While doing some research on the Web for marketing purposes, I found a good blog. Finding a good blog definitely makes a good day better. The blog — badlanguage.net. It has nothing to do with euphemisms or profanity from all that I can see. On the other hand, it contains a lot of helpful information about business, technology and marketing. The article that caught my eye, “What’s Your Profit : Pain Ratio?” rang true with many of my thoughts and conversations with the other Web strategists at Worthwhile.
Matthew Stibbe, the badlanguage.net author, explains the Profit : Pain ratio this way: when the project is finished, will the gain be worth the pain. The gain refers to money; the pain refers to many things, such as stress, time, client difficulty, etc.
From the outset, Stibbe sounds almost egotistical and self-serving. However, the minute you finish a project where the pain greatly outweighs the project, you will immediately and instinctively know why Stibbe has articulated his thoughts in this way. Stibbe outlines some characteristics in clients that weighed heavily on the “pain” side of the equation:
- Asking for more work without paying more
- Paying very late
- Insisting on changes even when I had strongly recommended against them
- Being uncommunicative or hard to reach
- Epic delays in giving feedback
- Feedback that was difficult to implement or (sometimes) to understand
- Insistence on impossible deadlines, even while delaying their own part in the process until the last possible moment
- Getting me involved in their office politics
- Personal or Emotional connection between client/product or client/representative
- Proper Expectations laid out and agreed upon before the project starts
- Follow up and Follow through from the Representative, which is reciprocated by the client (It’s never a one-way street)
Nice, BG. I think in my earlier projects here at Worthwhile I was in the whole “Pain is greater than the Gain” bit.
For me, things have improved as I’ve worked harder up front to get a good feel on each client’s needs as well as their personality (are they micro-managers?). I think the more you know up front about your client and their “niches” the better you can go into each project. You might even turn a “big pain” into an even bigger gain.