What to Do When the Client Asked for the Wrong Thing

In short: Knowing the brief is wrong is the easy part. Saying so without losing the work is the skill. Never lead with the disagreement. Lead with what you heard, then show the gap. Offer both — what they asked for and what you think is needed, and let them choose. If they choose the brief anyway, do it well and measure the other thing quietly.

You have read the brief properly. You have asked the questions. And you have arrived somewhere uncomfortable: the client asked for the wrong thing, and the work they have requested will not fix the problem they described.

This happens often. What you do in the next conversation determines whether you become the supplier who understood, or the supplier who was difficult.

Why is this so hard to raise?

Because the brief is somebody's decision, and disagreeing with it can read as disagreeing with them.

That person may have spent three weeks getting this approved. They may have argued for it internally. They may have promised someone a result. When you say "I don't think this is the right approach," you are not just discussing tactics — you are asking them to go back and reopen something they had closed.

Understanding that is most of the solution. The conversation is not about being right. It is about making it easy for them to change position without cost.

What’s the wrong way to respond when the client asked for the wrong thing?

Leading with the disagreement.

"I don't think a new website is what you need here." Even said warmly, this puts the other person in a defensive position in the first sentence. Everything after it is heard as an argument to be resisted rather than information to be considered.

Two other versions that fail:

Going along with it and complaining later. Doing the work you think is wrong, then producing the results and saying "well, this is what happens." Technically vindicated, professionally finished.

Doing something different without telling them. Deciding privately that you know better and delivering what you think they need. This ends badly even when you are right, because you have replaced their judgement with yours without asking.

What's the sequence that works?

Four steps. The order is the whole thing.

1. Say back what you heard. 

Before anything else, demonstrate that you understood the brief and the reasoning. "So — enquiries have dropped since March, the site looks dated next to the two competitors you mentioned, and the board wants something visible before the year end."

Nobody listens to a challenge from someone who has not shown they were listening.

2. Show the gap with evidence, not opinion. 

Not "I don't think the site is the problem." Instead: "I looked at where people leave. Most of them are getting to the contact page and stopping there — the traffic is arriving, it just isn't converting. A new site would fix how it looks, and I'm not sure it would fix that."

Evidence changes the nature of the conversation. Opinion invites a counter-opinion; a number invites a look.

3. Offer both, with the trade-off named. This is the step people skip and it is the one that makes it safe to agree with you.

"Two ways to go. We can do the site as briefed — it'll look considerably better and it addresses the board's concern. Or we spend the first month on why people are stopping at the contact page, and do a smaller site refresh with what we learn. First one is faster and safer internally. Second one is more likely to move the enquiries. I'd lean to the second, but it's your call."

You have given them a real choice, named the political cost of each honestly, and stated your view without insisting on it.

4. Then accept whichever they choose. Genuinely. Sulking about it is worse than never having raised it.

What if they pick the brief anyway?

Do it properly, and measure the other thing alongside it.

There are good reasons a client might stay with the original ask. It is approved and reopening it costs them. There is a deadline that is real. Someone senior is attached to it. Or they simply do not agree with you, which is allowed.

So do the work well — half-hearted delivery of a decision you disagreed with is the worst outcome available. And add the measure that would show what you thought was happening:

"Happy to go ahead. I'd like to track the contact page as well while we do it, so we can see whether that was a factor. Costs nothing extra."

Three months later you have evidence rather than an argument. Either you were wrong, in which case you learned something. Or you were right, and now you can say so with data — and you have earned the right to be listened to on the next brief.

When should you push harder?

When doing it as briefed would actively damage them, not just fail to help.

There is a difference between "this won't work" and "this will make things worse." The second one justifies more insistence:

• The campaign would breach something — a regulation, a platform rule, a contract

• The claim they want to make cannot be supported and would be found out

• The work would upset an existing customer base in a way they have not considered

• The spend would consume a budget they cannot replace, on something that cannot succeed

In those cases say it plainly, once, in writing, and let them decide with the risk properly stated. If they proceed anyway, you have a decision on record. If it is severe enough, this is where refusing the work becomes the right answer.

Most disagreements are not this. Reserve the strong version for when it is.

What to do this week

Take a current project where you think the brief is off and write the four-step version.

What you heard, the gap with evidence, both options with trade-offs, your recommendation.

Find one piece of evidence before the conversation. One number is worth more than three paragraphs of reasoning.

Add a second measure to a project you disagreed with. Quietly, at no cost. In three months it will be the most useful thing in the room.

The thing to remember

Being right about the brief is worth nothing on its own. What counts is whether the client can change their mind without it costing them anything.

Read how to read a marketing brief properly for how to get to this point in the first place.

See the 90-day program if you want to practise this conversation with someone who will tell you where it went wrong.

Written by Harry Aloysius. He runs Kreative Clan and teaches at School of Kreate.