¶ Dealing With Delayed Client Deliverables
Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast . I'll be honest , when I first started reading the question for today , I thought it was going to be a doozy and it is , but not in the way I thought . Today we're talking about what happens when you have clients who constantly hold up the projects by not getting you what you need .
Michelle has some great feedback for this one . Let's not waste time . Let's get to the question . If you're a freelancer , business owner or anyone who deals with clients , you're in the right place . I'm your host , Teresa Edmond .
I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt , imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asked a question I wasn't ready for . I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business .
Each week , my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights . Monday through Thursday , we answer your questions , and Fridays , we dive deep to explore how our co-hosts embrace their role as the boss of their business . Welcome to Boss Responses .
All right , we are back for day four , and today I'm flipping the tables and asking Michelle the question . So , Michelle . This says nightmare client story incoming . That always makes me shiver a bit . This is my third project with this client .
They pay my rates without complaint , they love my work and they're great to work with All good things but they constantly hold the projects up by not getting me what I need , and then they want me to rush to finish the project on time . How can I address this before our next project ? Yikes right .
Yeah , the quote that I'm going to refer back to poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine . Yes , that's the quote and I actually had to pull it up so I could read it just like it's written .
But I've had this happen and it makes my life very difficult and if I love working with them , I think it's worth having a conversation and just , and not in a , you try to point out all the positives before you bring up the issue by saying , gosh , love working with you and I love that what we're doing together , and all the positives , and then say , but
really to do my best work for you to deliver my best work , I would like to ask if we can do something about the timing with which you get me what I need to do the project . So I would be upfront about it .
And even if it's not a difficult conversation , if it's not a fun conversation to have , I think if it's a client that you want to have a relationship with and you want to have a good relationship with that , you should have that conversation and kind of maybe script out what you're going to say and what they might say . And then that's how I do it .
I play it back and forth in my head . So , yeah , clients are perfectly fine and they understand and they're like , oh my gosh , I didn't realize this , we're doing this and this was causing these issues .
And if they don't understand or they get upset or irritated or whatever , then it's good to have kind of a response in mind about what you might say , to go back and work with them .
Yeah , and with this one , I see two possible situations . One you did your due diligence up front , you told them how the process works and you set reasonable deadlines for both sides of the equation . If they are still late after that and holding you up , then yeah , jump on that conversation .
Don't ever , ever be afraid to just have a conversation with your client . If they're doing something , probably without malice or forethought , that's really causing you issues .
The other issue is if you didn't do that , if you have not set up clear terms of engagement in this relationship and you have not told them what the process is going to look like , and you have not told in order for me to do this by this day I need this from you by this day then you're actually the problem .
I think the situation really depends on are you doing your client management , your communication , your onboarding of your client ? Well , if you are and it's them then have an open , honest conversation on them or with them .
Do not cast blame out there , just say this is what's happening , this is the result , this is what we can do to fix it , and then they either fall in line or they don't . Clients that you love and this sounds like one of those clients we all love will usually step up and do their part .
If they don't , they will very quickly become a toxic client , because you give them an inch and they take a mile . You don't want to do that . If the problem is you , if you do not have a clearly defined process and your work depends on their work like with my ghostwriting . I send chapters for review to my clients .
I need those , especially the first few chapters , back so that I can see their feedback before I continue writing , because that saves me an immense amount of work as I go on . If I didn't hold them to those deadlines , that would be my problem . So if I didn't ever even tell them the deadlines and the book gets behind because I didn't , that's my problem .
If I've clearly delineated that and you can bet I give them a schedule it's Teresa's due date , their due date , teresa's due date , their due date . It's all clearly laid out on there . That way , if either one of us gets behind , we know what's going on . We can fix it , we can revise , we know it's going to push the deadline out .
But that's on me , that is not on my client . I'm the expert , you're the expert . I'm sure it's the same thing with your PR clients . You are the expert , you know how long it's going to take . They don't , and if there's something that could hold that up , then you need to hold them accountable in a very businesslike and general way to do it .
I think a lot of this falls back on the freelancers . I've had clients that have delayed and it's not a problem for me because I clearly stayed up front . If you do not respond by this date , the original project due date will not be able to be completed . I mean , I'm clear about that .
Yeah , and I do try to set up a timeline so that we both go over it and agree and talk through it , Because with PR it's really important because sometimes if they want an announcement to go out on a certain date , I have to do things before that , of course , to get that ready to go and we have to have everything done and approved and signed off and
really 24 to 48 hours if you're going to issue something on a newswire or whatever , you have to have all that done . It's really important and I do agree that setting those expectations is important .
But I have had clients that just cannot get their act together and they'll just be late getting me stuff and , yeah , sometimes it just has to be pushed back if they haven't given me enough time .
Yeah , yeah , and if they do that , it's on them at that point , because I've done my thing and I see this with PR , with clients . I'm working with that .
I'm working with them to get a bylined article or an interview with a reporter and that reporter is writing the piece and they send it back for approvals and then it takes forever and the reporter is going to
¶ Client Management and Time Sensitivity
drop it . If they don't get it done , then a lot of your stuff , especially Michelle , is so time sensitive that they'll move on to the next person . It doesn't hurt them at all to do that , right , yep , so do your due diligence . I wouldn't I'm not sure I would call this a nightmare client story .
I would say it has the potential to be a nightmare client story Right now . It's a good client who's a bit unsure about life , so just guide them . That's all we can do . All right , come back and join us tomorrow for day five with Michelle .
We are going to talk all about her business , how she got started and how she manages her clients , because PR is an interesting world . See you tomorrow .