7 Ways to Deal with a Difficult Client

When you think of a "difficult" client, an image of someone yelling, screaming and cursing may come to mind. While this may be true for some clients, it is not always the case.

In fact, over the last 20 years, I've observed notice certain personality traits that you can expect:

• They can easily swing from being very nice to passive-aggressive and downright manipulative, demanding and rude.

• They feel comfortable trying to intimidate and guilt you into doing what they want, when they want.

• They want 5 star service yet will try every way they can to avoid paying.

• They will question your expertise and qualifications at every turn.

• The people that sense your financial desperation may feel comfortable treating you with disrespect, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and mental abuse.

• They are never satisfied with any deliverables you provide no matter how much time or effort you put into it.

Everything I just mentioned can make a client difficult. How you handle these clients is important to your success as a freelancer. The reality is that conflict resolution is an important part fo running your business.

Today I'd like to share 7 tips on how to address difficult clients in a manner that honors you and them.

Tip #1 Create a "negative persona"

You are encouraged to create a "negative person." This represents the type of buyer that you will not work with, not even for one million dollars in cash.

This persona will support you in setting healthy boundaries, creating your written contracts, and standard operating procedures. This will help you avoid being taken advantage of by clients and it can also make dealing with them much easier since you have already come up with a game plan for how they will behave before they do anything.

Tip #2: Use Emotional Intelligence.

Many times, when dealing with "difficult" clients, it is easy to let our emotions get the best of us. We may feel offended or overwhelmed when a client keeps challenging what we are proposing or questioning every detail of a project.

To better handle these situations, use facts as your guide instead of letting feelings play into how you think about them.

Tip #3: Stand Up for Yourself

No matter what, even if a client is being difficult out of the blue and it makes no sense to you at all, never let them walk over your work. Always stand up for yourself and do not settle when this happens. If necessary, end the project immediately and fire the client. Send an itemized invoice with work completed so that you are compensated fairly for the work that was done. Keep all receipts and send all correspondence certified, return receipt requested.

Tip #4: Do Not Let Them Distract You

If a client keeps bringing up other issues or problems while trying to avoid making any decisions about what needs to be done on a project, do not let them distract you from your main goal of completing the deliverables and securing payment for services rendered.

Pay close attention to clients who want to change to the project scope. Remember to stay focused and complete one project at a time. If you have multiple projects, create individual contracts with payment terms and deliverables clearly outlined.

Tip #5: Be Ready For Them To Walk Away When Dealing With Difficult Clients

Many times when dealing with difficult clients, one of their tactics may be to make us feel like we have won by conceding to our original demands or requests in order to end an argument or discussion about money they owe us (when in fact what they are doing is simply delaying paying until another day). Therefore always remember that oftentimes these types of arguments never in anything positive other than making us feel better.

Tip #6: Be Prepared To Make Sacrifices

You are encouraged to collect a deposit prior to working on a project. If a client is not willing to pay for your services, or you find out that they are just using you as an "experiment" in order to see if they can get something from you for free before going back and hiring someone else, it may be best to cut your losses by simply walking away even if the project was very lucrative up until this point. Remember that value should never come without being paid first so make sure every agreement has this written into it beforehand.

Tip #7: Do Not Ever Let Them Intimidate You

As we have said above, at times clients will use tactics such as intimidation in order to get you to go along with their demands. However, it is important that you always stand your ground and continue on the path you have originally intended for yourself no matter what they say or do in order to convince you otherwise. Their opinion of your work should not affect how much you charge them since value is never given away without a price attached to it.

Tip #8: Never Take Responsibility For Their Mistakes

Many times, when clients are making demands or pushing back against your project deliverables, they will try to put the responsibility on you for their mistakes. Of course this is not how the real world works and we must always remember that it takes two people to make a successful business relationship so if somebody gets out of line then do not be afraid to call them out on it. It may seem harsh but in truth what they are doing is simply trying to shift blame away from themselves onto someone else (which never ends well).

In conclusion, it is important to note that mose disagreements begin with unclear communication. If you're not clear with your client, they will either give you a direction that makes no sense or their expectations may be unrealistic.

For example, taking the time to create a questionnaire that aligns with your contract deliverables lays the foundation of your work together, and makes it easier to measure outcomes.

My best advise to you is "Always prepare for the worst, but don't assume the worst will happen."