Our first "nightmare" client was a real-estate-wanna-be-developer who needed a logo, in 2011, the year we started Worstofall Design. Let's call him Marcus. I estimated Steve would spend a total of 15 hours on the logo, at $20 an hour, which came out to a measly $300.
Marcus was very nice and appreciative but incredibly indecisive, and although he liked most of the designs we showed him, he also wanted to see every (and I mean every) iteration that he could think up. We continually did everything he asked for, and then some. At a certain point, even he agreed we had done too much work for our $300 fee, and he asked if we would continue for another $300. After many months and a paltry $600, we eventually, painfully finalized a logo.
Most service business owners blame clients when projects go wrong: clients don't respond, change their minds, request endless revisions, don't listen, or become difficult. My position is the opposite. I believe it is possible to build a business where 100% of your clients are dream clients. That's not because you miraculously attract only wonderful people. It's because you control two things: who you accept as a client, and how you manage the clients you accept.
Great clients aren't just found. They're created.
Who you accept: the three I screen out
You identify and reject genuinely bad fits. These are the three I screen for.
1. They need you right now
A prospect leaves you a message at 6:30 on Saturday night and asks to be called back "today."
Years ago, when I was working 24/7, not only would I have called that person back, but I also would have been proud that I responded so quickly. When you call people back quickly, they are usually impressed, and will say so.
The problem is that from your very first interaction, you are grooming your client to expect you to be on call. And it's impossible to meet those expectations. You will be tied to your phone, waiting for fires to ignite so you can put them out.
Unless you're a firefighter or an ER doctor, you're likely not in a business where you can't anticipate urgent matters. Usually these fires spark as the result of lack of planning or poor organization.
So if a prospect is reaching out with an urgent need from the very beginning, and looking for you to hop even before you've had a first conversation (let alone before they've paid you), you can guess what kind of relationship that will turn into.
2. They want to pay you in equity
A prospect talks a big game about the project they want to hire you for, and then wants to pay you with equity in their so-called exciting startup.
I've been starry-eyed about equity. But for a small business that lives off income from clients, this is a risky bet you can't afford. Not only that, but when a startup is willing to give up equity in the company, it says a lot about their confidence in their company.
If you believe your company is going to be worth millions and millions of dollars, wouldn't you want to hold on to as much of it as possible?
It's usually better to gamble with disposable income than your lunch money. When you take equity in lieu of cash, you should feel like you're getting a great deal, not forgoing payment in hopes of something with a lottery's chance eventually happening in your favor.
3. They need results immediately, or their company is going under
They need their business to turn around now and are looking for a Hail Mary from you to make it all better, and if it doesn't improve in three months, they are going to quit and find a job.
Only the business owner can and should be responsible for turning around a venture and making it a success. Hiring experts to help is a great idea and can be very effective, but nobody can single-handedly fix a sinking ship overnight. And even the most seasoned expert can't help a business with an owner who is ready to bail.
When a prospective client is on the brink, it's important to evaluate their entire situation and mentality. Just because someone has been toiling away on their business for two years doesn't mean they have built two years' value.
How you manage them: great clients are created
Those three are the exceptions. Everyone you do accept, you manage. You establish trust, expectations, boundaries, communication, leadership and decision-making processes that create great client relationships.
I learned that the hard way, with Marcus.
Knowing what I know now, I can see that it wasn't Marcus' fault that we were underpaid and overworked. It was ours.
We did whatever he wanted, acquiesced to every request, and established zero boundaries. We acted as hired hands, not as experts brought on to show the client how to get the best logo.
When Marcus asked us for more and more revisions, what he was really telling us was: I don't know a lot about logos. I don't know how to make a decision here and I'm scared to make the wrong one.
"Bad" clients, clients who are annoying, clients who are hounding you, clients who are needy, are just a manifestation of your mismanaged expectations and poor communication. Really great clients, the people who are easy to work with, become crappy clients because you don't manage them well.
I started to understand why on a random Tuesday night in mid-2015 at, of all places, Walgreens. Steve picked up a book from the wire rack and read me something about a "Love Bank": in every relationship, you're constantly making deposits and withdrawals. That's when I realized every client relationship also has a Love Bank. Only in business, I call it the Trust Bank.
When you have a "bad" client, you just haven't taken enough time to build a healthy bank account before each of you makes a withdrawal.
Where you screen: the Fit Call
The screening happens before any of that, on a short call.
When you know what a great client looks like, as well as the warning signs for a bad fit, you'll know what specific questions to ask to suss this out. Before I started doing this, when "anyone that would pay me" was a good fit, all I focused on was what they needed. Website? Yes we do that! Logo? Absolutely, we do that too!
Anything to get the client.
The purpose of the Fit Call is not to pitch, but to determine whether they are genuinely a strong fit for what you deliver and the way you work.
Start here
Write down your own three, and say no to them. Then, the next time a project goes wrong, don't ask what's wrong with the client. Ask what I ask: what could I have done to avoid that? Whatever the answer is becomes part of your process for the next time.
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