I watched The Apprentice last week, and it was a good reminder about keeping good communication with the client.

For those of you not familiar with the show, it involves Donald Trump
taking a crew of business mogul wannabes and putting them through
weekly business competitions. The loosing team has to select members
from their team to go into the board room with The Donald, where one of
them will be fired, and have to leave the show. This season is
Celebrity Apprentice, and I must say it’s a hoot watching these people
fumble their way through the competition.

In last weeks episode, the task was to meet with executives from Kodak
to discuss their revolutionary new printer that only uses a fraction of
the ink as previous printers. They teams were then to set up mobile
showcases and try to sell as many printers as they can. The loosing
team was led by Gene Simmons of Kiss fame. In his egotistical wisdom,
he decided what the focus of the task was before even meeting with the
Kodak execs. He sent to people from his team to meet with Kodak, but
one of them wouldn’t stop talking, and never did understand what was
expected of them.

They ended up with a great looking mobile unit, and a great concept,
except is wasn’t what the client wanted. They never even mentioned the
new printer that was supposed to be the focus.

The winning team, despite a series of mistakes and last minute
scrambling, won because they understood the job they were supposed to
be doing. They never lost sight of what it was the client wanted.

As writers, it is critical that we understand the job we’ve agreed to
do. This is where good communications come in. If you don’t
completely understand the job, ask for clarification. when you think
you know what the client wants, repeat it back to them so they can hear
that you understand. If you are mistaken, they have the opportunity to
go over it again before too much time and effort has been wasted.

Don’t be afraid to send the client updates as the job progresses. I’m
doing work for a client that is different from jobs I have done for him
in the past, so I emailed him the work I have so I am assured it is
what he wants. This save hours of writing, only to find that I’ve been
focused on the wrong thing, and requiring considerable wasted time
re-writing what I have already done.

Delivering a finished product that is what the client wanted, done
correctly the first time is a very satisfying feeling. Finally getting
it right feels more than a little anti-climatic. Communicate with your
clients. Make sure what you are writing is really what they want.

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