How To Tell If A Potential Client Is The Right Fit For Your Business

A three-step process to quickly decide whom to work with

When I first begin my design freelance career in 2005, I didn’t think if there’s a right or wrong client to work with. I worked with anyone, both for a fee and for free as and when someone needs graphic design services.

As my experience with clients grew, I started to choose my clients based on my gut feeling and how I felt about the potential client. I didn’t use any quantifiable measure to certify we will work well together. So long that person has a nice personality and we have good chemistry, I took it as we are a good fit for each other.

In the early days, my sales process worked this way:

1. Call with a potential client
2. Manage expectations
3. Reveal pricing
4. We start work

Before starting the work itself, we would always jump on one or two calls to get to know each other better. I would figure out what was required and openly shared how I work. Like any freelance designer, I have my limitations and never hesitated to set those boundaries.

However, when work took off, things between myself and the clients became different from what I thought they would be. From the onboarding calls, I thought the clients knew what they wanted and understood the restrictions I’ve set.

As we moved on deeper into the projects, some of them started to push the boundaries, such as asking for additional services for free and delaying payments for months. I’m not blaming the clients. Just surprised by my expectations of these clients.

Experiences like that made me wary of the next potential client who wished to render my services. I couldn’t help but wonder: “Do they come to me because they realised I’m easily bullied into helping people for a cheap price or even for free?”.

Whether or not I’m right does not matter, because I will never know until I worked with them. I dreaded such scenarios of not knowing what to do. Each time I placed judgement on my potential clients, I took a long time to decide if I should work with them or not.

Sometimes, I simply quote them a super high price just to relieve myself from such a situation. If they still insist on working with me at a high price, I don’t feel like I’m at a disadvantage. But what if they can’t afford and I’m left with no clients? No clients mean no money.

This tug of war went on for many years and I reviewed my process. I thought, what if I could come up with a process to tell me if a client is the right fit way before we started work together? I realised, instead of acting based on my emotions, I should be using business factors to make more objective decisions.

Here’s my three-step process to help you identify a red flag and make the best decision to work with the right client once and for all.

1. Purpose

If you do find clients who share the same values as you, all the better. Chances are, not all will align, but some may coincide. In that case, at your own time, list out what matters most to you. You will want to find clients who match some of those on your list.

It’s important that you work with people who are spreading the message and creating a brand that you also truly believe in. When working on a client project, you will want to give your best not just to make your client feel happy. But you are excited to see them succeed when they are using your work for a purpose that you believe strongly about.

For example, my team believes in helping to improve the lives of those less fortunate than us. Hence, I enjoy working with thought leaders and coaches who show up regularly to help people. One of my clients matched such a profile. He is a coach who helps athletes, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders train their mental toughness to thrive on adversity. We may be doing different things, but when I am invested in what they advocate, it’s worth my time and energy to produce work for their cause.

2. Portfolio

My team is able to create many kinds of designs because of its wide skillsets and expertise. But we only choose to work with clients who are asking for work that lead them to find success, so that we can leverage their story to attract more work of a similar kind. We will also choose work that we can put our best foot forward. If not, we will refer them to our partners who can help them better.

Whether you run a copywriting or design business, your client work will form part of your portfolio. You put them together to show potential clients not just because they asked you for it. People buy from you because you give them the trust that you can do something that they are asking for, and you can do it well. The work process has to be something you are confident to execute and the deliverable is something you can be proud of.

For example, my company is in the mission to create as many quality graphics as we can. Hence we tend to work with clients who need help to churn out regular graphics, rather than clients who only need to create one piece of artwork once a month. In this way, we have the portfolio to show the next potential client that they have nothing to worry because we have been producing tons of graphic week after week for many clients before them.

3. Price

I’ve offered all kinds of pricing options to my clients in my career. Some clients are willing to fork out thousands of dollars while there are others who are only willing to pay a few hundred dollars for the exact same kind of work. Based on what I’ve experienced, there are two ways to use this to decide whom you should work with.

The first way is to have a fixed price by setting it based on the market rate. Since your price will be in competition with possibly many similar offers from other companies, you may have to find other ways to stand out. For example, ensure better quality and customer service. Once you have decided on your price, your potential clients will have to agree on this to work with you. If they find it too high, there’s no way you will be changing this for some of them and not the others. Hence, you will work with those who can afford and willing to pay your fixed-rate.

The other way is to bring your purpose and portfolio into the picture. Let’s say the potential clients negotiate for a lower price. Yet they share similar beliefs as you do and you figure that working with them will boost your portfolio. If I were you, I would relent and offer them a lower price. If they want a lower price but either don’t share similar beliefs or there’s no portfolio value out of the work, I would stick to my guns and be firm with my pricing. That’s when I would politely refer them to other designers who are willing to produce the same work at a lower price.

With these steps, you don’t have to grapple with the emotional and subjective factors to decide whom to work with. So far this process has served me well not only as a system to quickly decide to work with a potential client or not but it also saved me time and sanity from working with those that are not of the right fit.