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There’s an inherent problem with the way in which running a web design business works, and I really need to do something about it for my own business. The short version is that we treat prospective clients too nicely during the pitch and sale process, which lines us up for nothing but problems further down the line. “Clients,” as one of my own very-good-clients put it this week, “are like demanding girlfriends”. You need to set the ground rules early, or you might as well just lie back and prepare to be whipped (and not in a good way).
The Problem
The problem that exists is especially true for people who employ dedicated sales staff, but is also equally prominent for someone like myself: who does all the pitches and the initial sales with a client as well as running the business and doing a lot of the work. The problem, particularly if you’re good at sales (which I am), is that one of the core principles of making a sale is that you tell the prospect what they want to hear.
[Client:] “I need this site in 8 weeks tops, and I want it to integrate with my bespoke company intranet.”
[You:] “8 weeks will be a very tight timeline but I think that we can meet it, and integration with your intranet should be no problem, but it will depend a lot on how much support we can get from that 3rd party developer.”
What just happened? I’ll tell you what; the client just set out the exact timeframe and the technical specification of the project, and you agreed to it. You may also find them slightly rude, and they may call you about the proposal well past 7pm. On the one hand you’re thinking about my post on which clients to avoid, but on the other you’re thinking that this is a large project with good money and would make a nice addition to the portfolio.
The thing is, if you agree to take on a project that has started out this way, you need to understand that the client is controlling the relationship, not you. As the service provider, this is not a situation that you want to be in.
The Result
Because you’ve wined and dined the client into bed with you to get their business, you’ve set a precident of “we’ll do anything for you”. The result of this is that the client will continue to assume that’s how you’re going to be treating them throughout the project. Delays on their end will be “unavoidable” whereas delays on your end will be “unacceptable”.
The worst part is that your sales person is highly unlikely to be your back-end developer, so in your sales spiel you may inadvertantly promise the client functionality that isn’t nearly as simple as you seem to think.
All of these things will lead to a break-down in communication. You don’t want to be called at 7pm or be berated for delays in work when you’re working as hard as you can – so the relationship becomes far less friendly than it was at the start, and is far more likely to lead to a payment dispute at the end.
The way in which you sold your services does not reflect the way in which you run your business. This is your own fault just as much as the client’s.
The Moral
Stop selling yourself. Stop making all promises to clients that you aren’t 110% sure of. Only conduct your initial meetings, phonecalls, and proposal document work during business hours. Tell the client up front that with all projects there is a risk of delay, particularly if they don’t respond to your requests for information in a timely fashion (etc). If saying this to them means that they don’t want to work with you, then look up to the heavens and say “thank you” because that was probably a relationship that was only ever going to end badly.
Take control of the relationship – be the professional.
What About You?
Do you have any stories of doing something like this yourself? The inspiration for this post was that something like that has happened to me fairly recently, and I’ve learned a great deal from it.
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Great article. Short and to the point. I can fully understand where it is coming from as I almost every time had to behave like a “remote control” for a client. But I had to – otherwise I could of lost the project and with it I would have lost my business all together before it even started. Right now the situation is changing so this article came to me as an omen to finally grow some balls.
Thanks man.
Hi John,
Great post. I recently went through this, being very accepting and easy going at the start of a project which then proved to be a nightmare. The client started to load extra work and adding stuff with an assumptive manner and I felt like I was a puppet really, not a professional designer. The only thing that worked was holding a status meeting and bringing up my concerns in a firm but diplomatic way. I also found that having examples (if possible) of what you mean is a good way to get the message across to a client.
As designers/developers, we need to remember (at every stage of the project) that they need us to help them achieve their goals. We will always know more than them on this subject, otherwise they would be doing it themselves.
Lets all keep that in mind when dealing with clients.
Garry
I completely agree and have a post in draft much along these lines about the biggest mistake I’ve made with a client so far.
It happened during my slowest week as a new business owner: no work for 5 straight days. I took the call via Skype and we didn’t talk price for 45 minutes. At that point, you could see his eyes open wide, then he chuckled while hemming and hawing about how he only had about $1000 to do this (for something that was going to make him about $10k/mo very soon).
I should have ended the call then and there, but I didn’t.
Lesson learned.
I used to bend over backwards for the client. Let them change stuff as they see fit and part of it was because I was afraid I would lose them as a client or they would be very displeased with the work.
It ended up giving me so much stress so I changed up some policies and let clients know certain things upfront and STICKING to my own policies.
Very nice! My approach for that problems consists of two solutions:
At first you need a very, very detailed, precise and reasonable requirement specification. As part of your offer, you have to let your customer sign it. This is the first step avoiding problems with customers that don’t understand, don’t want to understand or try to capitalize misled or insufficient specifications.
This usually requires you one to three hours for smaller projects and up to days for web products or excessive projects. As that amount of time is reasonable, i really urge everyone to do so.
