[Q&A] Am I Wrong to Turn Down This Client?

00:02.20
prestondlee
All right today’s question comes from Emma Noel she says how do I politely turn down a client I had a Zoom meeting with a potential client. We left off saying with me saying I’d send her a proposal but um, since then I’ve decided I don’t. Want to work with her anymore. Apparently her and her husband run 2 businesses the client she says she knows how to do everything but doesn’t have the time which is why they’re hiring me. It sounds like they’ll be a pain to work with and I’d rather just not deal with the hassle. So how do I politely Emma says how do I politely say. I’m not interested so when we get back from this quick message from our sponsors clay and I are going to do our best to answer Emma’s question give us 1 sec all right Clay Emma met with a client she left off saying she’d send a proposal in the meantime she slept on it and.

00:47.76
Clay Mosley
Letter.

00:55.16
prestondlee
Kind of decided this client sounds like a pain. What should she do.

00:59.91
Clay Mosley
Is a tough one? Um, yeah, it’s really tough too because you know the money’s there right? It’s like money I’m sure you’ve been in this situation as well as I have where it’s like.

01:07.17
prestondlee
Yep.

01:13.75
prestondlee
Oh yeah.

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01:15.66
Clay Mosley
Someone’s willing to pay you money right now and that’s really hard to so that’s really hard to turn down. So first of all kudos to what was her name Emma kudos to Emma for recognizing you don’t want to you don’t want to ah do this project? um.

01:25.28
prestondlee
Emma.

01:30.98
prestondlee
Yeah.

01:33.88
Clay Mosley
What I would do I would just keep it really sweet and or sweet really short and simple. Um and I would just say hey so and so after I know we just met and we talked about you This particular project. Um, after thinking about it I don’t think this is going to be within ah the right scope. It’s not.. It’s not a good fit for for me and that’s kind of the gist of what I would say I mean I don’t know if I would go too much into detail. Um.

02:09.30
Clay Mosley
But that’s pretty much what I would do I don’t know what? what do you think.

02:10.54
prestondlee
Yeah, yeah, so this question actually came up in our mastermind group I love some of the responses here. 1 of them said just just like you simple is best just send a friendly email saying that after some thoughtful consideration. You’re just not right for the project meaning. Freelancer feels they are not right for the project. Not the client um make it about you and just say like this doesn’t just doesn’t fit with what I’m doing right now or anything like that I think for me too I I use. Um my team all the time like this ambiguous idea of a team right.

02:27.97
Clay Mosley
The.

02:44.79
Clay Mosley
The her.

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02:46.91
prestondlee
Ah I don’t know I guess maybe that’s lying if you actually have a team and and you talk to them about it. Um, then it’s not I quite often I’ll I’ll go back to my team and I’ll say like guys I’m really I was thinking we were going to do this but I’m kind of thinking not so much now and they’ll be like yeah that makes sense.

03:04.33
Clay Mosley
Are.

03:06.20
prestondlee
Ah, you know we we agree with you or they’ll talk me back into it right? but a lot of times they’ll say like yeah yeah, you maybe were a little too Gung-ho before and then it gives me just an out to to go back to them and say chatted with my team about this I’m not sure this is going to fit with what what we’re doing right now. But thank you so Much. We’d love to stay in touch blah Blah Blah whatever. And and just be cordial I mean it’s just business right? like I think the important thing to keep in mind most of all is that this client doesn’t want a freelancer who’s not committed Anyway, not excited to work with them right? So like you’re doing your but you’re doing both you a favor.

03:25.55
Clay Mosley
Um, night. Yeah.

03:37.68
Clay Mosley
Ah, and.

03:40.10
Clay Mosley
Yeah, yeah.

03:42.44
prestondlee
Um, yourself a favor and the client a favor by politely declining.

03:44.84
Clay Mosley
Yeah, and you know what I would do though I would end the the email or however, however, whether it’s in person or email I would end it with but here are some other solutions so that way the very last thing that said is.

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03:53.38
prestondlee
Yeah. Yeah I Love that.

04:04.18
Clay Mosley
Hey I can’t take on this project but you know what I’m going to take care of you in the best way I can so here’s some other solutions like whether it’s ah another colleague that you can refer to or whoever um, that’s that’s what I would do.

04:19.33
prestondlee
Yeah I love that it’s a great way to keep it amicable and solution focused. You know someone else on here suggested and I thought this was kind of interesting um to send the proposal anyway and um.

04:23.47
Clay Mosley
The the.

04:36.17
prestondlee
They said make the proposal high enough that it would be worth it to you No matter what? but that also increases the likelihood that she’ll decline the proposal So it’s kind of a win-win you make it so extravagantly high in price that it’s like I would put up with a terrible client for that amount of money.

04:47.10
Clay Mosley
And ah.

04:52.45
Clay Mosley
Yeah.

04:55.60
prestondlee
So You either get a great amount of money or more likely she’ll just especially. It sounds like this kind of client. She’ll just say that’s too much. Can we do it for less and then you have a super easy Out. You just say no sorry we can’t do it for any less than that. So you you know you could you could still send the proposal keeping your word with that And yeah, yeah I I mean I Really like that advice too. I Think there’s there’s a lot of ways to to tackle this one depending on your personal style.

05:11.30
Clay Mosley
Ah.

05:24.84
Clay Mosley
Yeah, um, yeah I agree I but generally speaking That’s that’s the direction I like I I do like I do like the pricing like outpricing it. But you know.

05:28.70
prestondlee
Um, yeah, the point is to.

05:38.63
Clay Mosley
And don’t know this all really depends on where you are in business too because there’s some there have been some projects that come across my lap where I’m like you know what? I’m just going to price this high I Really don’t want to do it by price high and then they say yes and initially here’s what happens.

05:40.32
prestondlee
Yeah, definitely.

05:57.67
Clay Mosley
Initially I’m excited but then you get into the project and then you’re like I should not have taken this on.

05:57.87
prestondlee
Of.

06:06.76
prestondlee
Yeah, you almost have to like you almost have to like set the amount that you’d be excited about and then still double it like it. It would just it would just have to be such an outrageous amount. Um, you have you have to actually be okay with either outcome that either they say.

06:15.92
Clay Mosley
Um, yes, it needs to be outrageous.

06:26.42
prestondlee
We can’t do it for that price and you drop the project or they say yes and then you have to still put up with them If you’re not okay with that that I think that particular tactic is not the way to go. You have to genuinely be okay with either outcome otherwise you do need you need to do something. We talked about earlier like just just politely decline. Just let them.

06:37.48
Clay Mosley
Yeah I Agree. And.

06:45.45
prestondlee
Be simple about it. Tell them us not a fit tell them’m sorry you wasted their time or whatever I don’t know. But yeah, all right? Well that was short and sweet Emma hopefully that was helpful.

06:49.89
Clay Mosley
Yeah.

06:56.60
Clay Mosley
Um, yeah.

06:58.21
prestondlee
And hopefully other people who are listening I really hope there are a lot of people listening who have this particular problem that they are turning down business that would make me really happy. Um, because I fear sometimes there are more listeners who are in the stage where they just like have to take any business that comes their way. So hopefully this was helpful to lots of you out there. Clay Mosley from gettrify.com I’ve been Preston Lee from millo.co and we will talk to you guys next time. So yeah.

07:24.19
Clay Mosley
See ah.