Scope creep is part of business life, and freelancers particularly need to have a strategy to deal with it.
Vickie Sullivan, a marketing strategist who writes for Rain Today, has several good ideas I like them because they do not assume that our clients intend to extract free work from us. And they help us find a way to say “yes” and therefore strengthen a relationship.
Get Clarity
Don’t leap to say no. Instead, call—don’t email—the client and find out what’s going on. Emailing your rejection of their request is a great way to cause an argument and hurt feelings. Ms. Sullivan notes that in many cases, client requests are based on false assumptions. You may be able to provide an on-the-spot answer, and that works for everyone.
Articulate the Impact
If a client is comfortable with you, they may think it’s ok to ask you to do something that “will only take a minute.” As we all know, minutes can become hours, and saying “yes” will establish an expensive precedent. Instead, help your client understand how honoring her request will impact the project overall. With that understanding, she may elect to change her priorities.
Make it Easy
Often, clients don’t know what they need at the beginning of a project. So they end up asking for more help as the project progresses. Clarify their request and talk to them about adjusting priorities. Of course, you can always discuss increasing their investment, but that may require additional budget. Make it easy for your client to get the help needed.
What I like about these approaches is that they don’t immediately assume that a client is trying to take advantage. They remove the element of blame from a situation, give us some breathing room, and condition us to find a way to provide the help we’re in business to give.
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