Why Limit Media

How To Explain To Clients That They Are Wrong

GIFs of spin­ning @s on the “Con­tact us” page. Com­mon usabiltiy mis­takes for the sake of visual appeal. Splash pages. Fancy search box. No white­space. Music on page load. Home page ban­ner of a jigsaw-​​puzzle globe with a piece miss­ing. Some­times you just know that what a client is request­ing is wrong and that you have to find a way to tell them. But how?

Is The Client Wrong?

Before get­ting into how to explain to a client that they’re wrong, ask your­self, “Is the client wrong to begin with?” Just because you don’t approve of the direc­tion they’re tak­ing or of a request they’ve made doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily mean it is not a step in the right direc­tion for the project. To be able to answer this ques­tion effec­tively, you need to train your­self to be com­pletely objec­tive and hum­ble when deal­ing with client requests.

First of all, appre­ci­ate one crit­i­cal thing: the client prob­a­bly knows their tar­get audi­ence a lot bet­ter than you do. Just as Web pro­fes­sion­als quickly learn per­son­al­ity types among their own clients, your client inter­acts with their tar­get audi­ence on a daily basis and knows what makes them tick… and that may be just what makes you cringe.

You can begin to estab­lish if the client is wrong sim­ply by explor­ing why the client is mak­ing such a request and what the busi­ness case for it is. It could well be a sit­u­a­tion in which they spoke to many peo­ple in the tar­get audi­ence demo­graphic, and they all said that they were more likely to click an ani­mated Flash ban­ner link than a sta­tic one, or that they felt more engaged by a web­site that had stock images of smil­ing peo­ple everywhere.

It could be that the pic­ture of the jigsaw-​​puzzle globe with a piece miss­ing actu­ally sums up the client’s sales pitch quite well and that sim­i­lar mes­sag­ing has proven to win over poten­tial cus­tomers in the past.

Of course, when faced with such a sit­u­a­tion, a good Web pro­fes­sional would under­stand the busi­ness dri­ver and sug­gest alter­na­tive solu­tions that con­vey the same mes­sage and achieve the same goal but that are unique, orig­i­nal and cre­ative.

What­ever the case though, always keep an open mind. Don’t assume the client is wrong before see­ing the evi­dence. One guar­an­tee in this busi­ness is that the more you design and develop web­sites, the more often you’ll find your­self in sit­u­a­tions where, six months after a project’s launch, you hear that the most pos­i­tive feed­back from users wasn’t the cool bit of JavaScript you imple­mented using ground­break­ing tech­nol­ogy, but rather some­thing that you con­sid­ered bor­ing and uno­rig­i­nal but that excited the client dur­ing devel­op­ment. We deliver web­sites for the client’s tar­get audi­ence, not our peers in the Web com­mu­nity: some­times painful to swal­low, but always true.

That sce­nario aside, let’s put our cool hats on again and assume that the request for the jigsaw-​​puzzle globe has come in, and that it clearly has noth­ing to do with the client’s busi­ness, and that it has made you curl up in a cor­ner of the room, bang­ing your head against the wall, mut­ter­ing “Why? Why? Why?”

What approaches can you take to explain to the client that, in your pro­fes­sional opin­ion, they’re wrong?

Speak The Client’s Language

One of the most com­mon prob­lems, espe­cially among free­lancers, is an inabil­ity to speak the client’s lan­guage. Being able to speak in a way that relates to the client’s busi­ness sense is cru­cial at all stages of man­ag­ing a Web project, but never more so than when chal­leng­ing a client’s decision.

If you’re try­ing to explain to a client that a rotat­ing ban­ner (or any other fea­ture) may not be the most effec­tive use of their bud­get, rather than say some­thing like, “I just don’t think it will work,” or “I’m not sure you have the bud­get,” ask instead how they think imple­ment­ing it will ben­e­fit their busi­ness, gen­er­ate more qual­ity leads or increase conversions.

Always empha­size the main goals, or KPIs (key per­for­mance indi­ca­tors), of the project. You’d be sur­prised by how often such a ques­tion will result in a few sec­onds of uncom­fort­able silence, as the client real­izes that they want the fea­ture because they think it looks cool, when in fact they can’t con­nect it to a KPI.

Build­ing a web­site or Web appli­ca­tion should be treated in the same way as grow­ing a business:

1. Know what you want to achieve.
2. Define some mea­sur­able KPIs or goals.
3. Develop a plan.
4. Begin exe­cut­ing the plan.
5. Eval­u­ate every deci­sion along the way to make sure it sup­ports a KPI, thus tak­ing repeated steps towards achiev­ing the project’s goals.

