C
lients from Hell. No one wants them. Everybody’s had them. And if there’s one thing
you could insure your business against? It’s
them. Oh God. The whining. The complaining. The
stiffing you on payments you so richly deserved.
Working with these folks is just plain miserable.
What if I told you... (I feel like Morpheus offering
you the blue or red pill here...)
What if I told you... Not only can you stay away
from those horrible clients, but you can fill your
calendar to the brim with wonderful, magical,
seemingly-mythical IDEAL CLIENTS so that you
never even have to consider these a-holes again?
We’re talking ideal clients who love your work, value your contributions, pay you on time, and want
to shower you with compliments when the work is
done. They sound more precious than diamonds
and more rare than unicorns, right?
No blue pill needed, baby. Ideal clients are REAL,
they’re waiting for you, and you can find them.
Here’s how.
KNOW WHO YOU LIKE - NO, LOVE - TO
WORK WITH.
First things first - you have to define exactly who
you want to work with and the type of qualities
they share. This will guide every single move you
make going forward - every bit of graphic design,
every piece of copy, even every new product you
develop will be created with this person in mind.
How do you know who that ideal client is? Simple. Take the characteristics of all of your favorite
clients - age, gender, political and socioeconomic
background, likes, dislikes, beliefs, preferences ALL of them - and note them. Then on a separate
sheet, list out all the personality aspects of clients
you did NOT enjoy working with.
When you note a trend forming, use the information to develop a dossier on your ideal client - an
avatar, if you will - and give that person a name.
Let’s say her name is Andrea, she’s 28 years old,
she’s married, she has one child and two cats. She
got a four year degree in Early Childhood Education from Baylor, she pledged the XYZ sorority, and
her favorite thing to do is go wine-tasting with her
BFFs.
I mean, this is extremely specific stuff, right? It
seems almost silly to think about all of this, but
when you DO? It’s like MAGIC - because you can
picture Andrea and you know just what her life is
like, creating communications to reach her, attract
her, and work with her will be roughly 45,893%
easier.
OFFER ONLY WHAT YOU DO BEST.
There’s no quicker way to turn a normal person
into a client from hell than by half-assing their service. I know, I KNOW - you meant well, and you
really needed the money, but... you hated it every
step of the way, and the results were less than optimal. Now that y