How to spot a time wasting client in the crowd
Wasting your time away is meant for the dock of the bay, not for your freelancing. That’s why we’re going to do a little shimmy past some common time wasters, and take a look at a couple of techniques you can use to discourage time wasting in your potential clients.
The Coffee Chatter
The Coffee Chatter is a client who has a vague idea of what they want to do, but the depth and the planning seems lacking. They may not have a handle on their business yet, or it could be on a campaign level. Or maybe they like the idea of hiring you, but haven’t quite worked out what for yet.
Hallmarks:
Doesn’t want to supply a brief via email
Avoids questions that you try to use to illicit information
Really, really keen on getting you into a coffee meeting and/or phone calls
How to deal with the Coffee Chatter:
Your main aim with these guys is to qualify the lead before you make the investment in catching the bus across town to meet, only to find it’s an attempt to pick your expensive brain or indulge their business fantasy by talking about it.
You need to get them to commit to paper. Partly because writing out their idea is what you need to assess the job properly. But mainly because they need to actually go through the process of thinking it through and making some attempt at distilling the idea.
How do you get them to do that?
Ask qualifying questions that help determine the brief. As a minimum, ask them about their company, audience, budget and what they intend to achieve if you can’t nail it into brief specifications.
Suggest a Skype call in lieu of face-to-face. Give a set date and a time, and cap it at 15 minutes to half an hour. Don’t make a phone call without an appointment. You need them to understand you are a professional and your time is valuable.
Refuse invitations to workshop ideas without payment. Give a day rate for your workshopping for project ideas or offer something that covers the cost of getting their idea down. For example, I offer my pain point clinic ($99 an hour) to help people clarify their intent/solve a problem or the marketing foundation plan where I develop, research and look into the marketing of an idea ($1999).
Your time is expensive and most coffee chats in my experience can be diverted to more useful forms of using your time, like getting them to write down a proper brief and having a Skype call.
The person who needs you to meet them in person and enjoy a coffee is not serious about their business. Because if they have time to have coffee, it means they have time to waste.
Don’t send them the message you have time to waste, too.
The Meeting Addict
On and on it goes, where it’ll stop, nobody knows. The Meeting Addict is the client that can’t seem to commit to the project. What they keep doing is coming back for more. More questions, more ideas, more insanity. There comes a time when this keen as client really needs to get over their commit-a-phobia or leave you the heck alone.
Hallmarks:
They’ll seem sincere and committed, but just as your about to sign the deal, they’ll throw in more questions, more emails and more meeting requests
The scope of the project will lock down, and then a few more things that you could make money from will be enquired about. Before you know it, you’re at your 4th proposal with no end in sight
They’ll want you to meet people they work with- and then some. Their romantic partner, their business partner, Roy who sits four offices over and Jill who once said she enjoyed what you do.
Here’s how you manage them:
Decline to meet face-to-face and conduct the business via Skype with a booked appointment.
If a decline is not possible, charge for any additional meetings beyond the first one, including travel time. (NOTE: Make sure this is a condition in your terms and conditions)
Decline to offer a 3rd quote or proposal unless you have reason to believe you stuffed up under any circumstances
Bail out as soon as the little woman or Roy makes an appearance. Sorry, but if they’re there for the quote, they’ll be there for the edits and the rest... and we all know how that goes!
Make them fill in the brief form you’d usually give to get project particulars and don’t quote again until it’s filled in and returned (I’ll be giving you this soon)
The main aim is to ensure the project is genuine and they aren’t just showboating. The second aim should always be not to train them bad habits like always being available and attending every little thing.
The Cheapskate
Clients can baulk at prices, but a special breed of client has no freaking idea about charges. They’ll try and barter you down to cheaper prices and make a big deal about ongoing work offers. Blergh!
Hallmarks:
They’ll have an over inflated idea of what their project is worth and an under valuing idea of what your services will add to it
They use words like ‘discount’, ‘experience’ and talk about how competitive the market is
If you do decide to go with them (which I strongly suggest you don’t), they’ll run late with payment and monopolise your time
How do you deal with a Cheapskate?
Don’t give them a discount. Instead, offer to do something else for free on top. Make it a small gesture. It’ll test whether they’re keen and want value for money, or they’re just a penny pinching Muppet
Refer them on. If the price is reasonable but not your market rate, refer the job on in places like the Freelance Jungle GooglePlus group and/or to other freelances you know
If they’re truly a cheap person, send them to eLancer for cheap, overseas labour.
Referring them away may seem counterintuitive, but it’s not. It simply means you’re giving them the option to get the work and giving them the opportunity to realise the value equation involved with cheap versus realistic.
So how do you discourage these guys from knocking on your door?
You guessed it, with a few exercises!
Despite being a PITA, these guys are great fodder for blogging and social media.
Break down their behaviours into blogs based on what it means to be a professional. You can even be very cheeky and cash in on the SEO with things like “how do you spot a professional graphic designer?†or “5 things a good Australian copywriter won’t stand forâ€.
Reaffirm this position with tips on social media. Write yourself 10 or 20 tips for Facebook and Twitter that not only discourage these guys from calling, give you a little stress relief in the process.
Incorporate what you have learnt about this behaviour in your terms and conditions.
If you want to deter penny pinchers and hagglers, put your prices for standard items on your website. Build a sales page that explains:
What the product is
What the problem it solves for the consumer is
How the mechanics of it work
Who is it for
What the measurable outcomes for the client will be
I have a couple of examples you may wish to look at for the sales pages:
My own content plan http://unashamedlycreative.com.au/content-plans/
Brainmates professional training https://www.brainmates.com.au/training-summary/essentials-product-management
General Assembly’s web development course https://generalassemb.ly/education/web-development-immersive
Next, we’ll look at what you can do if you’ve said yes to a client and they’ve turned into a nightmare.