{"id":22081,"date":"2015-03-24T05:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=22081"},"modified":"2024-04-03T05:39:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T12:39:30","slug":"7-questions-you-should-never-ask-your-design-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/7-questions-you-should-never-ask-your-design-clients","title":{"rendered":"7 Questions You Should Never Ask Your Design Clients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scaring off a client isn&#8217;t as hard as you might think. Customers need your help and expertise, but they also know that other options exist. There&#8217;s an ocean of qualified professionals out there just waiting for new work to come along. If clients feel that you&#8217;re no longer right for the job, they&#8217;re not going to stick around. It&#8217;s all about making the client feel that they&#8217;re lucky to have found you, a big part of which is knowing what to say and what <em>not<\/em> to say. So what are the questions that you should <em>never<\/em> ask a client if you want to be taken seriously?<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Can_I_submit_later\"><\/span>1. Can I submit later?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p>Don&#8217;t ever be this person. As a designer, you&#8217;re fully aware of all the clients who keep putting off payment. Never encourage that kind of unprofessional behavior by requesting a later submission date. You&#8217;ve already discussed the deadline. You&#8217;ve both agreed on the terms and conditions. Your client is expecting to pay you for a certain amount of work and expects it to be done on time.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/dZd2D5Da1954I?html5=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"328\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Can_you_pay_me_in_advance\"><\/span>2. Can you pay me in advance?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p>The designer provides the service and the client pays for it. This is the natural order of a working relationship between business and client. If you request full payment in advance, your client might doubt your work and perceive a higher risk in starting a project with you. A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidairey.com\/how-designers-charge-their-clients-part-1\/\">30 percent to 50 percent deposit<\/a> is acceptable but expecting full payment before the client even sees what you have to offer is not.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/Zl8rba0dlhlqU?html5=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"375\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_Can_I_call_you_back_tomorrow\"><\/span>3. Can I call you back tomorrow?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p>Your client is relying on you to <em>be there<\/em>. Clients pay for your time, so they expect to have it until the job is done. Of course they&#8217;ll understand if you&#8217;re having a busy morning, but don&#8217;t leave a client waiting around for days. Most often, they won&#8217;t put up with it.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/BHgzzL84NmMN2?html5=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"470\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_When_is_the_deadline_again\"><\/span>4. When is the deadline again?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p>This goes back to the initial point concerning your agreement to submit on a particular date and be <em>paid<\/em> at a particular time. If you&#8217;re asking your client this question for the first time, he&#8217;ll be happy to answer. If you ask again and again, you&#8217;ll come across as unprofessional and scare <em>all<\/em> your clients away.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/7mHUPgeihzYo8?html5=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"249\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"5_Can_we_compromise\"><\/span>5. Can we compromise?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p>As a creative professional, you&#8217;re likely to get quite a bit of freedom regarding the work you do, but you should still respect what <em>your clients<\/em> want. Don&#8217;t argue over your personal working style, what requirements aren&#8217;t working for you or ask for your client to compromise beyond his\/her means. Find a balance between his\/her requirements and your style, making sure to honor your client&#8217;s requests in a professional, respectful way.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/26qyaTZLXEOZy?html5=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"6_But_isnt_this_why_you_hired_me\"><\/span>6. But isn&#8217;t this why you hired me?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p>This usually follows something along the lines of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/things-clients-hate\/\">your idea needs work<\/a>&#8221; and is a question that comes off as condescending. Be more tactful, and keep in mind that you&#8217;re a design expert but may not fully understand every market. Feel free to provide clients with input and ideas, but never imply that their ideas are bad.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/tQOMGAXgioM8M?html5=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"348\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"7_How_much_did_you_pay_your_last_designer\"><\/span>7. How much did you pay your last designer?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p>Asking this is wrong on <em>so many levels<\/em>. To begin with, your fee should have nothing to do with other designers or their work, and everything to do with the value that you are adding for the client. That being said, it is understandable that you want to set your prices based on some market standards. If that&#8217;s the case, please don&#8217;t ask your client what those rates look like. Do your homework: read other designers&#8217; articles, inquire with your colleagues, look at others&#8217; proposals&#8230; basically anything <em>but<\/em> asking your client directly. Upon hearing this, your client might think that you&#8217;re too inexperienced to set your own price or trying to gauge whether you can rip him off.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/2vpy6HmxkgIzS?html5=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"269\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Bottom_line_deliver_your_very_best_every_single_time\"><\/span>Bottom line: deliver your very best every single time.<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2><p>In order to guarantee a strong and reliable freelancer-client relationship, it&#8217;s very important that you remember not to ask certain questions. Your job is to hold onto clients and keep them coming back. Being professional, delivering top-quality design, and communicating with tact will help.<\/p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/wG9sor8cO0URG?html5=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><hr><p><strong>Products Seen In This Post:<\/strong><\/p><p>    <figure id=\"card-85973-625434063\" class=\"product-card half no-pinit\" data-product-id=\"85973\" data-index=\"0\" data-width=\"half\" data-pin_it=\"no-pinit\" data-module=\"Product Embed\" data-block-id=\"625434063\"><\/figure>\n    \n    <figure id=\"card-42847-745526271\" class=\"product-card half no-pinit\" data-product-id=\"42847\" data-index=\"0\" data-width=\"half\" data-pin_it=\"no-pinit\" data-module=\"Product Embed\" data-block-id=\"745526271\"><\/figure>\n    \n<\/p><hr><a href=\"https:\/\/creativemarketsurvey.wufoo.com\/forms\/write-for-the-creative-market-blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2015\/03\/03042736\/getpaidtowrite-banner.jpg.webp\" alt=\"getpaidtowrite-banner\" width=\"680\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21358\">\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scaring off a client isn&#8217;t as hard as you might think. Customers need your help and expertise, but they also know that other options exist. There&#8217;s an ocean of qualified professionals out there just waiting for new work to come along. If clients feel that you&#8217;re no longer right for the job, they&#8217;re not going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[79,171],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-22081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shop-center","tag-graphics","tag-humor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>7 Questions You Should Never Ask Your Design Clients - Creative Market Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/7-questions-you-should-never-ask-your-design-clients\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"7 Questions You Should Never Ask Your Design Clients\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scaring off a client isn&#039;t as hard as you might think. 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