What Do Clients Value Most in a Freelancer?
A few years ago, a survey asked clients what they valued most in their relationships with suppliers.
The answers may surprise you. Stop here for a moment and take a guess.
I’ll bet many of you thought it would be price. How much people charge, the lower the better, right? Or perhaps talent. It would make sense that clients value talent the most.
Here are the results of the survey.
By Far, Clients Valued Reliability Over Anything Else
They wanted people they could count on to meet deadlines and other promises. Reliability was more important than talent or any other criteria.
Do what you say you’ll do. Deliver on the day you promised. Make sure you can be counted on, with no excuses.
Second Was Talent, But Only Half as Important as Reliability
It makes sense that talent would rank high. But reliability was twice as important. When you combined reliability and talent, they took up over half of the pie chart. The two outweighed everything else.
Clients Ranked Personality Third
Ranking after talent was personality. How much did they like the person? What was it like to work with them? How did the freelancer handle themselves?
Remember this when you’re working with clients. Try to make their day better every time they work with you. Be the bright spot, the person they look forward to working with on their projects
Wait, Where is Price?
Many freelancers think price is most important to clients. But that’s not what clients said.
BTW, if you’re working with a client where the discussion is always about price, you’re working with the wrong client. Find other clients.
So, we have reliability, talent, and personality ranking 1, 2, and 3. Surely price is fourth.
Clients Ranked Hygiene Fourth
Is this hard to believe? That hygiene, in other words, how professionally a freelancer presented themselves, came in fourth? Maybe not. Who wants to work with someone with bad hygiene?
Last, in Fifth Place, Was the Rate
It barely made the cut. How could that be?
If you stop and think about it for a minute, it all makes sense. Turn it upside down to change your perspective.
Imagine if you offered the best rate, but you were unreliable, not very talented, had a lousy personality, and your hygiene was terrible. Who would want to work with you? Nobody.
If you’re freelancing, remember that reliability is everything. Keep your promises, deliver when you said you would.
Why is Reliability So Important?
It takes just one hypothetical example to demonstrate the value of reliability.
Let’s say you had promised to send something to your client first thing Tuesday morning. Maybe a strategy outline, copy for an article, or layouts for ads.
On Monday, you realize you won’t be able to make that deadline. It’s going to take at least another day to finish. You send a quick note asking for an extension. You assume it’s not a big deal. You don’t hear back until late that evening.
She is unhappy!!! Pissed! Why? Simple. She didn’t tell you that she has a Tuesday afternoon presentation to her boss, and your material is an integral part of that show. Now, she has to make excuses. She’s embarrassed. It makes her look flakey. She’s thinking that maybe she’s working with the wrong people…
How many times do you think she’ll put up with that? Not very often.
So, once more, the order of importance is:
Reliability
Talent
Personality
Hygiene
Rate
Make a poster of it. Put it up on your wall.
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