I've come to see this as the great divide. If a potential client thinks we are working for them then they just don't get it.
Marketing is essentially proactive customer service. Giving potential customers a preview of what their experience will be once they come on board.
As Zappos and other companies have shown- customer service is marketing. It's your customer doing the marketing for you based on their experiences. Nothing is more powerful.
Increasingly I find battles over design, messaging and overall direction to be a huge waste of time when it comes to Web marketing. It rarely adds to the end product and almost always delays it.
I'm not advocating for careless marketing but we need to stop treating the Web like traditional media. It's fundamentally different, so your approach should be as well.
The Web is not a physical structure. Try something, see if it works, change it if it doesn't. Build for agility not permanence.
Let your customer tell you what works. Their actions will and must speak louder than your words.
Stop the endless guessing and internal turf wars, it's not necessary. Agree quickly, test quickly and change quickly.