Clients Who Sabotage!

[adam fiveson]

Do Your Clients Make This “Deadly” Mistake…

If you’re at all like me, you can’t stand when someone tells you how to do your job.

I recently had several clients who refused to listen to any of my professional advice and direction for their website project, and insisted I do it their way.

The result? Well, let’s just say that it turned out like crap as it almost always does!

So that got me thinking: “What is it about my line of work that makes people think that they can do what I do?”

I mean, why hire a professional designer to build a site or design a logo or build a brochure, if they think they can do a better job themselves… without having a drop of designer’s blood in them?!

For instance, there is this particular client, who is in the medical field, he read somewhere that “going green” was hip. Not the color green, mind you, but in the environmental sense of the word. So he decided that he wanted to use the color green all over his site.

That would be all fine and dandy if the company was in an eco-friendly field… but… in this case, the color green would be a “death sentence” since green has a “sickness” feel to it in the medical world.

He refused to listen to my Yoda-like wisdom, and the results were a disaster! Finally, after getting multiple complaints about the horrible look of their site, they contacted me and asked for me to put the site back to the way I originally designed it.

As a designer with over 20 years of experience, I have a few hard and fast rules that I live by.

Rule #1: DON’T TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB!

Rule #2: The customer is always right, unless it involves rule #1.

Listen, just because you can color within the lines of a coloring book doesn’t make you a designer. Just as much as driving a car doesn’t make you qualified to race in the Indy 500! It takes years of skill and creativity to perfect the craft.

When I come across these clients, I try and explain the trends in the industry… I try and provide sage advice about simplicity of message and the tenets of good branding.

We’ve all had the experience of having someone nod at us, while knowing they simply weren’t listening. It’s frustrating… but it’s also part of life. The only reward for me is knowing that those who listen to me will gain huge financial benefits from it, and those who don’t will be relegated to the trash bin.

These types of clients sabotage their own results! I understand the desire to play and have fun with color schemes and fonts, I understand the desire to “get creative”… but I also know when to let the pros make the decisions.

Could you imagine telling a heart surgeon how to do his job? That’s absurd! The result would look like a freaking crime scene when all is said and done!

And that’s just what happened with this particular project. AND IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

I hate the prima-donnas in my field, the ones who say it’s my way or the highway.

I TRY to act as BOTH provider and guide to my very valuable clients. But it’s a balancing act… keeping the balance between trying to please and trying to do a good job using the knowledge and experience which can only come from knowing your stuff. If you hire a guy for his experience and skills, doesn’t that also mean you should… at some point… put your faith in those two things?

When hiring a service professional in any field, it’s best to leave the results to the one who possesses the skill, knowledge and training to perform the job—especially when it comes to designing with a business objective in mind.

In other words… You do what you do best… and… I’ll do what I do best. And we’ll all be better for it!

If you have a similar story, I’d love to hear it! Leave a comment on my blog.

[Michael Gorga]

That's a hell of a well-written piece, Adam!

I get that all the time from my clients.

Especially from those who have never hired a copywriter before... or...

... have been published in some college paper somewhere.

It makes it all the worse if the "think' they can write!

Keep the kick-ass blogs coming!