Second point is a timetable. You’ve got the functionality, you know how long it will need to do it, now you’ve to specify at what point in time your customer has to do what. This is, from my opinion, the only way to getting things done, provided that your customer won’t do so without.
Getting that timetable done is a lot more problematic and depends lot’s more on the customers will. Positive is that your customer usually can’t blame you for project delays that depend on him / her not delivering needed information, content or feedback. Negative is that he now has any chance to blame you for delays that are caused by your side. Overall, if you trust in your timetable and had done that internally several times, you can go external and try it with your customers.
But: Maybe you have, viewing from an economic perspective, no choice taking even that ‘i need a large project and i need it tomorrow and i dont want to pay much’ customers. Usually no timetable and requirement specifications can help you with that.
Best,
Stefan
Most valid story & point-outs. It’s enormously important to establish a partnership rather than a relation that is based on we-feed-you kind of attitude esp. true for projects that are being outsourced.
Good post, we suffered the same fate when Evoluted first started. Originally when I was freelancing I would pretty much do whatever a client requested. Only when Evoluted started taking on staff did the late night phone calls and client pain begin to stop. Thankfully it’s nearly all gone now!
Great Post. I think this is something all designers and developers struggle with, especially when they are just starting up a new business.
I know this is a lesson I have had to learn the hard way. In my experience when you bend over backwards for a client or do them a really good deal the are not as appreciative of the finished product as they would be if you had of played the deal a little harder and not tried to be their best mate.
Its a fine line to tread, but I try to under promise and over deliver. People are always happier when you exceed their expectations rather than just meet them.
@Saadi – “when you bend over backwards for a client or do them a really good deal the are not as appreciative of the finished product”
Totally agree with that, can’t understand why it’s true, but it is!
Interesting. I think it comes down to whether you see yourself as working for the customer or them as your client. Its a subtle difference but I always try to stay boss!
Professional tip about late night calls: purchase a SkypeIn phone number and close Skype when you’re not working. I leave it closed and tell clients VERY early on, usually in the first e-mail response, that I’m available on Skype by appointment and at a discounted rate, but charged.
On meeting deadlines:
We do a gantt chart. This means you can never be late a a project = 100% of deadlines met. How?
So you’ve agreed to 8 weeks. Cool. Get it all down in a gantt chart, showing the time frames of your bits and their bits. Upload it and give the client a link.
Every time they take a week to respond, add this week in the gantt chart. It pushes the deadline back further. You don’t get blamed for their time wasting. And as they have the link to the chart (keep letting them know you’ve updated it) they can see it’s their fault the deadline is pushed further. They can bring it back on schedule by speeding up their processes.
Well put John. It is nice to have client input but we should be working with them to create reasonable deadlines. Although the customer is always right we do need to ensure the proper guidance is there, sometimes when clients are not reasonable they are the type of client you want to avoid.
I actually recently finished a post that takes this train of thought in a slightly different direction Designing for a Client’s Best Interest
So true.
Sniffing out the problem clients before hand is among the toughest tasks for a freelance web designer. I’ve had my share of unforeseen bad experiences. Not much you can do except learn a lesson for the future.
On timelines – I have noticed that about 95% of my client projects run over the propose timeframe, and I’m proud to say that 100% of that is due to delays from the client, not me. That said, I have yet to have a client complain about a project taking too long as they always seem to understand that these things (always) happen.
But who knows what tomorrow’s client will bring?
This reminds me of my worst client, a politican… The wound is too fresh for me to talk about, haha ;)
Wow, I totally needed this today. No matter how much you tell yourself before going into the first initial sales pitch to not promise everything you walk going, “Oh great, I’m going to have to get some serious hustle on.”
they don’t want to work with you, then look up to the heavens and say “thank you” because that was probably a relationship that was only ever going to end badly.
Why put yourself through something you can have complete control of. Good post, great insights and thanks again.
Fantastic article, I’m going to bookmark it and use some of what you’ve written in my terms and conditions, particularly delays with deadlines. Subscribed to your feed too.
Delays on their end will be “unavoidable” whereas delays on your end will be “unacceptable”.
^ Perhaps the truest thing ever said.
At the end of the day, it’s the awkward clients you’ve got to be tough on, but they are the ones that it’s hardest to be tough on because somehow they always make you feel bad. The hardest thing about freelancing I think is getting the confidence to stand your ground & enforce your policies. If you can pull that off without ever seeming like an ass then you are a true rockstarninja!
Hi John,
Funny thing is that this sort of problem translates through other businesses as well. I have interests in a few different companies which are in different sectors and the same issues of being to nice to the client just to get the sale is a constant problem.
I have found across the board if you project confidence sales and tell clients how it is, then sales don’t drop and your client relationship is much stronger. They treat you more as an equal so the speak.
I must echo Tristan’s point above. I see it in the recruitment sector all the time (though I’m not in that sector myself thank goodness). Recruitment consultants and agencies who are always wining and dining client companies are treated as whores and get absolutely no respect. Do they deserve that? Probably. Knowingly or unknowingly, they put themselves in that position when they decided to smooch the client in order to get the business.
