Every client is different, but most of them fall into one of four categories: Fishers, Square Peggers, Cost Conscious Clients, or Perfect Clients. Here are tips to help you identify the type of person you are dealing with in your client meetings, and hopefully, save you time and money.
The Fisher
So you scored a meeting with a potential new client. Great! They must be in the market for exactly what you do, right?
Not necessarily. If you’re dealing with a Fisher, there may or may not be a legitimate job available. Instead, you’re dealing with someone who is fishing for information. That’s not an inherently good or bad thing, and it usually doesn’t mean ill intent. What it does mean is that you’re in danger of wasting a lot of time.
A Fisher is often trying to figure out what they need to put a request for proposal(RFP) together for a project. It might just be that they’ve never done a digital project before. It could also be that they’re maliciously trying to figure out a baseline for your agency. Either way, it comes down to the same issue: they’re wasting your time without any real work available.
Managing a Fisher
The calling card of a Fisher is that they don’t have any intent to buy. Ask questions about why they asked for a meeting – if you’re listening for it, you should be able to pick them out pretty quickly. Sometimes I’ll be very straight about it and ask “would you like me to send you an RFP template?” If they’re upfront in their answer, then I’ve just saved us both a lot of time.
And time is really what it comes down to with a Fisher, and it’s why they’re such an important client type to recognize and understand. When meeting a client for the first time, you go in with the assumption that there’s work available. If you leave the meeting with the wrong first impression, you can pour hours into creating a proposal that just isn’t going to go anywhere. Creating a proposal and estimate takes time: it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it.
I see many young agencies wasting a lot of effort on “fishing expeditions.” Qualifying your clients is key to avoiding this. Like I said before, don’t be afraid to ask upfront questions about what the potential client needs. Offer to send them an RFP template or educate them in other ways that aren’t going to drain your time and energy.
The Bottom Line
Recognizing, understanding, and managing Fishers will save you time and effort in the long run. Though these clients generally aren’t malicious, they can be a major drain on your resources. Tread carefully when you meet a Fisher to make sure you have someone with actual work on your line.
The Square Pegger
Unlike the Fisher, the Square Pegger does have a legitimate job for you to do. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be easier to deal with. Here’s what you need to know to identify and manage this type of client.
A Square Pegger is a client who isn’t the final decision maker, but they are responsible for getting something done. Due to this, they feel their job is on the line. They’re doing their due diligence, so they’re going to ask a lot of unusual questions that you might not normally run into in an initial client meeting.