Week 4

References

My research this week ties into the ‘Research, discover and analyse client/practitioner relationships and the service they provide.’ assessment criteria as my references explore how to talk to clients and use marketing to excel in business revenue/clients.

Business strategy: a guide to effective decision making

Chris Do:

“My clients have really bad taste, clients suck, we as designers aren’t appreciated” – review why this is and get to know the client. Don’t belittle them and argue or even attempt to disagree – always be understanding and negotiate a solution.
Work for yourself > work for client. An artist is someone who works for themselves and share their unique vision of the world. If they are hard working, passionate, invest time they will make it successfully.
Stop complaining about our clients. They make passions possible.
Don’t think clients are hiring you to make work for your portfolio! This is such a great quote and so many people make that mistake. Clients hire you to make them profit. Don’t forget that.
Don’t ‘educate’ the client by telling them how things should be and what to do. Look at it differently. Be more empathetic.
Hairdressing. Don’t expect a hairdresser to cut your hair instantly. You expect them to consider your requirements along with your hair, face shape, maintenance etc. If a client is being difficult; look at the yourself, have you listened to them properly? Clients understand (or if they don’t, explain) that what they want may not be an exact replica, but you can customise a design/concept to that client and make it a stronger concept overall because it’s true to their brand.
Don’t intimidate clients with a language they won’t understand. ‘Responsive’, ‘creative’, ‘adaptive’ negative words to use – don’t make them feel silly for not understanding your terminology. Keep it simple and straight to the point.

How to talk to a client: avoid happy ears – things that I want to hear.
Ask questions that filter down – ask why 3 times and get to the root of the issue. I really like this, and it’s such a simple solution to understanding the client.

The mention of Jordan Belfort in the Chris Do reference video made me want to look at some videos… We all know from Wolf of Wall Street how he became a natural at selling and mastered the art of persuasion. This video is a great insight to how to make yourself appear better towards clients. “Don’t judge a book by its cover” – don’t judge a client for wanting to have an expert?

In 4 seconds you need to introduce yourself and allow the following to come across in your tonality and body language:
• Sharp as a tack
• Enthusiastic as hell
• You have to be perceived as an expert
• Expert in your field

This video has made me think about how to approach clients in a professional and intelligent manner in the design world, but through confidence as that is an area that is a complete weakness for me personally. For me, there are similarities between Belfort and Chris Do in the sense they both come across as confident and they know what they’re talking about seconds in to their lectures, therefore you listen. The thing for me is their hands. It seems like such a minor action to consider but subconsciously they are communicating with them. Belfort does a lot of pointing, clicking and mimics holding things when all he’s holding is a pen. this is powerful body language in itself; it draws you in and tells you to listen to what they’re saying because it’s important.

For this week’s business plan workshop challenge I want to look at marketing to gain a better understanding of how it can benefit/boost a business, and this video is one of the starting points for me to begin to explore that. There are some really valid points that Chris mentioned above; the one that I see very often is ROI: Return of Investment. It sounds great but what does it actually mean? (I have researched this and now understand it as identifying the gains from investment in profits)
This is a reminder that I want my business plan to be understandable to the client and not include vague terminology that they won’t necessarily understand.