Ever had a peaceful, easy feeling with a client?

Then at some point you’ve worked with the client personality type known as the Relator. (Say: Re-Late-Or).  You’ve had the pleasure to experience these considerate, thoughtful and organized client contacts whom AEs love — and vice versa. You’ve found smooth sailing with a client committed to keeping an even keel under everything, including the agency relationship.

Indeed, Relators are calming, dependable and… trouble.

Yes, trouble. In advertising’s dynamic world, Relators can be a muddy bog mucking the agency’s pursuit of excellence. They can soften the edgy, blur the clear and quiet the volume, all in the name of comfort and compromise. In time, they can get stuck in ruts that limit performance and drain creativity – the forbearers of trouble.

But, as with everything in client service, they are – after all – the client, no matter their shape, size or disposition. Your job, as always, is to make the relationship work. And here’s how.

First off, recognize that Relators are common and often get roles as agency contacts. They thrive in American corporations because they are perfect, living forms of an HR department’s middle management blueprint. They are the ones that fit in neatly. They are great team players. They “drink the Kool-Aid” and bleed the company colors. They are the “company men” and corporate citizens that are at home in big, traditional companies.

You may not immediately recognize client contacts as Relators, because being a bit invisible is part of the Relator’s style and charm. What you will eventually recognize and appreciate are the Relator’s skills in corporate behavior and human interaction.

• They are predictable and trustworthy.
• They follow rules, guidelines and processes.
• They avoid conflict and favor calm.
• They are patient, understanding and accommodating.
• They have a tight-knit group of associates and they share credit.
• They are understated and optimistic.

Relators often lack talents and traits of other business personality types that fulfill other necessary roles. Such as:

• Thinkers, introverts who earn respect and authority through their trusted thoroughness and accuracy.
• Executives, the directors who take charge through a strong “best for the business” bias and willful decisiveness.
• Socializers, extroverts who bring energy to groups for collaborative outcomes, and enjoy sharing thoughts, ideas and results.

Unlike the Thinker, the Relator does not feel a need to own ideas and instead rely on collaboration and process to develop them. Unlike the Executive, the Relator lacks the will and confidence to push against resistance, as needed to drive edgy ideas through an organization. Unlike the Socializer, the Relator struggles to build a broad enthusiasm and support needed to bring big things to life.

But, all the same, they thrive in the corporate environment and fill key roles in client teams.

With the agency, the Relator is tailor made for most AEs. Helping matters is the Relator’s natural desire to build a relationship with corporate partners. To batten down a relationship with a Relator, the account person can succeed with these proven approaches:

• Slow down: Have patience getting acquainted, engaging and interacting
• Conform (some): Adapt to their style, behaviors and practices
• Build trust: Share experiences openly, address agency errors proactively and hold tight confidential information
• Set processes: Outline clear steps, decision points and timing
• Embrace a role: Set responsibilities and delivery beyond expectations
• Establish routines: Contact daily and hold regularly scheduled updates
• Limit stress, emphasize security: Avoid conflict, challenges, ambiguity, dilemmas and last-minute crushes
• Maintain order: Stay organized, document everything and solve problems quietly
• Appreciate them: Give the positive feedback and credit when due, and support their causes

Countering the Relator’s shortcomings is a difficult challenge, particularly for the young account person. It’s the calm and consistency of the Relator that makes them great to work with. But great agencies aren’t order takers or conformists. Agencies are hired to help the client disrupt the market, enter new territories and grow through innovation. Risk accompanies those, and Relator’s aren’t particularly known as great risk takers.

Trust is the starting point, as it is with all clients. Here, it extends into faith – in the agency’s experience, resources and talents.  For starters, introduce the client to the people responsible for media, creative and production, and let them show off their accomplishments. The resulting faith can engender the confidence and comfort the Relator needs to move forward with edgy ideas and approaches.

In addition, these tactics can help bolster the Relator’s comfort with big, innovative things:

• Align strategy with senior management: Confirm and share top-to-top agreement on overall direction
• Establish “breakthrough” as a standard: Alleviate stress of an edgy decision by making it essential to successful work
• Put “stretches” into the process: Expect a slow buy-in, but set time to explore new approaches, big ideas and “stretch” executions in every plan
• Champion the cause: With gusto and the client in the wings, represent the agency’s work to internal decision makers and stakeholders, and take the hits as necessary
• Address needs of other client players: Compile materials and information to help the Relator feel comfortable selling to the Thinker, the Executive and the Socializer in the client organization.

Underlying this is the Relator’s tendency toward safety, routines and ruts. Right alongside the Relator, the account person can be trapped in a sort of day-in-and-day-out habit that benefits nobody. The account person’s job is to recognize that a rut’s forming, and to try these things to break out of it:

• Revisit your purpose: Remind the client why the agency was hired, what’s expected of it and how it does its best.
• Review your progress: Compile a comprehensive recap of the last year or two, recognize where progress has occurred and project where it could lead.
• Break a routine or habit: Move the standing meeting date, change the agenda or reformat a presentation template – anything. Just change something however small simply for the sake of change.
• Make a habit of “new:” Set up a routine around sharing observations, insights and examples of innovative, edgy or controversial things.
• Establish “breakthrough” as an objective: With the client, resolve to build a high-impact program or to take new risks as key goals to reach.
• Take a ‘holiday:’ Invite the client to an event or happening in a new place with new people that’s simply for the experience and devoid of any business pressure or expectations.

A Relator is naturally a good friend to an agency. A good account person can mesh well with the Relator by paying attention, staying organized and working hard. That’s account service 101. But that’s not enough. The great account person finds a way to make the Relator comfortable with change, uncertainty and risk. The great account person helps Relators go beyond the processes and routines they embrace to find the innovative and at times edgy ways to success in today’s business world.