I’m about to advocate a little bit of hand-holding. All writers should own their own process in every project, but sometimes we have to perform beyond our own processes so our clients’ business can thrive. Let me explain.
In the past, I’ve had clients who are hopelessly unorganized, terminally late, or too overworked to take charge of their own projects. It happens to the best of us. I’m a hyper-organized person. It’s my nature to leap in and help. But if I took over certain aspects of a client’s project, I run the risk of offending, overstepping my boundaries, and losing the client due to some unnecessary power struggle. So here’s what I’ve done instead:
Give short, bulleted lists. For the client who kept losing project sections and misinterpreting my notes, I decided to go small and lean. I gave just the facts, separated out in bulleted form, and asked the client to verify that this is what we’d agreed to or had handled already. The result: The last two projects went much more smoothly and we finished in record time.
Take charge of communication channels. For the client who made appointments and then either forgot or became too busy, I decided to give him a call at the scheduled time instead. It worked on two levels: I was able to take one more thing off his list and I could determine in seconds if he was really around, saving myself lots of idle time as I waited for him to remember what he’d clearly forgotten. The result: I became a trusted vendor, someone who could relieve him of mundane details while helping him get his project going.
Provide daily or weekly updates. Especially with new clients, I’ve decided that communicating progress is essential. For one client, I set up weekly emails in which I gave him not only word count, but also updates on project sections completed and project sections yet to be done. The result: He could progress and he soon relaxed and learned to trust that I was on the job. It led to more work from him, too.
Find the decision maker and stick like glue to them. Too many projects go awry when it’s unclear who the decision maker is. For corporate projects, it’s rarely your contact person. In those cases, I’ve asked who is the final decision maker on all things and I’ve asked for a direct route to work out minor details. The result: This eliminated numerous hoops and revisions, leaving them with a stronger product and me with a time investment that made sense.
How do you serve as gatekeeper? What have you done to help your clients get the results they want?
The only thing that comes to my mind at the moment is that I'm not afraid to speak up and tell a client if their project won't work or if there's a better option, if I see one.
Once a woman wanted a series of articles, but since she wanted them to be very detailed and informative; I thought it would be better to have a report or ebook instead that she could sell for a small price. She liked the idea and made a good profit from it in the end. (I made more money from my suggestion then I would have if it was left the way they originally planned it.)
Sometimes, it doesn't work so good. I had told one guy that the speech he wanted written on dealing with grieving wasn't going to fly with the ton of humor he asked to have in it. When I told him that, he basically told me where to go and that was the end of that project. (No, I didn't waste any time crying over it.)
Wendy, it's admirable to speak up in order to protect their investment. Great advice.
I remember turning down a project because, well, he couldn't figure out what his project was. The main issue was he was tying very personal goals to this business goal. It wasn't going to work. The business goal had to have its own separate purpose.
Well, that and I didn't want to be his therapist.
Yeah, I'm not interested in being either a therapist or a mother figure. I tend to work with more small businesses and non-profits (the latter of which have their own pitfalls), and they tend to be more responsible or they couldn't survive.
I think it was very generous of you to call the client who "forgot". If a project isn't important enough for a client to remember — or look at his schedule when he's supposed to call — I'm going to charge him up the ying yang for wasting my time and probably not work with him again. to me, that type of "forgetting" is disrespect — I don't believe for one second it's genuine. That's one of my "you better not cross that line" points.
If a client chooses to be disorganized, it's going to cost more. Because disorganization IS a choice –if you can't get it together, you shouldn't be in a job with responsibility.
Lori: Great advice (as always).
I'd like to give a special shout-out to "Provide daily or weekly updates." As someone who occasionally neglects to do this, I can attest to the importance (and the benefits) of concise & organized updates.
It may seem like extra work, but I've found great value in taking the time to ensure the client/customer knows what you've completed, what you're working on at the moment & what you have planned for the immediate future. Among other advantages, I think regular updates or progress reports accomplish the following:
1. Lets the customer see that you're organized & focused.
2. Reminds the customer that he/she is dealing with a professional (i.e. hopefully sends a "relax, I got this" message that precludes micromanagement or the sweating of the proverbial small stuff)
3. Gives the writer one more way to set goals, track progress, and hold him/herself accountable.
4. As cliched & buzz-wordy as this sounds, it puts the writer in a position of being proactive rather than reactive. You're not just responding to queries about your progress — you're putting the client's mind at ease while also influencing the tone/content of the conversation: Here's what I've already done for you, here's what I'm doing for you this week, & here's what I'll be doing for you next.
Devon, in almost every case, I totally agree. This one in particular was different. This is a serial forgetter. I truly don't think he can remember anything. He's a brilliant mind, but unorganized as hell. He needs a business manager in the worst way.
I'm willing to be proactive in this case, knowing this is a client with whom I've worked well in the past. I'm just not going to wait around any longer.
Glad you liked that one, Hugh. I've learned that for people who enjoy control, this is essential to putting their minds at ease (and getting them off your back a bit). And like you said, the added bonus of the accountability makes things easier on my side, too.