by Milana Leshinsky
Dear Publisher, You may reproduce this article in your electronic or print AUTHOR: Milana Leshinsky "Don't Work With Jerks: How to Recognize a Difficult Client Early by Milana Leshinsky Five minutes into the call I knew this client was going to make Into every professional practice falls a little rain, or better What a nightmare! Didn't we go into the business for ourselves So how do you do that? First, determine what "difficult" means 1. What is a difficult client To help you decide what things may be important to you, here are - They do not respect your time You can complete this list by adding a few other traits that you 2. Red flags: Early warnings of a difficult client Once you know what's important to you, how do you look for signs "Your gut is never wrong," one IT consultant said. "Whenever Listen to your instinct. Additionally, do your best to avoid - Don't want to sign a contract Create a profile of your ideal client, and check every prospect Usually, you will spend more time on a difficult client (time Screen your prospects carefully, and instantly improve the 3. Assessments - your best friend in screening clients After reading this, you may be thinking that screening takes too You can completely automate the screening process, by asking The questions you ask should include the things that are The fact that they're willing to spend time answering an 4. Automating your screening process So how do you actually automate the screening process? Very AssessmentGenerator does not require you to know any HTML or You can also create self-scoring assessments, where you and your
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and Make Your Business Stress-Fre/e"
http://www.AssessmentGenerator.com
my life miserable. The problem was, I already said "Yes."
said...walks in a nightmare client. You start losing sleep by a
couple of hours every night, you keep thinking about her project
during your lunch time, and you feel like your life has been
taken over by this client.
to enjoy it? Do we not have the choice of who to work with? Of
course, we do! The challenge is in recognizing a difficult
client early enough to say "No."
to you. It may mean different things to different people. For
example, while some professionals will be happy to take a phone
call from a client between 9 and 5, others may have a special
time set aside for phone calls. While some business owners love
getting detailed specifications for a project, others may feel
trapped and limited in their creativity.
some of the most common traits of difficult clients:
- They tell you how to do your work
- They always check up on you
- They constantly change their mind about a project
- They knit pick over every detail
- They try to intimidate you into doing things you haven't agreed to
- They treat you as if they're the boss and you are the employee
- They have little respect for your expertise
- They call you at a non-scheduled time
- They frequently e-mail you with questions, requiring long replies
- They ask you to throw in a few extras without offering to pay extra
- They keep reminding you how high your fees are
- They are frequently disappointed with your work
- They won't pay on time, but ask you to continue working with them
- They frequently cancel or reschedule your meetings
- They believe they're your only client, & demand your full attention
find annoying or unacceptable in your business, or to your life
style.
that this may be a difficult client? First of all, listen to your
intuition. It's easy to ignore the red flags, especially
if you're hungry for business.
I've ended up with a nightmare client, it's because I didn't
listen to my instinct and I went for the zeroes."
clients that:
- Are in a rush
- Are looking for the cheapest provider
- Are your friends and relatives
against it before taking them on. "This is crazy!" you may be
thinking. "Won't choosing clients so carefully cost me business?"
Not really.
that you could spend prospecting, working with other clients, or
simply taking a break), your mood and personal life may become
affected by this project, and you may even end up not being paid
at all!
quality of your business life.
much work and time. Bear with me, because this task has just
become as easy as 1-2-3.
your prospects to complete an assessment before you take them on.
important to you as a business owner, and as a person. You may
ask them about how they worked with professionals in the past,
what their style of communication is, how much time they plan to
devote to this project, what their deadline is, how committed
they are to completing it, and so on. Refer to your ideal
client profile when putting together a list of questions.
extensive list of questions already shows that this is a serious
prospect, and helps you weed out as many "time-wasters" as
possible.
simple. You can use AssessmentGenerator.com, a tool that allows
you to create your own forms and assessments, and have them on
your web site within minutes. Whenever you get a new prospect,
send them a link to your online assessment and ask them to
complete it before your first call.
install any scripts. Simply enter your questions and the e-mail
address, where you want to receive completed assessments, and
it's ready to be added to your site.
prospect can see a score based on how they answered questions.
Self-scoring assessments are great when you want to work only
with clients who reached a certain level of readiness in
something. For example, you may only want to work with business
owners who understand the importance of marketing. Their
assessment score will show you how ready they are to work with
you.
Conclusion Many professionals already conduct assessments when they first Automating the screening process with AssessmentGenerator.com =================================================== Stop giving away your time! Give away FRE/E assessments instead! About the Author
Included at the bottom of the article. If you need more details, I'd happy to submit.
meet their clients. The problem is, they do it over the
telephone, which means they have to set aside a half-hour or
more to determine if this prospect is their ideal client. If he
or she is not, then they have just wasted their precious time,
which could've been spent on a more productive activity.
will make your life easier and business more enjoyable. Here's
to ideal clients and a stress-free business!
About Author: Milana Leshinsky is the founder of ACCPOW,
Association of Coaching & Consulting Professionals on the Web.
Create custom online assessments in 5 minutes
http://www.AssessmentGenerator.com.
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