Sales is something everybody does. Whether it’s products, services, or ideas, everybody sells something. Like them a lot or a little, it’s your clients who allow you to do the work you (hopefully) love to do. Wouldn’t you like your clients to be a little better at what they do?
Bonnie Siegler is a graphic designer you’ve likely not heard of. But chances are good you’ve seen her work: Graphics for Saturday Night Live, Nickelodeon, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Newsweek are just a random sampling of some of Siegler’s work. She also cofounded The Daily Beast and was voted one of the 50 Most Influential Designers Working Today by Graphic Design USA.
Siegler is also the author of a new book, Dear Client: This Book Will Teach You How to Get What You Want from Creative People. Being good at what you do, you’re probably already considered creative by your peers. But by helping your clients be better promotional product purchasers, you’ll be considered creative by the group that counts the most. Dear Client is written as 46 fun and easy lessons with titles like “Introduce Everyone at The Meeting, Nothing Takes A Second, Don’t Ask To Sit With Us While We Make Changes, Why Focus Groups Suck, and Serve Lunch During Lunchtime Meetings.” Siegler’s book is a pleasant walk for the client through the world of what creatives really want, and there are lots of gems to share with your difficult clients—with a smile, of course. In the introduction of the book, Siegler describes creatives getting together to “complain about difficult clients. We’ve all had them. Relationships that began with optimism and promise descended into bad feelings. Egos and insecurities are powerful negative forces. Some clients who want to appear smart confuse asking questions with appearing stupid. Or they think they should already know the answers. Others believe that since we work for them, we’re simply obligated to just do what they want even when we think it is wrong. Still others don’t understand the mysteries of the creative process…”. Wouldn’t you be willing to unlock some of those mysteries in exchange for some better orders from challenging clients? Buy the book—I’m betting you’ll find it well worth your investment.
Changing gears a bit, it now seems that big, bad, BPA isn't so bad after all. What? Bisphenol A was first cleared for use in the 60s by the Food and Drug Administration as a chemical to make polycarbonate—the clear, hard plastic you remember from drinkware of the time. BPA was also used in the lining of metal cans used to store food and beverages. The chemical has long been known to mimic the hormone estrogen, and in the 1990s, scientists showed that tiny amounts could leach out of plastic products and get into our bodies. By 2008, studies began to emerge that BPA was a serious threat to our reproductive health. The promotional products industry moved away from using BPA and soon began marketing drinkware as “BPA-free.” There was much discussion about how quantitative the results actually were, but on this issue there was no waiting. The industry had moved on.
Now, a two-year government study of rats finds that even high doses of the plastic additive produced only minimal effects, and that these effects could have occurred by chance. The finding bolsters the FDA’s 2014 assessment that water bottles and other products containing BPA are not making people sick. “The FDA has routinely considered and evaluated the scientific evidence surrounding the use of BPA and continues to conclude that BPA is safe for the currently authorized uses in food containers and packaging”, said Dr. Stephen Ostroff, the FDA's deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, in a statement issued by the agency.
The study's findings fly in the face of claims by advocacy groups that exposure to BPA is associated with a wide range of health effects including cancer, obesity, and ADD. So what does this mean to you, and the drinkware you’re sourcing right now? In reality, not much, because the flames of consumer fears were stoked so high for so long, there are a wide variety of BPA-free products that have been available for a while, and most food cans are no longer lined with BPA. So much for progress.
Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him volunteering as a Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Connect with Jeff on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.