By main­tain­ing this approach, you will also rad­i­cally change the client’s opin­ion of you, from that of a cre­ative hippie-​​type to a business-​​savvy Web designer or devel­oper whom they should lis­ten to if they want to stay focused on the pur­pose of the project.

Being able to speak the client’s lan­guage will undoubt­edly help greatly when the time comes to tell the client that they’re wrong. Beyond using Buzz­word Bingo words with con­fi­dence, you need to be able to back them up with valu­able advice drawn from your area of specialization.

Estab­lish Your­self As The Expert

One of the most impor­tant ways to make the ordeal of explain­ing to a client that they’re wrong as stress-​​free as pos­si­ble for both par­ties is to estab­lish your­self as the Web expert. If you do this, the client will com­pletely trust you and your rec­om­men­da­tions with­out a moment’s hes­i­ta­tion. Perfick!

But even if you are a Web expert, the posi­tion is not always easy to estab­lish, because it usu­ally only becomes appar­ent over time, after you’ve got­ten a few suc­cess­ful deci­sions or projects under your belt with the client. It doesn’t help either that many clients still regard cre­ative dig­i­tal agen­cies and free­lancers as either kids liv­ing in their par­ents’ base­ment or shady pro­fes­sion­als out to take them for every last penny.

Though a chal­lenge, you can estab­lish your cred­i­bil­ity quickly using a few meth­ods, some of which are rel­a­tively sim­ple to do.

Be Pro­fes­sional

Before they’re con­vinced that you’re a dig­i­tal pro­fes­sional and that they should trust your rec­om­men­da­tions, you must first demon­strate your pro­fes­sion­al­ism by doing the basics well:

• Be punc­tual at meet­ings and teleconferences.
• Always speak in a pro­fes­sional manner.
• Deliver pre-​​sales paper­work on time.
• Present all doc­u­ments and images on pro­fes­sion­ally branded templates.
• Use cor­rect gram­mar and punc­tu­a­tion in emails.

You’d be sur­prised by how quickly clients pick upon defi­cien­cies in these basic busi­ness skills. Their per­cep­tion of you and your rec­om­men­da­tions will be imme­di­ately affected. Unless you come across as the con­sum­mate pro­fes­sional early on, shak­ing off this rep­u­ta­tion will be difficult.

Don’t Be Shy About Cit­ing High-​​Profile Clients

You could well be a dig­i­tal guru who has spent years work­ing in the indus­try and earned the respect of the Web com­mu­nity, but most clients won’t under­stand what this means. They have never heard of web­sites such as Smash­ing Mag­a­zine or mag­a­zines such as .Net, and they prob­a­bly won’t grasp the grav­i­tas that comes with being a speaker at Web con­fer­ences such as SXSW.

How­ever, all clients tend to respond when you say you have worked on a high-​​profile brand web­site. When clients hear that you’ve been hired by a big name that they’ve heard of and whose prod­ucts they per­haps use, they sit up like a meerkat and think they’ve hit the jack­pot. Simples!

While some Web folk aren’t always com­fort­able sell­ing them­selves, and while big brand expe­ri­ence is not always proof of abil­ity, it almost always res­onates with clients and makes them see you as more cred­i­ble. This rein­forces your posi­tion as an expert whose advice should be heeded. After all, if big brand X thought you were good, you must be, right?

Some­times, of course, no mat­ter how much cred­i­bil­ity you demon­strate, a client may choose not to lis­ten to your rec­om­men­da­tions. But per­haps they’ll lis­ten to others…

Back Up Rec­om­men­da­tions With Evidence

How often in life have you vol­un­teered your point of view to some­one for months, only to be beaten down each time; and yet when some­one else comes into the pic­ture and says the exact same thing, their advice is seized upon as rev­o­lu­tion­ary. This is human nature and hap­pens just as much when explain­ing to clients that they’re wrong.

If a client is, for what­ever rea­son, unper­suaded by your argu­ments, you might want to con­sider going all CSI on them and pro­duc­ing evi­dence that backs up your recommendations.

This evi­dence can come in many forms. For example:

• Blog posts from world-​​respected Web experts.
• Sta­tis­tics from large usabil­ity studies.
• Well-​​known cases where the same thing was tried and had neg­a­tive results.

This kind of evi­dence is obvi­ous. But some­times, the less obvi­ous kind can be just as effec­tive:

• Guer­rilla usabil­ity test­ing, by ask­ing the client to obtain feed­back from employ­ees within the company.
• Using free tools like Five Sec­ond Test (or dozens of other tools) to flash test designs.
• Sub­mit­ting designs to com­mu­ni­ties ded­i­cated to pro­vid­ing design feed­back, for exam­ple Feed­back Army.
• Feed­back from cus­tomers with whom the client has a good relationship.
• Set­ting up a poll on the web­site that presents both ideas.
• Web ana­lyt­ics from the cur­rent website.

