Playing Emotional Hardball
Expanding on this week’s theme – difficulties with bad clients – I think it’s time we touched on what I think is the toughest speed bump to ignore – emotional hardball. That’s when you, the professional writer, follow your invoicing procedure up to and possibly including the threat of litigation only to be met by one of the following:
-Counter-threats
-Blame
-Accusations of shoddy workmanship
-Name-calling
-Lies
Let me say right here that we are fortunate. Of all the clients we deal with, the ones I’m describing are definitely in the minority. Most clients reading this may worry that they’re accused of this. Disclaimer: Clients – if you’re reading it and are worried, that’s the best indication that you’re nowhere near guilty of any of these tactics. We can spot trouble a mile away by now. We can discern good from bad and we thank the Maker for you good ones!
Back to our topic. I myself have been faced with every one of those items on the list thrown at me by bad clients. So have you, I bet. What to do? One word – DISENGAGE.
See, the only thing that matters in all this is that you conduct business professionally. In most professions, there is a proviso in which the last resort to collect is to either sue or send bills to collection. When dealing with bad clients, you must stop thinking like a person. You’re a business. This is business. It doesn’t matter if the bad client calls you nasty names, lights your cat on fire or calls your talent into question. One fact, and one fact alone, matters here – your business has billed and has not received payment. If you have been cordial and professional to this point, there’s no reason to be anything else going forward. Cordially remind your bad client of the overdue payment, of the steps necessary to avoid litigation or collection, and hold fast to what you state and be prepared to follow through. Don’t get sucked into the drama – drama is the enemy. It breaks down your defenses, makes you doubt yourself and sucks you into pointless, tiresome fruitless exchanges with a person who is diverting the point from the real issue.
That’s not to say the bad behavior won’t continue. And for anyone who has even a passing knowledge of Psych 101 or behavioral patterns, you know that the behavior will indeed escalate before it stops. Don’t go there. Just don’t. Think you can’t resist? Think you need to defend your honor? Hogwash. Some of the things my writing friends and I have heard include lack of following an otherwise unmentioned procedure; being a hard-ass; being a dumb-ass; being sexually frustrated; not getting any lovin’ at home or otherwise; being too stupid to understand why payment isn’t forthcoming; having no talent; destroying or sucking the life out of someone’s words; being this close to being sued for not delivering what was already approved (that one’s a classic – we should start our own Wall of Fame and award a spot to each writer on receiving his or her first charge); being too out of touch to manage to invoice the way the client wants (and the way the writer is just now hearing about); being a no-talent hack; being a fraud; etc., etc.
Does it hurt to hear it? Yes, if you let it get to you. However, you need to see it for what it is – an attempt to discredit your services and avoid payment. If a non-paying aggressive person wants to discredit you, so be it. That’s not important (unless you’re being discredited publicly to groups of potential or current clients – that, my friend, is called legal action in the making). What is important is the “avoiding payment” part. Focus on that. Ignore the emotional crap, for that’s exactly what it is – crap. You’re better than that. You’re a business. Businesses don’t have feelings.
In almost eight years of freelancing, I think only three of my assignments deteriorated to this level (How’s that as proof that the majority of freelancer-client relationships run smoothly?). With two of them I *eventually* got paid; the other, I just let go (but only because I had secured a large upfront deposit on it). To this day, I still regret that I didn’t pursue it further, and I do keep tabs on the author (who I warned I owned a copyright interest in his manuscript). If he ever decides to actually publish the book, I may still go after him.
Luckily I’ve never experienced any of this crap. However, I’ve never had to deal with non-payment issues, nor have I been in the business as long as you and Kathy.
Sexually frustrated? Sweet Jesus, you or one of your writng pals have actually been told this? LMAO! I would crack up if a client threw that one at me. Maybe it’s my sick sense of humor.
P.S. Love your new picture! You look great!
Alicia, I’d have troubles not returning a snappy comeback, too! Yes, one of my chums was fed that line. It was just so absurd that a discussion of nonpayment went right into the gutter, but hey, apparently this dude was projecting, dontcha think? ;))
Good for you, Kathy. Yes, sometimes it’s okay to cut bait. You’re VERY wise to keep an eye on this person’s publishings….