How to discover who’s going to be a terrible client

Today I’m answering another question from a reader.

But first, there are still spots open for my Run Your Consulting Business training course which starts November 6th. But you’ll have to act fast, I’m closing signups this Wednesday on November 5th.

Now for the question:

Q: How can I discover who’s going to be a TERRIBLE client before we sign the contract?

Ah, the terrible clients.

Don’t get me wrong, people are great and all.

But some people make horrible clients.

Maybe it’s me (and you).

But it’s probably them.

My worst client

There’s a story of one of my worst clients I’ve worked with. We started with a prototype of a system. We scoped it together, agreed on a contract, and the final results were great. A typical good project so far.

Then he was ready to do the full version. This was going to be several times the size of the prototype and a much longer contract.

Since the first contract was only for the prototype, I sent him a new contract for the next version.

(Actually this was only a new Statement of Work, maybe three pages long and with very little legal-English)

He “wanted to talk on the phone”…

Once I called him he proceeded to yell, curse, and complain. Basically how dare I send him another contract to sign and his time is worth more than mine.

Normally if a client has a problem with a contact, we’d discuss it and maybe even re-negotiate it. I always want the contract to be fair and for both sides to feel like we’re gaining more from working together, than if we didn’t.

But not if I’m cursed at and threatened with “you’ll never work in this industry again”.

I told him calmly, that since the first contract only covered the prototype and he isn’t willing to agree to this new contact, then we’ve officially completed our working relationship.

Needless to say, more adult-words came from him before he hung up.

A terrible client? I’d say so.

This story makes it pretty clear why you’d want to avoid working with a client like that.

But I didn’t know this going to turn out that way. The first project was perfectly fine.

Terrible client warning signs

Normally there are signs you can look for.

  • Do they ignore what you say or write?
  • Do they argue or talk-over other people while talking?
  • Does your gut just say, this doesn’t feel right?

(It’s like that old piece of business advice: to see how someone really is, watch how they treat a waiter or someone in a lower job)

Sometimes though you’re not able to learn how a client will act before a project. Sometimes their problems don’t come up unless something negative happens (like in my story).

One way around this is to use your ideal client definition. I recommend that you have 2-3 negative traits that acts as an emergency escape (the ugly part of my good, bad, ugly).

If a client has one of them, they automatically become a problem client. Even if they’re angels with everything else.

Late-blooming terrible clients

But sometimes you can’t catch all of the terrible clients upfront. When that happens you have two choices:

  1. stick with them until the project ends or
  2. fire them

And make sure to update your ideal client definition while you’re at it.

Learn from my screw-ups

I wish you can learn from my bad experience and never have to deal with a terrible client. They are a real pain.

If you’d like to learn even more from my experience consulting, you can have a front row seat during my Run Your Consulting Business training course. I’ve got a lot of great information around finding clients, marketing, selling, and more.

I hope to see you there.

Eric Davis