by seanlow on February 14, 2012
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that my mantra is to do things your way. Do the work to understand not only the art you want to create, but the ethos behind it. Make sure that your clients understand how you have come to your process. If you shoot film, why. Why you present your completed designs in one thought (i.e., do not allow your clients to talk during your presentation). How come you install all at once, instead of over time. Be iconic only to yourself. Why? The overall empowerment any artist (or human being for that matter) gets from being as true to themselves as possible often yields the greatest rewards. This much I have spoken of many times. But what I have not focused on is what it would be like to be your competition.
In a perfect world, potential clients would only talk to you about their project and no one else. Reality though says that we live in a shop and compare culture. Technology has almost made it an imperative. Thank you Amazon, Expedia and all the other aggregators out there. If I want to investigate the top ten of any creative business in a category, it will take just a few minutes. Compare this with 15 years ago, when the same endeavor would take days, if it were possible at all. So when you take the time to explain the how you are going to take an intangible (I want a fabulous wedding, design, picture, dress, etc.) and make it tangible you put unbelievable pressure on those who do not.
Imagine you are a social photographer and you insist either on receiving an image of your client’s home or actually visiting it. Why? Because your image is meant to live in their space – permanently. If you can explain the importance and your (potential) client gets it, what does your competition say? “Oh, we do that too.”? Do not think so. Simple – the more iconic you are, the harder it is for your competition to say “me too but better” without looking like a poor imitation. The only other thing competition can do is attack the hows and whys of what you do. Not necessary to go to your home or see a picture of it, it is just a photo after all and up to you what to do with it. Hard to believe you will persuade a client who has believed in the importance of your process to be so easily dissuaded. No, the only way to compete with you will be to be iconic themselves, even if the deliverables are similar.
Ultimately, then, this is how all creative businesses can change the game and relegate those without conviction and courage to the sidelines (dare I say, where they belong). Focus not on deliverables – how many meetings, drawings, flowers, images, designs a client will get for the money, but on how you will go about creating those deliverables. Yes, sell trust to earn the right to deliver and get paid for your artistry. When the destination is a given, the journey is all that matters. If every artist had to defend their journey, there would be no room for those who chose to sidestep the discussion. Their only alternative will be to essentially make it about price. I may be naïve, but intrinsic value beats price every time. Your work has to be to know and believe in the value of your artistry. Your art will speak for itself.
by seanlow on February 6, 2012
We have all heard the horror stories – nightmare client abuses anyone and everything in your creative business. From bullying, non-payment, screaming, berating, demeaning emails/phone calls/meetings, the wrong client can sap the very life force out of you, your employees, even your art.
Too often, the wounds are self-inflicted. If you do not pay enough attention to defining who and what your creative business stands for, the specific art and ethos behind the art, then it can not be a surprise when someone who really does not want or value what you offer becomes a client. Such is the price of trawling and, for those of you in this camp, if you quintupled the price of working with the wrong client, maybe you would invest more (read: Mount Everest more) time in finding the right client. However, even if you have worked diligently to put yourself out there and to find the clients that best suit you, your art and your creative business, misfires can still happen. Simply, a client might lie (mostly to themselves) about what it is they actually care about, pretend to be something they are not, or just have a manner that does not fit with yours.
No matter the reason the wrong client became a client, a serious consideration has to be whether to let the client go or not. Most certainly, the decision is easier if you have worked to define who you are to your client, but even if not, the decision does need to be made. Like cancer, continuing with the wrong client will spread and infect every aspect of your creative business. Better to think through all of the permutations and costs imposed by the wrong client before you decide to barrel through. Before I go through three of my top considerations, I will say that, in most instances, letting go of the wrong client is almost always the right decision. You do not need the money that badly. Your self-respect and that of your employees is invariably worth more than they are paying. Better to say goodbye to a bad fit with integrity than keep on and watch your integrity walk out the door with a client that does not deserve it.
You Will Not Win. First among the considerations to lose a wrong client is to forget that it will all work out in the end. It will not. The wrong client will never value your art. You will have to compromise somewhere. Money will be an issue as it always is when the thing is not worth the art behind the thing. The ink and paper is never worth the art they create, even if it is gold and diamonds. Either the end result will be something you are not proud of or it will cost you dearly for it to be so. In some instances, you might not get the credit you are hoping for. You will definitely not get the rave reviews you need. The best you can hope for with the wrong client is that you get through it relatively unscathed and, like a silly romantic comedy, everyone forgets the project almost immediately after it is done. Most likely, there will be significant damage – even if you do not realize it immediately. Underwhelming performance or over-taxed effort come at a heavy price to your reputation and good will. You only have your name after all.
The Right Clients Suffer. The dream client lets you do what you do. Design just flows, process is respected, you do your best work and your client believes in you. The wrong client is the exact opposite – they do not believe in you and do not trust you. Ironic, you will almost always have to work harder for the wrong client than the right one. Ironic because you should be working twice as hard for the client that actually respects and cares about you and your art as opposed to the one that does not. In almost every respect then, continuing to work with the wrong client, especially if they are paying the same amount as a great client, cheats the great client. Were that you had limitless resources, but you do not. What do you think your great client would think if they knew you were working twice as hard for someone else? Why choose to devote the majority of resources to try to satisfy someone you cannot? Better to work harder on delighting those who love you.
Keeping The Wrong Client Is Arrogant. The wrong client for you is the right client for someone else. If you come from the place that you want your client to have the best experience/art possible no matter who they are, then trying to do what you do not is mean. Whether it is ego, fear or delusion (see first consideration), keeping a client that wants something other than what you do robs another artist of the opportunity to shine. What is soul sucking to you is life-affirming to them. In your belly, if you know someone else would do a better job than you, then ask yourself why you choose to deny your client the experience.
Rather than choose to end a relationship with anger, why not go another way. Continuing on with the third consideration, humility dictates you knowing that you are not able to meet the goals of your client. Why not do everything in your power to ensure that you put them into the hands of someone who will? Will it be a hard conversation? Of course. However, approached well, with a sense of integrity of who you are and what you care most about, you will be able to reach your wrong client. For instance, it could be that your client just cares about getting more for less and your goal is to design to the appropriate budget. Taking the time to explain what you are all about (whether or not you have done it before) and then taking even more time to find your client the right home speaks volumes about you, your art and your creative business. Your client may not ever appreciate your decision to let her go, but others will. No one said integrity was easy.