Com­mon points of con­tention will be which browsers to sup­port, which screen res­o­lu­tions to opti­mize for and where to put the fold. But no mat­ter the debate, back­ing up your point of view with trusted third par­ties can some­times tip the bal­ance in your favor and improve how the client per­ceives your ded­i­ca­tion, enthu­si­asm and pas­sion for get­ting it right.

Some­times, Being Direct Works

When all else fails, you could always tell the client flat out that they’re wrong. This is always a risky move, because clients will react dif­fer­ently. Some will appre­ci­ate it, while oth­ers will find it dis­re­spect­ful or per­son­ally insult­ing. But if you feel strongly about it and you’ve tried every other method, being direct might do the trick.

Per­son­ally, I’ve been in sit­u­a­tions in which I’ve had no alter­na­tive but to tell a client that their request is “naff.” To my sur­prise, despite the feroc­ity with which the client ini­tially defended their opin­ion, they backed down imme­di­ately and thanked me, say­ing that this is what they were pay­ing me for: to be strong and stub­born and to tell them things like this. How­ever, merely say­ing that some­thing is naff and noth­ing more is not ideal; you have to offer an alter­na­tive solution.

Use this approach with cau­tion. Take into account your rap­port with the client, and be pas­sive in your tone of voice. Also, choose your method of com­mu­ni­ca­tion wisely; for exam­ple, being so direct by email is usu­ally a big mis­take because of the pos­si­bil­ity of misinterpretation.

If pos­si­ble, be direct with the client face to face or by tele­phone. This allows you to deliver the mes­sage directly and set the right tone. You will also be able to observe the client’s body lan­guage or hear their response instantly and then quickly adjust your approach if needed. Gen­er­ally, if a client turns green with fury, their nos­trils emit a trace of steam and their clothes rip at the seams, you may want to back down and move swiftly to the next item on the agenda… or call an ambu­lance because they may be ill.

Of course, some­times no mat­ter what you say or do, a client will over­rule and insist that you fol­low their request. You know what? That’s okay. It hap­pens. That’s life.

But that doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily have to be the end of the debate!

Know When And How To Admit Defeat

Occa­sion­ally you’ll try every known method of explain­ing to a client that they’re wrong, and noth­ing works. They’ll con­tinue insist­ing that you design or develop what­ever they want or else they’ll go to some­one who will. And yet you feel with com­plete sin­cer­ity that they’re mak­ing a mis­take that will have a neg­a­tive impact on their busi­ness. This is never a good sit­u­a­tion to be in.

There really are no hard and fast rules on what to do in such a sit­u­a­tion. Each case should be treated on its own basis. But with expe­ri­ence comes the instinct of know­ing when to admit defeat and do as you’re told.

This feel­ing is never nice, but some­times that’s how it is. And if you have to sit in the cor­ner and be quiet, do it pro­fes­sion­ally and politely. Under no cir­cum­stances should you throw your toys out of the pram and give the client atti­tude. Sim­ply explain to them that you have put for­ward your rec­om­men­da­tions and given your rea­sons. At the end of the day, it’s their busi­ness and their deci­sion. It stings, but you’ve done all you can, and your dig­nity remains intact. But don’t give up yet!

Treat Defeat as an Opportunity

Say­ing that good entre­pre­neurs view every defeat as an oppor­tu­nity is almost a cliché these days. But it’s true, and these sit­u­a­tions are no dif­fer­ent. There’s admit­ting defeat, and then there’s pre­tend­ing to admit defeat! Once you’ve been beaten down by a client, accept it, get over it and think pos­i­tively about how you can turn defeat into a win/​win for everyone.

For exam­ple, sug­gest to the client that if they choose to press ahead against your rec­om­men­da­tion, then your next rec­om­men­da­tion will be to imple­ment some cus­tom Web ana­lyt­ics to mon­i­tor the out­come of the decision.

For exam­ple, if a client insists on giv­ing the home page ban­ner a small call to action that, in your opin­ion, is dif­fi­cult to read or not promi­nent enough, per­suade them to let you imple­ment some A/​B test­ing: one month with their ban­ner and one month with your pro­posed solu­tion, and let the sta­tis­tics do the talk­ing. No client on earth would con­tinue to insist on their solu­tion if yours deliv­ered a bet­ter return on investment.

