I slept in this morning – for me that means getting up at 7:30 instead of 6:54 (I’m punctual even in my sleep). It felt great. But it was a sleep loaded with odd dreams – foreign countries that looked like my grandparents’ backyard, school buses, Indians in saris, friends shouting, toilets, ex-husbands and guns. Just weird. Maybe it was the pancakes we had for dinner – it was Pancake Day yesterday, you know, so we loaded up on banana pancakes. Now I’m rethinking that decision.
Jennifer Williamson has a great post on her site about the things you wish you knew before that you know now. Shared credit to Susan Johnston at The Urban Muse for kick-starting this idea. But Jen said something that floored me – “Preach to the converted.” Amen, sister. Those clients who get your business model, who have worked with freelancers successfully in the past are the ones who will hire you and understand how to work well with you.
While it’s a fantastic marketing idea, we all know that’s not always possible. Sometimes we’re taking on the clients who are new to freelancers or any form of outside help. It happens when our converted preach to their friends about this great writer, or when a new client finds our website. In those times, we need a way to vet the clients to make sure we’re not landing in something unsavory. Beyond intuition, that lovely gut feeling that this person’s going to be great or this one’s just nuts, I dissect the conversation and measure against my own goals.
The Project – Is it something I believe in? Can I get excited about it? Is it worth taking on as described?
The Goals – Does the client have a handle on what he/she wants? Can I get the client’s goal down to one or two sentences? Does it make sense? When I repeat it back, does the client agree?
The Communication – Does it take a week to understand what this client wants? Can the client answer my pointed questions in a way that I get what he’s trying to do?
The People Involved – Can I get a verbal, and then a written confirmation of the involved parties and what their roles are? Is there a sense that this person will drag in a pile of people in the middle of the project that I’ll be expected to answer to?
The Payment – Has the client asked “What’s your rate?” or said “Here’s what we’re paying you”? If it’s the former, he’s in. If it’s the latter, it could be a deal-breaker.
How do you measure the client against your goals?
5 responses to “The BS Litmus Test”
Everything you have listed here is important for me to measure the client up. The project, is probably the most important in most situations for me.
Generally, I will be contacted with snippets of info. relating to a project they want done. Then they ask me how much I would charge for it. The project info will either peak my interest in learning more or it will make me roll my eyes and politely decline the project.
Not long ago, someone asked for 50 articles (400 words) to be done in one week. That was all the info. I got about it. I, personally, refuse to do that, so I declined without bothering to measure up the other items you have listed. I don't care how much they would pay for it. It's simply not something I can handle, so I don't care to know more.
It might be strange, Lori, but I recently had a dream about my grandmother's front yard – and it looked like it was located in a foreign country!
Wonder what Freud would have said about that, Anon? 🙂
Wendy, you bring up a good point. Even one of those things out of place can be a deal breaker, depending on what it is. Same for me – no way I'm writing 50 articles in one week. That's not quality writing – that's quantity writing and it doesn't fit with my business vision.
I love how you broke client vetting into five simple measurements. I use all of these!
very interesting and knowledgeable information, thanks for sharing it…..:)