Turning Down Projects
Working with clients on cool projects can be an amazing experience. But to get to that point, you need to know how to choose your clients wisely. Just like educating your clients, because they aren’t always right, it takes time and practice knowing how to weed out, and say no to, potential problematic clients. In other words, learning to turn down projects.
It’s not exactly a science, but learning how to read people and how they plan to go about a project are key areas that should be paid close attention to. It can be hard to pick those things up through communicating only through email. This is why discovery meetings are extremely important, and one of the most important meetings to have on any given project. Whether over the phone or in person, they are necessary.
So what’s the point of discovery meetings? It’s not always to talk about how you’re going to design/build a website. That can be discussed when a contract is signed. It’s a time to feel each other out. Ask questions about their business, how it operates, what their role in the business is, etc. The overall idea for discovery meetings is to make sure that both parties are a good fit for the project. It’s a time to make sure that business personalities mesh in order to have a successful project.
Any detection of red flags from a [potential] client, then turn it down. I’m sure many have learned, that no price tag is worth dealing with an extremely problematic client. It’s unnecessary stress to have. So, to be safe (unless desperate), don’t second guess any red flags that you notice in discovery meetings. If you have negative thoughts, it’s probably for a reason. Go with your gut and turn it down.
What are some of the red flags you look out for when choosing clients?
6 Comments
Yes, I think the crucial open-ended question to ask in a discovery meeting (if you can pull it off without seeming clueless) is “why do you think we’re here today”?
It’s the classic consultant lead-in, and all sorts of interesting things may get revealed (such as important stakeholders disagreeing on the goal of the project, etc.).
A recent client was in a “bad” situation with her previous developer with lawyers and all that. She wanted us to come in and clean it up. As it was a big ecommerce site we thought it had a lot of potential. A month into the project we found out we were the fifth developer in. Now it’s one of those stressful ones.
When she was talking about the developer and her legal trouble I should have been trying to hear “their” side of the story, not hers. Taking on someone’s mess is very touchy.
Dunrie, identifying statekholders is extremely important. Having the “design by committee” because you don’t know who makes the decisions can be a headache.
Tim, I agree, taking on someone else’s mess is definitely touchy, because you can’t really detect what went wrong to drive another developer away from the project. At at the point, since the project had already been started, a discovery meeting can be odd.
I couldn’t agree more with this post… The next post should be, “How to pass off the project when the client becomes problematic.” I think one of the top red flags is when the client starts changing the scope a lot. You don’t always find this out until the middle of the project and what was thought to be a cool client then becomes troublesome.
What we have done is identify a number of problem areas in phases throughout the project and address questions that will help us determine if these problem areas are going to be an obstacle with the potential client…
We have found that content development and the clients commitment to putting the work in on their side and how well they are prepared to tackle these issues once the project is underway are the biggest questions we need to hear the right answer to…
Dominic, that’s a great idea for a next post, but will take tons of thought. It’s no easy feat to have to do that.
Sean, content development always seems to be a hurdle. I notice that many clients don’t like focusing on the content until the end, when it’s far more beneficial to have it done before you start designing. You have to know what kind of content your design for.