Overview

Throughout the course of your design career, you will invariably find yourself in situations where you’re faced with the challenge of dealing with problematic clients.

It’s not your fault. Design schools or bootcamps will almost never teach you how to navigate these waters, and most design “gurus” conveniently gloss over this part of the industry.

That stops here.

Today, you’ll learn how you can effectively screen out bad design clients before they ever become a problem for you.

The four types of clients

First thing’s first, in order to make the most out of your design activities while creating the most value, and dealing with the least BS, you need to know the four types of clients that exist out in the world.

Granted all clients exist within this matrix as mixed combinations of these categories, but they will almost always have one dominant category they belong to, and that’s the one you want to pay the most attention to.

They are:

• Cheap clients
• Difficult clients
• Sophisticated clients
• Affluent clients

Let’s talk about each in more detail.

Buyer profiles

→ Cheap clients: these clients buy based on price, and price alone. They don’t care what you offer, or how valuable it is. If they deem it to be too expensive, they won’t buy from you, or they will beleaguer you with infinite requests for a discount. Don’t do it. Once you lower the price for them one time, they’ll expect it forever.

→ Difficult clients: these clients buy based on features. They want the bells, the whistles, the fireworks shows. They want to feel like they’re being catered to, and they want a plethora of features to choose from. They want it their way or no way at all, even if it would be bad for them, technically infeasible, or cost them a boatload of money down the road.

→ Sophisticated clients: these clients buy based on value. Normally residing in the B2B space, sophisticated clients make purchases based on how good of an overall value that they’re getting for the money. They are more calculating than other types of clients, but once they make a decision, it is normally set in stone. Very rarely will sophisticated clients cause you issues once all the details have been hammered out.

→Affluent clients: lastly, affluent clients buy based on prestige. They have money, a lot of it, and they want everyone else to know their social status. They want things that are rare, exclusive, hard to come by, and exotic. Price for them is almost never a concern, because for them the expense of the product is part of the experience.

Who you want to serve

If you have your pick, serve sophisticated and affluent clients exclusively. They have the most money, they’re the easiest to work with, and they almost never back out of deals once the paperwork is signed.

Who you don’t want to serve

Cheap and difficult clients absolutely suck to serve on an ongoing basis, because once you hit scale, the problems they cause multiply exponentially.

They will haggle you for lower rates, while simultaneously demanding infinitesimal changes to their design files constantly. They want unlimited revisions, they fuss with it endlessly, and then after days of unpaid work, they want to go with what you had originally.

These people are not worth your time, I am telling you this from experience, AVOID THEM.

How to screen for the worst types of client

Now that you know the types of clients you need to watch out for, let’s talk about how you can screen them out of your business.

Screening out cheap clients

This one is super easy, price. A higher than average price is like kryptonite to cheap clients, they flee from it. It doesn’t even have to be super high, just higher than average by 10–15%, and most cheap clients won’t even bother you with an email.

Screening out difficult clients

Difficult clients were a thorn in my side in my early years, because they evade detection much more deftly than cheap clients.

→ They will often masquerade as sophisticated or affluent clients to get you to do business with them, because they’ve already burned bridges with other companies.

So how do we screen for them?

Details, that’s how. A difficult client will almost always contact you with “an idea,” or “an opportunity,” they’ll want your time, they’ll want it now, and they’ll make a big to-do about how important it is.

• Ask them for details.
• Ask them for a project brief.
• Ask them to sign a preliminary agreement with you.

All difficult clients have one thing in common: they want you to do all the work for them. Ask them for granular project details, or to do work on their end to get the project rolling, and if they drag their feet or run from you, ding! That’s a difficult client.

What to do when you don’t have a choice

Now, of course, this is all great, but what if you’re an in-houser and your organization ends up having to deal with a cheap or difficult client?

How to deal with cheap clients

When dealing with cheap clients, you want to emphasize to them just how good of a deal they’re actually getting. Show them how much more it would cost them if they didn’t go with you, and how much money they end up saving by going with you.

Cheap clients are the most loss-averse out of all client types, so its very important that you show them respect to their fears by outlining the costs of everything, but also the immense savings they’re getting via your organization’s careful planning, efficient workflow, and expertise.

How to deal with difficult client

When dealing with difficult clients, the best thing you can do is get literally everything in writing. Every change, every revision, every modification, no exceptions.

Why? Because it’s never a one-off with difficult clients, they are testing the waters to see how far they can go with you. It’s not about “getting it right,” for them it’s about control. You think you’re doing a nice thing by “helping” them as a show of goodwill and doing these “quick, little revisions,” but all you’re doing is digging the grave an hour deeper each time.

Pretty soon, the whole project will inexplicably need to be redone, and they’ll want you to foot the bill.

→ The rule here is that every hour is billable hour. Make sure they understand that, set the precedent for it, bill accordingly, and it will help considerably to stave off their endless revisions.

The bottom line

So what does this all mean for you as a designer?

1. Avoid cheap and difficult clients.
2. Pursue sophisticated and affluent clients.
3. Keep your prices higher than average to abate cheap clients.
4. Ask for details and agreements to stave off difficult clients.

Remember, the market is as wide as it is deep, and there are plenty of opportunities to make real, solid business connections.

Don’t get suckered into working with problematic clients. Keep your wits about you, use these techniques, and always remember that no deal is almost always better than a bad deal.