Sometimes they just need to hear it. Sometimes clients need to know exactly why you left, what they can do going forward, and how they can succeed post-you. I’m not talking about the fly-by-nights who want to justify a $1/article job as “exposure.” I’m talking about legitimate businesses making critical mistakes that are chasing away good help.
I had one such conversation recently. Didn’t want to, either. But when the former client reached out and asked for some suggestions, I gave them. I was candid, but kind. Frank, but friendly. In order to attract a writer with your requirements, you have to pay more than you are now. Otherwise, you’re in for a long search.
That my suggestions resulted in utter silence as a response didn’t surprise me. But it doesn’t matter. I know I conveyed what they needed to hear – what they asked to hear – and that going forward, they won’t be surprised when the next writer says “Wait, that’s not a fair price.” I didn’t tell them anything untrue. In fact, my delivery was much, much kinder than they’d get if they posted those rates openly.
Normally I wouldn’t care if I insulted someone who didn’t value my skill set. But in this case, this client was in an industry where I work. I wanted no chance of them talking me down to other potential clients. As I said in previous posts, if the worst they can say about me is I demand fair pay, I can live with that.
What surprises me is the lack of understanding some clients have toward our rates. Maybe they think everyone is a writer at heart, therefore our skills aren’t really all that special (and how wrong they are). Maybe they’re of the mind that designers hold the real skills and that writers, and writing, are add-on things we need but don’t need as much as we need bells-and-whistles on our websites. The frills are great, but if the frills come with no clear message, how are you going to convince people to part with their money? Anyway, I digress. This will always baffle me.
So how do you approach difficult client conversations? Any particularly good outcomes? Bad outcomes?
Writing is not valued because so many "writers" will work for pennies and content mill sites.
Writing is not valued because the client thinks "anyone" can do it, and they'd do it themselves if they could "get around to it."
They're wrong, and when their business takes a hit due to poor quality writing, they either learn or go out of business.
Long ago, one of the first national publications I wrote for started taking longer and longer to pay writers. It was bad enough that they were a pay-on-publication organization, but when the checks started coming a month or more after publication I couldn't not speak up. I politely pointed out that my work never needed heavy editing, they'd never killed any of my articles, and they knew as soon as I turned something in that they would run it. Why should I have to wait two or three months to be paid for something they already had typeset? I even used the old, "You can't go into a store, take a shirt and tell them you'll pay them when you finally wear it," argument.
The publisher's reply was quite literally, "Writers are a dime a dozen, so I can treat you however I like." This was a guy who valued his sales department more than his editorial staff.
I have to admit I felt a certain sense of satisfaction upon learning that guy filed bankruptcy and had to sell off most of his worldly possessions, including his publishing mini-empire.
My comments section went wonky on me Friday afternoon, so I wasn't able to respond to you ladies. Sorry.
Paula, his karma train ran him right over, didn't it? I guess lousy publishers are a dime a dozen, eh?
Devon, exactly that. If they're going to be business people, they need to value their suppliers much better.