.

Having a problematic client means that sometimes you need to accept failure in communication. Here’s the story of how a bad experience turned out to be a valuable lesson.

It all started when a new client assigned our agency to create a unique content strategy plan for the social media accounts. We were excited to develop this plan because the brand had a powerful connection with creativity and a very artistic brand approach, which meant that we could free our imagination and create very creative materials for the communication strategy.

However, things are not always easy or as straightforward as they seem. We presented our proposals two days before Christmas break and stood with excitement and very general positive feedback. However, due to some coincidences and conditions, we had to move fast and create our first calendar following this strategy proposal without receiving proper and detailed feedback.

This led to many rounds of revisions, new copies, new materials, irritating calls, and endless hours of conversations on how they and we interpret meanings like imagination, creativity, inspiration, and premiumness. Eleven rounds for just one calendar, to be exact.

One thing that was particularly challenging to agree on is that everyone has different perceptions on fundamental definitions of humankind, like art and love, due to social, economic, historical, and other factors. Eventually, we agreed to disagree, leading to the discontinuation of our collaboration on social media. My first thought as a professional Content Director was that we failed. However, this journey led me to two far more invaluable conclusions than any creative collaboration.

One finding was that sometimes a professional needs to value their team’s effort, time, and energy above a client’s demands. You can’t have a group of 8 professionals working for endless hours for someone who will never be satisfied. Dissatisfaction never had to do with the result or quality of your work but with the lack of understanding of advertisement in its core and fundamentals creative mechanisms. The quicker this is brought to the surface; the easiest will be to understand that none of the irritating calls from the client’s side had to do with errors, rather than the deep internalized insecurity to prove their professional competence.

This first finding led to the second one. I was worried that there could have been ways to handle this situation and this collaboration differently, and I didn’t. Then, however, a colleague of mine pointed out that the only way to handle such a situation differently would be to accept every little suggestion of the client’s representative without the slightest doubt sooner. That would also prove a lot about the quality of our professionalism, our creative beliefs, how we value our work.

Yes. Sometimes you need to lose some to win some. This collaboration might have ended with a bit of bitterness, but in the end, the lesson’s I’ve learned brought much joy and wisdom to make up for it. So I’m keeping my eyes and ears open for the next difficult client. They might end up teaching me something new.