What Makes a Great Client?
I think most people like to work with clients that are "like them". I find the most enjoyable clients are those that are open to advice, think critically about major decisions, but are able to let go of most of the details (on a fixed bid project, clients who want to fully understand the implications of every minor decision are just a world of hurt).
As a personal preference, I also tend to prefer clients that aren't too anal about look and feel because I find it hard to believe that most people chose a law firm based on whether the sidebar headings are left or center aligned or a sporting goods e-tailer based on the exact shade of gray of the lines between the featured products. I fully understand this is probably because I am an aesthetic philistine and can absolutely live with the fact :->
As you look back over the projects you've developed over the years, what commonalities do you start to notice between the clients that were the most profitable, easiest to work with and that helped you to effortlessly create the best solutions for them? Creating great solutions isn't trivial, but some clients definitely make the process easier than others.
If YOU could have an unlimited amount of business and your biggest problem was pre-qualifying your prospects, what are some of the tests/questions/approaches you'd use to take the cream of the clients?
What makes a great client, and what questions could you ask or tests could you use to pre-qualify them?
On the flip side, what makes a lousy/hard to work with/unprofitable client? What questions or tests would you use to identify the clients you wouldn't want to work with if you had an unlimited amount of business?
As always, input appreciated. What do YOU think?
Favorites were people in the middle who would contribute ideas, argue with you and engage you in discussion. We would sometimes have initial meetings with clients and be totally put off - because someone's boss, etc would be in the room. Once the boss was gone though it became more enjoyable (and sometimes the opposite occured).
I'm guessing if you could invent the 'good client' detector you would be very rich :)
Horrible clients, as you mentioned, tend to be micromanagers. I can't stand someone micromanaging the site/application they want built in the first place. When they're paying you 5 grand and want to micromange, they are lucky if they don't get fired and have to find a new developer. =)
@Sam, Have you noticed any commonalities early on with the micro-managers you've dealt with? Are there any questions you might have been able to ask them early on that they'd have responded to differently from your better clients?