Three Most Common Ways Web Designers Lose The Client

 

When Brian approached me about writing for Elite By Design, I immediately accepted. I’ve kept up with Elite By Design for awhile now, and it’s an honor to be here as a guest blogger. I wanted to write something that was worthy of Brian’s reputation; so I really dug deep to find a topic that I felt fit the Elite By Design vibe. Since I’m first and foremost a web designer, I finally landed on a topic that’s forever in the mind of the freelance web designer. It’s the question of how to convey the importance and complexity of web design without frustrating or boring clients. If you’ve spent any amount of time in client meetings, I’m sure you’ve discovered that non-web designers are quickly confused and frustrated by the things that web designers love. First, I’ll take a look at the three most common ways web designers shoot themselves in the foot during client meetings. Then I’ll present some easy ways to avoid those mistakes in the future.

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1. Bombarding Clients with Industry Jargon

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Web designers love industry jargon. As if that isn’t enough, we take words and and phrases that are already esoteric and and turn them into cute little acronyms. HTML, CSS, PHP, and IA are tossed around way too much in client meetings. Using words and phrases that no one else understands—while it may make you look smart it won’t make clients want to work with you. Clients want to feel that they understand what they’re getting when they hire you. They rarely care how many acronyms you know. So how do you show that you know what you’re doing without being patronizing?

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Solution:

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 The easiest way to fight the industry jargon monster is to rethink your vocabulary. You could call HTML and PHP the “behind the scenes code”. CSS is just “style”. Company blog could be “company news”. Find ways to describe the important elements of web design with words and phrases that are common to everyone. If you’re dealing with someone whose more web-savvy, adjust your strategy accordingly.

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2. Getting Defensive with Clients

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Just last week, I had a marketing director meet with me. He sat down and the first words out of his mouth were, “A website is like a brochure on the internet. It should have a little information about the company, and a way to get in contact. Nobody wants all that fancy stuff.” If I had gone with my initial reaction, I would have jumped up, told him what an ignoramus he was, and stormed out of the building. Fortunately, I stopped doing stuff like that a long time ago (coincidentally, I started making good money around the same time). How do you disagree with clients without getting defensive?

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Solution:

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 This is a tricky one. There are some cases where you just have to let a client go because their mindset is so different than yours. But no matter what the final conclusion of a disagreement, it’s never beneficial to get defensive and combative with clients. Be patient. Start by finding common ground. In the situation above, I started by telling the marketing director that I agreed 100% that it’s important to have good information on websites. It was a small island of agreement, for sure, but it was a place to start. Always be gentle and constructive in your rebuttals. In the case that you just can’t work with a client, bow out gracefully. Never go out with a bang.

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3. Setting Yourself up to Be a Hired Hand Instead of an Expert

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If someone is interested in hiring you, it’s probably because they need an expert. They want to pay your for your knowledge and expertise in the area of web design. But when you show up at a meeting and nod your head at everything a client says, and never give any valuable input; you are setting yourself up to be a doormat. You may even be setting yourself up to lose the project. Then on the other end of the pool is the web designer that barges into a meeting and disagrees with everything anyone suggests. How do you balance the two extremes?

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Solution:

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 There’s a common saying that’s especially popular among parents: “Pick your battles”. Notice that the saying is not “Don’t battle”. It’s important to battle on the important issues. As each meeting progresses and new ideas are laid out on the table, just be as objective as possible. Carefully decide which elements are absolutely necessary for the success of the project, and which ones can slide. The balancing act is being the expert while validating the ideas of your clients at the same time.      

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