You may remember that old warning from your childhood: "beware - your eyes are bigger than your tummy". This was occasionally uttered when someone wanted more on their plate than they could possibly finish, but more often when someone took on too large or challenging a task to maintain interest to completion.
And so it is with some clients: their "eye" for your expert work is bigger than their "tummy". These are the clients who like the look and sound of what you can do, and even become swept up in the excitement of having it all, but their real capacity to digest - and pay for - is much smaller than their appetite.
Beware clients whose "eyes are bigger than their tummies". Classically, they present as:
- less-astute clients who suddenly want the "best of the best" for their business
- clients who, usually acutely cost-conscious and looking for "no frills" solutions, suddenly "fall in love" with expansive plans
- giving rapid-fire agreement to every optional extra, including those of marginal benefit
- allowing substantial project scope creep, without taking stock how all the bells and whistles will add up.
Risks you face in allowing clients to be swept along by an appetite for your work which [no matter how fine] might ultimately prove indigestible to them include:
- embarrassment for them
- cooling in your relationship
- loss of trust and confidence
- angry outbursts
- time spent handling problems
- delinquent bills
- reputation damage.
Protect your clients from this syndrome and do yourself some big favours at the same time by:
- putting yourself into the client's shoes and working out those items from which they'll derive most benefit and focusing on those
- being wary of clients who take an uncharacteristically "no expense spared" approach
- resisting the temptation to sell clients of more than they can afford
- being clear about budget
- rather than selling a client of modest means the "whole box and dice" fully-featured service package up front, breaking your service offering into a series of stages or "chunks" which deliver benefits and bills, one piece at a time for those who insist that they want to embark on a full-scale project right away.
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