Six Tips To Help You Manage Clients’ Expectations

Well there’s good news and there’s bad news.

I’ll start with the good.  I have been SWAMPED with work.  I know, I know – there are people reading this right now wondering “Who considers being swamped with work ‘good news’?”  Well, if you’re on the freelance bandwagon, trying hard to achieve success on a daily basis and in the long run, then being swamped is definitely a good thing. 

Which brings me to the bad news.  I simply haven’t had a single moment to write on this blog.  So, folks – here I am.  I had to schedule this into my work.

I thought it might be useful to share a few tips on how to manage clients’ expectations:

Do not EVER promise what you can’t deliver.  That is simply bad business.  If you know you can’t write a 4000-word dissertation in 2 days, don’t promise to do it 48 hours!  DON’T!

Always, ALWAYS tell the truth.  Whether you are pitching for a job that is beyond your skills set or if you are pretending to have a master’s degree from DUKE when in actuality you got that Liberal Arts degree from DRAKE in Iowa -  (what’s two letters’ difference, right?  WRONG).  You cannot.  I repeat CANnot just fabricate things like this.  If not now, then later – it WILL come back to bite you and eat you whole.  Mom knew what she was talking about.  Always tell the truth.

If you don’t understand something, ask.  This is something that has helped me plenty.  Instead of being so sure of yourself as to not ask or not asking for fear of appearing stupid, set all inhibitions aside, try to ask and clarify (as many times necessary).  I’m not saying don’t use the information.  You will need to process what your clients are telling you and put thought and effort into it making sense but if you don’t understand what they need, how on earth could you possibly be successful at it?

Be open and honest.  I try to be real with my clients and for the most part they really appreciate it.  Whether I’m telling them that the concept needs to be matured more, or that my three kids ranked their mother very low on the “quality time scale” that week or that the logo for their business just doesn’t exude the right message; being open and honest goes so far and is absolutely necessary.  Obviously it builds trust, but it also demonstrates your integrity as a provider of services.  NOT doing so will only mean shooting yourself on your own foot.

Learn to say “no”.  I repeat.  You HAVE to be able to say “no” when saying “yes” is just not the right answer.  Yes, it’s really cool to have every single available music project on your belt – and yes the earnings pile up and yes your stats keep rising.  But at what expense?  I can guarantee, from personal experience, that it will later cause MUCH grief.  You will find yourself pulling your hair out trying to knock out just one more article for the night or do research for that 300-page eBook you accepted an editing job for – but what’s the point if you can’t love what you’re doing? 

Choose projects that you enjoy doing.  Projects are a dime a dozen – and the ones you have expertise on or that you genuinely enjoy doing, WILL come.  I find that the projects I’m working on begrudgingly almost always suffer at least somewhat.  Those that I’m really good at or that I truly love learning something new about – come out stellar!

I’d really love some feedback from you guys.  Were these helpful?  Too obvious?  Would you like to see tips in another area?  Tell me what you’d like to hear about in my next post.  And folks, comments please.  I’m a Leo.  I crave feedback.

Thanks

~F