If you’re think­ing, “What the heck is A/​B test­ing?” even bet­ter! This is an ideal oppor­tu­nity to learn a valu­able skill while get­ting paid and giv­ing your client excel­lent service!

Sum­mary

Explain­ing to a client that they’re wrong is never easy. It could blow up in your face and dam­age what was a good rela­tion­ship. But every­one is wrong some­times, and clients are no dif­fer­ent. Always start by ask­ing your­self if the client is, in fact, wrong. Or are you try­ing to impose your opin­ion (based on a nar­row Web-​​only view) on what is ulti­mately a busi­ness deci­sion that affects the client’s entire strat­egy, both online and offline.

If you con­clude that their direc­tion is still mis­guided, open a dia­logue with them in lan­guage they relate too: busi­ness lan­guage. Rather than say it won’t work, ask them what goals or return on invest­ment they think the direc­tion will help achieve. Estab­lish your­self as the dig­i­tal expert from the moment you make con­tact with the client by con­duct­ing all aspects of your work with pro­fes­sion­al­ism. Do every­thing you can to posi­tion your­self as some­one who has the expe­ri­ence to sug­gest alter­na­tive solu­tions. And where pos­si­ble, back up your rec­om­men­da­tions with third-​​party mate­r­ial and user feedback.

If all else fails, be direct with the client. But know which clients you can be direct with and when you will have to back down. Finally, don’t let being over­ruled be the end of the debate. Sug­gest test­ing peri­ods, and let the Web ana­lyt­ics do the talk­ing. All clients respond when they see impor­tant met­rics go up rather than down!

What are your favorite ways of telling clients that they’re wrong?

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© Sam Barnes for Smash­ing Mag­a­zine, 2009. | Perma­link | 22 com­ments | Add to del​.icio​.us | Digg this | Stum­ble on Stum­ble­Upon! | Tweet it! | Sub­mit to Red­dit | Forum Smash­ing Mag­a­zine
Post tags: clients, com­mu­ni­ca­tion

Posted in Clients, Graphic Design | Comments Off

How To Identify and Deal With Different Types Of Clients

In busi­ness, being able to read peo­ple and quickly get a sense of who you’re deal­ing with is an invalu­able skill. It turns your encounter with a client into an oppor­tu­nity to catch a glimpse of the upcom­ing project and how it will need to be han­dled. It is one of the build­ing blocks of a pro­fes­sional relationship.

In today’s dig­i­tal age, the arena has shifted to the Web, and the online office space that most free­lancers inhabit lim­its per­sonal inter­ac­tion. Though suss­ing out a client’s per­son­al­ity via online com­mu­ni­ca­tion is dif­fi­cult, it still remains an invalu­able tool in your arsenal.

Image by Salva Bar­bera.

In the free­lanc­ing field, you will encounter a range of client types. Being able to iden­tify which you are deal­ing with allows you to develop the right strat­egy to max­i­mize your inter­ac­tions with them, and it could save your san­ity. Below is a list of the most com­mon per­son­al­ity types and the tell-​​tale signs that will tip you off.

The Passive-​​Aggressive

Image by John Philip.

This is the client who is very pas­sive when you ask for ini­tial input, but when you sub­mit the fin­ished prod­uct, they aggres­sively attack it, demand­ing a lot of detailed changes, both major and minor. They had an idea of what they wanted all along but kept it mostly to them­selves. Even though they showed appre­ci­a­tion of cer­tain ideas and ele­ments through­out the devel­op­ment process, do not expect the passive-​​aggressive client to keep any of them as they send revi­sions your way.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Characteristics

• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is mostly one-​​sided and unhelp­ful dur­ing project development.
• Makes state­ments such as:
  • “I’m not really sure what we’re look­ing for.”
  • “Just do some­thing that would appeal to us generally.”
  • “You totally missed the point of what we wanted.”

How to Deal

Patience is the key. Expect­ing the last-​​minute requests for revi­sions may soften the blow of the client’s aggres­sive behav­ior. Keep your orig­i­nal lay­ered design intact so that you can eas­ily refine and change it later (not that you wouldn’t, but it does hap­pen). Also, make sure your con­tract spec­i­fies a lim­ited num­ber of revisions.

The Fam­ily Friend

Image by Celiece Aurea.

