Finding new clients and customers is an important activity that should never be neglected. However it’s also important to develop the ability to accurately identify clients that will be a good fit for you as against those that will limit your ability to give your best on the job, and in the process deny you the satisfaction you derive from your work.
They’re Everywhere – But Mostly In Few Numbers
These personalties can be found in all markets, industries and niches. They’re not bad people. They only nurse extreme preferences that can be too demanding or that they are unwilling to pay enough for.
Service providers who encounter them often have emotional and psychological scars to show for it.
To be fair to most of them however, they rarely hide their true nature from us. The truth is that many of us sometimes become a bit blind to all the warning signals they unconsciously give off when we get into sales mode 
I’ve been guilty of this on more than one occasion. And I’ve suffered considerable distress EACH time as a result.
Now I’m wiser, having learnt my lesson.
Be Alert To The Signs Of A Difficult or Troublesome Client
Even when the money being offered is mouth watering, it pays to try looking beyond the present.
Visualise what working with the prospective client to deliver the purchased service will be like.
Imagine having a prospective client tell you he knows just about everything to know about the expert service he’s asking you to provide. And therefore he does not see any reason to pay anything close to your quote fees.
“It’s just that I no longer have the time to do it myself” he says.
Of coure he could be right, since it is quite possible he could have the training and experience to do what you do.
However, you need to remember that if he had the time to do it without involving you, he would not have called you in!
And THAT is the value you’ll be adding, in addition to bringing your unique skills set and experience to bear on work to be done. The keyword here being “unique”.
But it could be worse!
What if you take the money and then find that he wants to micromanage you in a manner that would make it difficult for you to do a good job within the agreed deadline, for instance?
He could insist on reminding you at every opportunity that he has paid, and that he’s seen nothing you’ve done so far, to justify your fees!
Quite often the idea would be to pressure you into doing more work than was agreed for the money he paid.
How you handle such requests from the start will set the tone for your relationship with that client.
Just remember that as an expert service provider YOU must maintain control over what happens to you, and the project (while you’re handling it), without rubbing it in the client’s face.
Always assert yourself like the confident professional you are.
Not All Sales Leads Are Worth Converting! (A True Story)
A few years ago, I got into discussion with a hotel manager who wanted me to make my Hotel Records Manager ExcelVB application communicate with their newly installeds electronic security doors system computer database. This was to enable automated hotel billing records preparation for registered guests.
After I demonstrated it was possible to the manager, we had our final negotiation meeting, and I picked up my advance payment cheque, only to see that it was half what we’d agreed.
When I asked the hotel manager why, she told me that was what they could afford. I replied that I could not afford to work that way.
Long story short: I returned the cheque, and walked away. Jobs like that often end up choking you to death.
They want to pay little to nothing, but they’ll demand you put in everything…I’d learnt from painful past experience to walk away…:-)
Final Words
So many bad things can happen to us when we choose our clients wrongly.
That’s why we must hone our abilities to quickly and accurately evaluate the behavioural tendencies of those we approach for business.
Their character will quite often show through in the way they relate with others.
Use what you learn from observing (and interacting with) a prospective client, to guage how easy it will be to get him to say he’s satisfied with the work you’ve done.
Like I said earlier, they hardly ever bother to hide their tendencies.
And even if they wanted to, human nature would not allow it: As the proverbial saying in Yoruba language goes
“Character is like smoke. No matter how hard you try to keep it hidden, it always finds a way to show itself.”
So keep all your senses alert when interacting with prospective clients. You’re likely to save yourself a boat-load of potential client trouble by doing so!