Comments on: 6 Ways to Know He’s “The One”: Client Edition

By: Jim Rudnick

Jim Rudnick — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:43:44 +0000

@netmeg — “…there are clues that will tip you off that it might not necessarily have been the service provider that was the problem…”

truer words have never been spoken, eh & we’re in total agreement up here in canuckland!

Jim

By: Susan McKeon

Susan McKeon — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:03:53 +0000

Thanks for a great post Lisa.

I’m just starting out with my own business, making the switch from being the client to service provider. It’s quite scary taking the plunge to self employment (well for me, anyway) and I don’t want to fall into the trap of taking on a client just for the sake of it. When you’re starting out, any client seems great. Saying no is hard but empowering.

When I was the ‘client’ my decisions on working with service providers was always based on a mutual relationship – did they: “get me?” “understand the company culture?” “speak the same language?” (jargon doesn’t impress me), “understand the expectations?” did we “click?” “what was their working style/culture like?” “what were their expectations?”

I realise I need to apply these same criteria to establishing my own business too and be honest to myself and clients.

Today, I turned down what could potentially have been my first job/contract – a product launch. I delivered the proposal but in discussing it with the client and exploring their expectations in more detail, talked myself out of it. Some may say that is rather stupid, but…

…being totally honest and saying no led to another conversation about a project with longer lead times, that I’m better suited to. The client respected my honesty (I think) and the product launch is being dealt with my a London based agency, who will be able to deliver the goods with much more clout than me and my one-woman band.

Only time will tell if this was the right decision. In the meantime, I’m still out there, building my business and brand and searching for the ‘one’

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:53:46 +0000

Great article Lisa.
Have said No to my fair share of clients. But my way of saying no is to just give a ridiculously high quote.
That way, at least I would be well compensated for the mental trauma if they still accept.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:46:03 +0000

I agree, i think its incredibly important that the clients click with those who they are working with. There are times when that connection just isn’t there.

If you are in a desperate situation than any client seems great, but cheers to outspoken for walking away from a potentially big client!

By: Michael Dorausch

Michael Dorausch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:21:25 +0000

So now I have the luxury of sharing this with my staff rather than keep repeating it every week, thanks for that.

From reading the comments it appears everyone has learned these things (often times the hard way) while in business, rather than before launching.

I love that you ask the question, “Do you know what your perfect client looks like?” If the answer is not YES, your business may want to do some studying of current client behavior to gather ideas. Make a list of factors like ability to pay, attitude, level of work involved, etc… It may surprise you to find what order you organize into.

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:36:07 +0000

Ha. That’s funny. We actually get a lot of inquiries who address us that casually. I think it’s cause they “know us” on Twitter. :)

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:35:28 +0000

Sometimes the money the client pays out does not even come CLOSE to what YOU end up paying for. :)

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:34:40 +0000

Hopefully Rhea won’t mind me speaking for her, but I think this is an area where she really had to learn to run before ever even crawling. She does the majority of our early vetting so she’s had to get really good at being able to quickly tell when someone would work with us and when we’d clash. Luckily for Outspoken, she developed that gut feeling pretty quickly. It’s saved us all a lot of headaches.

By: Todd Mintz

Todd Mintz — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:29:26 +0000

I recently got an inquiry that began, “Whats up Todd?”

Experience taught me that I really didn’t need to go any further before discarding the lead…

By: Lisa Barone

Lisa Barone — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:26:50 +0000

Oh, totally. Really, it goes for any time someone complains about another person. Unless its me complaining. Then I’m totally right.