The 4 Groups of Potential Clients You'll Run Into as a Creative Freelance Graphic Artist

Ever see a dog running around and around chasing his tail? It's kind of funny isn't it? You know in all likelihood he's never going to catch it, but the darned thing is going to keep running around and around, trying. Freelance designers don't typically chase their tails (at least not that I know), but they do make the mistake of fruitlessly running around and around chasing people that will never become clients. It's frustrating, time consuming, and no, not nearly as funny to me as the dog chasing its tail.

Over the years I've found that people (potential prospects) fall into a few different camps (whether you're selling design books or working with clients):

1. People that are ready to buy from/hire either you or another designer - they are motivated to get things rolling. These people are the ones you hope you run into.
   
   
2. People who just need to understand their options better, perhaps they are confused or don't know what criteria they should using in deciding whether to hire you or not. It will be your job to educate these people and help them see how and why you're a good choice. They are honestly interested in working with you, but need convincing.
   
3. Then there are "some less than desirable " people who will try to get as much value and free information from you as they possibly can without paying for it. They'll visit your web site and download as much free content as possible, or perhaps call you up and ask as many questions as they can before you cut them off. These folks are vampires and or looters - they hit quickly and move on quickly, and they have no thought of to paying you at all. I am not sure garlic will protect you from them, but be careful with these people.   
4. The last group of people I've found are those that may try to use you as a benchmark in measuring how good their other choices are. These people are pretty sure they're going with another freelancer, but they'll use up your time and energy to make comparison. These people often feel that it's part of your business to serve them in this way, and for some reason, they don't feel remorseful that they are wasting your time when you really have a slim to nil chance of being hired. While they may pretend that they might buy from/hire you, they most likely won't.

As a freelancer you're going to have people from all 4 categories come in and out of your life: some will become good clients, others will try to use up your tie, and still others are just confused and just want you to help. While it's difficult to eliminate people from a specific category, the best thing you can do is to develop the skill in being able to identify which category they are in as quickly as possible have a strategy for dealing with them.

PS - Over the last few months I've received a lot of requests to put this information in audio form for designers that are too busy to sit down and read - I've got you covered! The first disk will be available by March 14th and will include tracks on getting you mentally prepared to handle some of the tougher situations you'll deal with as a freelancer. These tracks will build your confidence as well as get you mentally prepared to handle such things as (meet a client for the first time, negotiations, firing a client, networking for shy people, etc...). I wanted to hook you up with a quick sample of what I am putting together for freelancers (this track is way too rough and unpolished for me to include in the mix compilation, but I wanted to share with you a sample of what's to come). Let me know what you think!