Could not have said it any truer myself. . As a business development manager for Taoti Creative (www.taoti.com), I have been in these situations many times, and can say that from multiple perspectives, and Being up front with your potential clients is the most essential part of explainingband effectively selling web design services.
From the perspective of education, most clients don’t have near the understanding of web technology to quite frankly even be buying a website to begin with. Many times, clients will be completely uninformed, or be dependant on other staff that they work with for the information they need to make this investment. It’s really important that you come at them from the perspective of educating them, so that regardless of who they decide to go with for their project, which is something I often say, that they are getting accurate and helpful information from you, and that you want them to be as informed as possible about what solutions will work best for their business. This wil give them confidence in you as someone who knows what they are talking about at the very least, if not help you solidify the realtionship and increase the chance of your sale.
From the perspective of setting expectations and delivery, nothing is worse than having a copasetic understanding with a client presale and contract, then have it come out like some foreign language on the production side. Make sure you are up front with clients about effort, timelines, and cost, as it will save you and your client, and your production staff a lot of effort and aggrivation on the delivery side of the project.
Perfect post. I have this exact problem almost with every client & I even quit an agency because it’s how they ran the business. How do you break the cycle of being the “Yes Man” ???
Over the years of my experience I have toughened up and learned how to say “no” and how to better control my clients, but most of them are older & wiser business people, but not in web design. It just seems like my clients are sharper and quicker at the sales pitch and can have me agreeing to an 8 week turnaround, for $500 less than my original proposal. Ugh!
Thanks for the post, the tips and I will re-read before each new client meeting!
Some sound advice, although I am sure many will agree in many cases easier said than done. I for one will be making a more conscious effort from now on to take control from the start.
Great post, thanks.
I’ve had the same experiences myself where the client controls the relationship and it has only led to bitter disappoint and a lack of pride in the finished work. So I agree with you wholeheartedly when you write “then look up to the heavens and say “thank you””. It’s a lot harder especially when you’re starting out as you want more work to add to your portfolio even if it doesn’t pay too well. I, myself, have very recently decided to focus on the quality of customers rather than quantity. Doing that really saves one from a lot of headaches later on.
By the way, nice use of the Lego picture. Some clients can really make you feel like that.
Been there, done that more than I care to admit. For more than 10 years we’ve tried to streamline the process and help set expectations for clients. Good communications is the key, I think.
We are dealing with a client with a huge ego – a public speaker who is letting ego get in the way of making smart decisions. We’ll prevail. I was in radio for nearly 25 years so I know a little about dealing with irrational ego-maniacs. We’ve built a number of websites for public speakers, without much trouble.
He built his first website, which makes him an expert, I guess. He says for what he’s paying, he should be able to say how the site will be built. Not!
That’s why you hire someone with experience and expertise. We give a fixed-bid quote, so scope creep can be problematic. We wouldn’t care as much if we were doing it on a time and materials basis.
I wish I could share some of his emails with you. Some are almost hilarious.
We had another customer who wasn’t really web-savvy, but she thought she needed to control things. I’m not bothered by a little naivete. We fill an important role. It’s the attitude that sometimes gets a little old.
But we have a blast with most of our customers, which is why I think we get lots of referrals. People love working with fun people. That’s part of our secret strategy.
– Kurt Scholle
@Kurt Do you think maybe it’s something to do with your business name that attracts the loonies? :)
Great post John. Just make sure you post it too twitter next time. I missed this one until now. :(
An interesting set of comments but I would like to put forward two lines of thought.
1. The problem is of our own making, and therefore
2. The solution is in our own hands.
Why do we under price, over deliver, flex and bend to client demands?
Principally it’s because we know if we don’t someone else will. From my perspective that someone else is YOU, and from your perspective it is ME.
So long as we are all prepared to prositute ourselves then we will have to continue to do so.
If we all take a professional standpoint and refuse to accept the unacceptable then we will all benefit and those who wear stetsons and spurs will soon fade away.
Excellent article – however; the web developer is always the scapegoat for a project that goes wrong. Especially if the only person the developer communicates with is a 3rd party who relay feedback from their client (basically acting like a proxy) and agree to do things that aren’t possible – without consulting you first.
It is for that reason that I will never, ever work without direct communication with the actual client again.
Wow, It was like you listened to my recent experience and wrote about it….. verbatim!
It seems that no matter how hard I try and state the ground rules they hear it but don’t listen and then when I refresh the memory of the conversation it comes across like I am scoring points and beating them up, which does not fix the problem. Customer always right thing. I may go so far as to include it in our proposal so they sign it in in black and white only… it still does not solve the problem. We have a production schedule we give clients ahead of time, we use it to illustrate and guide them on their roles and our mutual dependencies. But even that does not really work and is mostly used to answer questions during a damage control situation.