This is the client whom you have known for years either through per­sonal or fam­ily inter­ac­tion, and this con­nec­tion has landed you the job. The rela­tion­ship will be tested and per­haps marred for­ever by what could very well be a night­mare of a project. This fam­ily friend believes he deserves a “spe­cial” price and unbri­dled access to your work. They will some­times unwit­tingly belit­tle your work or not take it seri­ously because of their per­sonal con­nec­tion to you.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Characteristics

• These clients are easy to iden­tify because… well, you know them.
• Makes such state­ments as:
  • “Could you just throw some­thing together for me?”
  • “I don’t want you to think that just because I know you I want you to cut me a deal.”
  • “You’re going to charge me what?! But we go way back!”

How to Deal

The way to deal with this client depends on how well you know them and how much you value your rela­tion­ship with them. But remem­ber that any­one who would take advan­tage of such a rela­tion­ship is not truly a friend, so respond accord­ingly. An hon­est approach could end up sav­ing the rela­tion­ship. But start off with a pro­fes­sional, not per­sonal, tone, and they may fol­low your lead. Of course, if you truly value the rela­tion­ship, you may want to pass on the job altogether.

The Under-​​Valuer

Image by Maxime Per­ron Caissy.

Like the fam­ily friend described above, this client will devalue your cre­ative con­tri­bu­tions. But there is a dif­fer­ence: you do not actu­ally know this per­son. There is no ratio­nale for their behav­ior. They feel they should get a “friend’s” pric­ing rate not because they want to be friends with you, but because they do not see your work as being worth that much… even if they couldn’t do it them­selves. Not com­ing from a cre­ative back­ground or even hav­ing had expo­sure to the arts can mar someone’s appre­ci­a­tion of the work that you do. After years in our field, we make it look easy, and that is what the under-​​valuer sees.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Characteristics

• Does not respond to ques­tions in a timely fashion.
• Makes such state­ments as:
  • “It’s not like it takes much effort on your part.”
  • “Couldn’t you just throw some­thing together for me?”
  • “How hard can this really be?”

How to Deal

Con­fi­dence is key here. You know what your work demands and how well you do your job. The under-​​valuer will rec­og­nize this con­fi­dence. Don’t back down or con­cede a point to the client when dis­cussing your role in the project. Stand­ing firm will estab­lish the pro­fes­sional and respect­ful tone you deserve. If the client does not respond in kind, cut your losses and decline their project.

The Nit-​​Picker

Image by Bob Smith.

This client is never fully sat­is­fied with the work you do and will con­stantly pick on minor details here and there that they dis­like and want changed. Do not be sur­prised if they ask you to change these same details over and over ad nau­seam. It is not a sign of dis­re­spect (as it is with the other clients), but sim­ply the nature of the per­son. They may have been burned in some other project and are now unsat­is­fied with every­thing in their path, includ­ing your work.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Characteristics

• Com­plains almost con­sis­tently about unre­lated things.
• Per­sonal out­look comes with a scathing bite.
• Makes such state­ments as:
  • “How hard is it to [fill in the blank with any rant]?”
  • “I’m really not sure about this ele­ment here. It just doesn’t pop!”
  • “I don’t think you are really get­ting it.”

How to Deal

Once again, patience is impor­tant (espe­cially if you have some sadis­tic rea­son for tak­ing on nit-​​picking clients). Try to detach your­self from the project as much as pos­si­ble, so that the con­stant nit-​​pickery does not affect you per­son­ally. It is easy to feel hurt or get defen­sive when your work is repeat­edly ques­tioned, and you may begin to doubt your skill. But under­stand that this is not about you or your tal­ent; it is sim­ply a per­son­al­ity trait of the per­son you are deal­ing with. And once again, pro­tect your­self in the contract.

The Scorn­ful Saver

Image by Ivan Petrov.

This client has sim­i­lar­i­ties to the nit-​​picker and under-​​valuer but is actu­ally impressed with your work and skill set. The crit­i­cize you merely to under­mine your con­fi­dence in an attempt to lower your pric­ing rate. Unlike some other client types, the scorn­ful saver under­stands cre­ative peo­ple and their processes. But they are cheap and manip­u­la­tive, and their scheme may have worked in their favor once or twice in the past. So, they con­tinue to sub­tly abuse the peo­ple they hire in the hope of sav­ing every last penny.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Characteristics

• Com­pli­ments always come with a less-​​than-​​flattering qualifier.
• Takes time to respond to ques­tions, some­times mak­ing you ask more than once.
• Makes such state­ments as:
  • “I really like what you’ve done over­all, but I’m unsure about one or two things.”
  • “You may not have got­ten exactly what we’re look­ing for, but you’re close.”

How to Deal

Once again, it is all about con­fi­dence. Hav­ing a solid under­stand­ing of your field and being con­fi­dent in your knowl­edge and abil­i­ties will keep this client’s manip­u­la­tion in check. Stand­ing your ground and even call­ing the client on some of their tac­tics could shift the bal­ance of power over to you. Be pre­pared to walk away from the project if the dis­re­spect and manip­u­la­tion con­tin­ues. There will be other projects and other clients.

