My client is a d**k, and other bedtime stories

Almost every week on Linkedin i can read at least a new post of someone’s rants, in my network, about how their clients don’t understand the value that they are bringing. About the fact that their clients find their prices too high. About their clients are basically being d**ks.

Much before that, the internet has been full of these stories. There is a blog (maybe someone knows it), called Clients from Hell, which basically collects stories around this topic. Apparently, there are a lot of mean clients out there, and even more poor, undefended consultants (also designers, freelancers, and any other service providers. I will just call them all Consultants).

Well, this post is for you, my fellow Consultants, and I have a message for you that you will probably will find difficult to hear, but I will tell you anyway.

Your Client is not a d**k. You are.

Ok, I said it.

You are now allowed to close this post, and put my name on your personal blacklist. Unless, of course, you wanted to read the good news.

Because there is a good news: if your client was really so mean, you couldn’t do anything about it. But if the client is mean with you, it’s probably your fault. But fault is not the correct word, the one I’m looking for is responsibility.

If your Client appears to be a d**k, it’s your responsibility.

And if it’s your responsibility, starting today, you can improve the situation. You can actually do something to improve your ability to build a healthy relationship with your clients, so that you will be always happy to work with them.

What I aim to do in this post is to collect some of the stories i constantly read about, analyze how the situation work, and propose how can consultants improve their communication to avoid the problem. Also, I invite you, fellow consultant who is reading this, to add your personal d**k client story, and I will gladly integrate my list.

I proposed [insert number here]€ to to the job, which is in the low average for the market, but the client continued asking for a discount (or said it was too much), so i invited it to do it by himself (or having their cousin do it), but he insisted that he understood my value and wanted me to do it.

This is by far the most common pattern i come across. There are many elements in this pattern that create the problem. The first one is the brand positioning of the consultant. Being less than average in the market, it means there are many people that offer basically the same service at basically the same price. Also, there are people that offer similar services at a lower price. The clients here are blatantly lying: they probably does not understand the value that you offer and your value proposition (if you have one). What they understand very well is that there are people that offer services with the same name of yours at a far lower price. They also understand that you probably ask for more because you offer more, because they hope to have your service at their price.

Now, you are probably thinking that services are not gasoline, and obviously a service will always be different from the other ones, but your client does not necessarily understand that, possibly because he does not see the business results of your collaboration.

If you are at this point with a client there are two possible scenarios:

• he shouldn’t be a client, but he is: this means you are working on a lead which is out of your target. If your clients do not understand the service you are offering, it’s possible that they does not need that service at all, thus every price different from free will always be too much for them.
• he should be a client, but he isn’t: this happens when a client is in your target, but he or she does not know that. These clients should be educated about why they need your service. Mind me, I’m not talking about explaining all the features that you offer, but educating him that he has a need, and your service is perfect to answer that need.

Now it’s easy to understand that in the first scenario you just drop the client. In the second one you need to educate him, before talking about price. It could be difficult to tell them apart though. My suggestion is to ask yourself what is “why this is my client?” or more specifically, “what need am I addressing with my value proposition?”. If your client has a clear understanding of this, then he will be willing to pay the price you ask for this service.

My client is never happy with my output. He or she ask continuously for revisions, but does not understand the value of my time.

This is most common in many creative fields, usually when the expected result is subordinate to your client’s liking.

You can easily see the problem here: your client has not signed anything that forces him to like the first attempt that you propose. You may also like it now, and not like it tomorrow. The issue here is that you failed to set a SMART objective, in particular a Measurable one. If the objective you set is not measurable, then how can you tell when it’s reached?

Fortunately there are many possible solutions to solve this problem. The first one, which is also my less favourite, is to make your client pay for your time, which is easily measurable. It means that the more he insists on revisions, the more he will have to pay.

Or you could set a max time to allocate to that objective. Your agreement will be something like “I will work to make this to your liking for no more than X days”.

My personal favourite, if possible, is to make your objective measurable in some way. I understand that this may be extremely difficult, for example for graphic or video productions, but i believe that in every situation there can be a way to make liking measurable.

My client stalks me at every hour, even in the night and on weekend. Or they expect me to work during the night to deliver the morning after.

This one is difficult, because it’s completely your fault. Yes, your client is being not very empathic, I agree, but the problem is basically that to keep them clients you are being a Yes-person.

You are failing to set boundaries. If a clients expect you to do an excellent work without notice, it’s because you, at some point, made them understand that those request were acceptable. If you do work during weekend or late at night even once for a client, they will ask you to do it again, even if the first time it was an exception: the exception will easily become the new rule.

My suggestion is to clearly define what you will not do, or won’t do anymore, but especially set boundaries before. You may lose some clients in the process, but you will find other ones, that will appreciate you for the work you do, not for the nights you stay up working.

My client didn’t pay me!

This one is tricky. Now, for once, I may be tempted to admit that your client is possibly a criminal. But the truth is that the situation may be different. Now, here i see three kind of scenarios:

• The client is actually a scammer. He made you do the work, and then escaped.
• The client is having financial problems. He is willing to pay you, but not able to.
• The client does not consider the objective to be reached, so is not willing to pay you (yet).

Only in the first case I strongly suggest you to use the services of a lawyer. If you made a contract (or even if you didn’t but this may be more difficult), you will probably be able to get the money for your work.

In the second scenario you will need to have a very open discussion with your client. You may want to accept a different form of payment. What I suggest you is to check if a client is able to pay before you offer your services, especially if they are not directly business-related. If you don’t know this client, you may ask for guarantees of some kind.

The last situation is the one which is my personal favourite, and seems to be a combination of the first two stories I told. The problem here is clearly that the objective has not been clearly defined, thus your expectation of a job well done and your client’s are not matching. The solution is simple: be SMART when you define the expected output!

My client is asking unreasonable things.

This case is more common in long lasting work relationships. Somehow the consultant becomes the client’s Jack of all trades, even for things that are not clearly in his or her competences.

And the consultant does those things because the fear of losing the client is always present.

Again the solution is simple yet painful: you need to be able to manage expectations. Even say some No, or suggesting to ask to other service providers. You may lose some money today (or maybe a client, even if it’s more difficult in my experience), but you will gain a lot of credibility.

Conclusion

Here are some of the most common stories I have encountered in my life as a Consultant, but please, feel free to share your one! I will gladly put it in my post, if it does not appears already. And finally, I have a couple of simple suggestions to make to all my fellow consultants that have these problems:

• Learn to communicate in an effective way: seriously: good communication can save your life. Study, do courses, read books. Invest in this, because it’s probably the most important soft skill you will need in your career. I, personally, study Strategic Communication, here in Italy.
• Always define SMART objectives: It means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-related.
• Learn to say NO: when you say no you have the opportunity to set boundaries, and to bring more value in the long term. Make your No count more than your Yes.