The “I-Could-Do-This-Myself”-er

Image by Maria Beli­akova.

Where to begin… When this client farms a project out to you, they make clear to you that they know how to do what they’re hir­ing you to do but that just don’t have the time to actu­ally do it. They may be work­ing at a firm or an entre­pre­neur; either way, you are there to pick up their slack. If they’re at a firm, you could be in for an inter­est­ing sit­u­a­tion; they were likely hired for their par­tic­u­lar style and pro­pos­als, and now you will have to please two sets of peo­ple: the per­son who hired you and the peo­ple who hired him.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Characteristics

• Will gen­er­ally be (or look) hec­tic and rushed.
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion from them often takes the form of short bursts of information.
• Makes such state­ments as:
  • “I could eas­ily han­dle this if my sched­ule weren’t so full.”
  • “Really? Not sure that’s the direc­tion I would’ve gone in, but whatever.”
  • “Remem­ber, you are fill­ing my shoes, and they’re pretty big.”

How to Deal

The “I-Could-Do-This-Myself”-er will likely have rec­og­nized your tal­ent and skill right away, which is why they hired you. They merely want you to know that this project (and thus you) is not above their abil­ity. And though these reminders will grate on you peri­od­i­cally, they will let you run with your ideas, per­haps offer­ing sug­ges­tions or feed­back on the final design.

The Con­trol Freak

Image by Michal Zacharzewski.

This client des­per­ately needs to micro-​​manage every lit­tle detail of the project, no mat­ter their qual­i­fi­ca­tions. No deci­sion may be made with­out their explicit input and approval. This tire­some client forces him­self into your work­flow, heed­less of either invi­ta­tion or protest, and will demand access to you at whim. The con­cepts of bound­aries and strict work processes are eas­ily lost on the con­trol freak, who con­stantly dis­rupts the flow. They may also believe you lack ded­i­ca­tion or pre­pared­ness, fur­ther rein­forc­ing their need to interfere.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Characteristics

• Ini­tial con­tact is long, detailed and one-​​sided, with lit­tle input sought from you.
• Your input remains unsought as the project pushes forward.
• Makes such state­ments as:
  • “This way we can keep in con­tact 24/​7 in case you have any ques­tions, or I do.”
  • “I really know best what is right for the project and what is not.”
  • “What do you mean, I’m dis­tract­ing you? I am the only thing keep­ing this project on track!”

How to Deal

If you absolutely must take on this client, for what­ever rea­son, resign your­self to the fact that you will not be steer­ing at any point. You will have to detach your­self from the work because you will have no con­trol at all. You will merely be con­struct­ing, not design­ing, so just let go and let it hap­pen. You may want to exclude this project from your portfolio.

The Dream Client

Image by Piotr Lewandowski.

This client, widely dis­missed as a myth, does in fact exist and under­stands the full scope and artistry of your work. They value your role and cre­ative con­tri­bu­tions and want you in the driver’s seat as soon as the project gets under­way. They are timely with responses and pay­ments… pay­ments that they did not “nego­ti­ate” but rather accepted for what they are. They reflect on your sug­ges­tions and have con­fi­dence in your capabilities.

Iden­ti­fy­ing Characteristics

• Is enthu­si­as­tic about the project and your involve­ment in it.
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion shows aware­ness of and respect for your role.
• Makes such state­ments as:
  • “Here’s the brief we pre­pared. The rest is pretty much up to you.”
  • “We like what we’ve seen and trust you’ll do great things for us.”

How to Deal

Don’t brag! Just enjoy the ride and hold on to them for as long as you pos­si­bly can!

Wrap-​​up

Being able to iden­tify the type of client you are deal­ing with will pre­pare you for the job ahead. It will also help you decide whether to accept the job in the first place. Your con­tract will reflect the power dynam­ics of the project, so the more you know about the client, the bet­ter able you will be to adjust the con­tract as nec­es­sary. Have you come across other types of clients in your free­lanc­ing career? Please let us know in the comments.

Fur­ther Resources

Because con­tracts are such an impor­tant tool, here are some resources to help you draft them.

• Using Free­lance Graphic Design Con­tracts
  An arti­cle by David Airey deal­ing with the whys and hows of using free­lance design contracts.
• Busi­ness of Design Online Forms
  This web­site offers a num­ber of use­ful forms, free for down­load­ing and use.
• Free­lance Con­tracts
  A great con­tract tem­plate that makes it easy for free­lancers to fill in their own information.

(al)

© Robert Bowen for Smash­ing Mag­a­zine, 2009. |
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How To Persuade Your Users, Boss or Clients

Whether you are get­ting a client to sign off on a website’s design or per­suade a user to com­plete a call to action, we all need to know how to be con­vinc­ing. Like many in the Web design indus­try, I have a strange job. I am part sales­per­son, part con­sul­tant and part user expe­ri­ence designer. One day I could be pitch­ing a new idea to a board of direc­tors, the next I might be design­ing an e-​​commerce pur­chas­ing process. There is, how­ever, a com­mon theme: I spend most of my time per­suad­ing people.

As Web design­ers, we often have to nudge peo­ple in the direc­tion we want them to go. It is a vital skill we all have to learn. We’re not talk­ing about manip­u­la­tion. Under­handed tech­niques, and cer­tainly lying, won’t get you any­where. But you can present your­self and your argu­ments in ways that make peo­ple more recep­tive. The first and prob­a­bly most impor­tant way is to empathize.

1. Empathize

The worst thing you can do is enter a meet­ing or begin design­ing a user inter­face with a per­sonal agenda. If your goal is to push the other party into agree­ing with you, it will resist. But if you seek to under­stand their needs and respond to them, you will find the oth­ers more cooperative.

Start by Lis­ten­ing
To achieve this, you must really lis­ten. Pay­ing lip ser­vice to the “idea” of lis­ten­ing is not enough. You have to hear what they’re say­ing and look for those “points of pain” that your ideas might actu­ally relieve.

Tai­lor Pre­sen­ta­tion of Agenda
Rather than forc­ing the peo­ple in the room to reluc­tantly agree, tai­lor your pre­sen­ta­tion of ideas so that they see the ben­e­fit of them. This involves some cre­ative think­ing on your part but is pos­si­ble if you really under­stand their needs.

Show Ben­e­fit to Other Party
Remem­ber, explain­ing how your ideas will help you or oth­ers is not enough. You have to demon­strate how they help the actual peo­ple you are speak­ing to. For exam­ple, rather than say­ing to your client, “Users are going to love this new fea­ture,” you could instead say, “This new fea­ture will keep users com­ing back, which will dra­mat­i­cally improve the num­ber of leads you receive.” Once you under­stand the other party and have thought about their needs, your next step is to form a rela­tion­ship with them.

2. Be Personable

If you have a good rela­tion­ship with your users, boss or client, they will be more inclined to take your sug­ges­tions. Of course, the kind of rela­tion­ship you build depends on who the other per­son is. Your rela­tion­ship with web­site users is dif­fer­ent from your rela­tion­ship with your boss. How­ever, cer­tain approaches hold true across the board.

Get Them Nod­ding
It’s a silly lit­tle thing, but when I give a pitch, I try to get peo­ple to nod. Nod­ding is a good sign and puts them in a pos­i­tive mood. I nor­mally achieve this by repeat­ing back to them (in dif­fer­ent words) one of their own points. They will obvi­ously agree with what you’re say­ing, but it also demon­strates that you’re lis­ten­ing and are on the same wave length.

The same approach can be used online. For exam­ple if I am writ­ing a post aimed at Web design­ers, I know that berat­ing IE6 will get them nod­ding in agree­ment right away. I have suc­ceeded in mak­ing a connection.

Be Enthu­si­as­tic
Enthu­si­asm is so impor­tant. Clients want to know you care about their project. Bosses want to know you are moti­vated to work, and users want to know you care about the ser­vice you deliver. How­ever, so many peo­ple lack enthu­si­asm when com­mu­ni­cat­ing their mes­sage. They come across either as defeated before they even begin or as overly aggres­sive. Instead, try over­whelm­ing enthu­si­asm. It is infec­tious, and peo­ple get caught up in it. More impor­tantly, say­ing “No” to some­body who is ooz­ing enthu­si­asm and excite­ment from ever pore is not easy. It would be like kick­ing a puppy. (Well, not quite.)

Mir­ror Them
You have prob­a­bly heard how mir­ror­ing a person’s body lan­guage helps estab­lish a pos­i­tive con­nec­tion. What­ever you do, do not do it! Con­sciously doing it just comes across as creepy! It will hap­pen nat­u­rally, so don’t worry about it. That said, it is a use­ful indi­ca­tion of whether a face-​​to-​​face meet­ing is going well. If the other per­son is mir­ror­ing your body lan­guage, chances are they like you. What you can con­sciously do is mir­ror their lan­guage or use the same terminology.

If your boss or client talks about “return on invest­ment” or “suc­cess cri­te­ria,” do it your­self. And if you sus­pect the other party is not famil­iar with cer­tain ter­mi­nol­ogy, make sure to avoid it. Our way of speak­ing asso­ciates us with a cer­tain “tribe.” If we share the same lan­guage, we are more likely to build a rapport.

Make Them Smile
Another trick for build­ing rela­tion­ships is to inject humour into the pro­ceed­ings. If you can make the other per­son smile, you’ve gone a long way to break­ing down any bar­ri­ers. Of course, this has to be done with care. Overdo it and you’ll look like the fool. But even the most miserable-​​looking direc­tors on a board are human beings, too, and like to smile. Although all of these approaches are great for build­ing rela­tion­ship, one trumps them all: openness.

3. Be Open

You may be read­ing this think­ing, “This guy is mad. What if his clients read this stuff. Won’t they feel manip­u­lated?” My answer is no. I am open and hon­est about what I do. I would be entirely fine with any one of my clients read­ing this because noth­ing manip­u­la­tive or secret is here. Peo­ple hate being deceived; so if any­thing, the hon­esty in this arti­cle will build my rela­tion­ship, not under­mine it. Two key com­po­nents help build open rela­tion­ships and cre­ate a recep­tive audience.

Dis­arm­ing Hon­esty
Many times, the best way to dif­fuse a poten­tial con­flict is with dis­arm­ing hon­esty. For exam­ple, I reg­u­larly acknowl­edge in sales sit­u­a­tions that I am there to sell and that they should take any­thing I say with a pinch of salt. The client obvi­ously knows this already. But ver­bal­iz­ing it shows a kind of hon­esty that peo­ple rarely encounter.

Be Will­ing to Show Weak­ness
We can some­times be so des­per­ate to make a point that we become unwill­ing to admit even the slight­est weak­ness in our argu­ment. Ulti­mately, though, we come across as pig-​​headed and inflexible.

Peo­ple respond well when you admit you are wrong or are unsure of an answer. Be will­ing to say “I don’t know” or “I’ve messed up” if nec­es­sary. Peo­ple will respect you for it. One of the best exam­ples of this is Flickr’s blog post “Some­times We Suck,” in which Flickr apol­o­gizes for per­for­mance prob­lems. By tak­ing this approach, it demon­strated its integrity and com­pletely defused the anger of those who were com­plain­ing. Of course, being will­ing to show weak­ness takes a lot of con­fi­dence, and that trait is crit­i­cal if you are to con­vince others.

4. Be Confident

As humans we are drawn to con­fi­dent lead­ers. We fol­low those who have a clear vision and walk the path with con­fi­dence. Com­mu­ni­cat­ing your mes­sage with con­fi­dence, there­fore, is impor­tant. Estab­lish your­self as an expert, and speak with authority.

Bet Con­fi­dent, Not Arro­gant
Being con­fi­dent also means hav­ing the strength to admit when you are wrong. A truly con­fi­dent leader does not claim to have all of the answers all of the time. Being able to con­cede points and allow oth­ers to express their views is a key aspect of con­fi­dence. Only those who lack con­fi­dence fear oppos­ing views.

You Do Not Always Have To Win
Pick your bat­tles. Con­ced­ing some points to achieve the greater aim is okay. Giv­ing ground does not under­mine your posi­tion. Some­times you have to be a lit­tle sub­mis­sive to get peo­ple on board. Don’t allow your ego to get in the way. If some­one feels good about hav­ing won an argu­ment, then they will more likely be accom­mo­dat­ing when you sug­gest an alter­na­tive. Com­pro­mis­ing some­times is okay. It is cer­tainly bet­ter than con­stantly being neg­a­tive and reject­ing counter-​​proposals.

5. Be Positive

Whether deal­ing with a demand­ing boss, dif­fi­cult client or finicky users, you have to impress them with your atti­tude and ser­vice. Always be help­ful and keen to leave a pos­i­tive impres­sion. In cus­tomer ser­vice, that some­times involves going the extra mile. With your boss, it means see­ing the ben­e­fits of their lat­est mad scheme. What­ever the sit­u­a­tion, devel­op­ing a rep­u­ta­tion for being unhelp­ful and neg­a­tive is the worst thing that can happen.

Con­clu­sion

There are no Jedi mind tricks that will help you to always con­vince your clients that you are right. At the end of the day, the secret to per­suad­ing oth­ers is to show respect, lis­ten to their opin­ions and present your vision in lan­guage that they understand.

(al)

© Paul Boag for Smash­ing Mag­a­zine, 2009. |
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