Never Treat These 5 Assumptions With Your Customers.

The best creative people will not make any assumptions, but be honest with their customers. Otherwise, it will not only introduce misleading information, but also make the problem more serious than expected. In the process of working with many creative companies, I am already familiar with those self destructive assumptions.

　　 Hypothetical 1: when customers choose Creative partners Low price is the king's way.

Creative people usually feel that price is the primary consideration when customers choose creative companies or make suggestions. So they will do a lot of useless work, for example, on the magic numbers.

In fact, professional knowledge, creativity and trust are far more important than price in the eyes of customers. Clearly, such a selection standard (even knowing how a new customer will weigh these standards), you can better position and marketing yourself, and fully respond to the standards in the proposal. Don't bother to study those odd numbers, and spend more time understanding and reflecting on how you should achieve these standards. Ask some potential new users: what criteria do you value when choosing a creative partner? How do you weigh these standards? What other creative partners are you thinking about, and then show your differences? Have you ever worked with creative people before? What are the factors that play a crucial role in your partnership?

　　 Hypothetical 2: new customers have visited your website and have some knowledge of you.

Creative workers place too much emphasis on the importance of websites and proposals. They use this as a main way of publicity and rely on these tools to root their values, services and professionalism in the hearts of potential customers.

Although you have been racking your brains to think about how to develop a perfect propaganda tool, most customers will not spend time studying your website or reading lengthy proposal reports, and more on choosing a company based on the recommendation of others. Do not believe it? Check the statistics of the website to see how long each potential new customer will stay on your website.

Most customers first choose a new creative company based on trust and interpersonal relationship - this is not achieved through a proposal report or a short stay of the website. Therefore, there is a good rule of thumb: if prospective customers are not interested in you at the beginning or do not know your company (don't assume that they know very well), you must arrange a meeting with the customer as much as possible before writing the proposal report. If this is a little difficult, you must submit your proposal report in person. Don't belittle these extra efforts, it will give you ten times more chances than the manuscript.

　　 Hypothetical 3: customers want creative people to be experts from the beginning.

When you first meet a customer, creative people always feel that you should position yourself as an expert in serving customers. Therefore, they always focus on customer's business, strategy, target audience and other information that can affect the final creative plan.

Before you start writing a proposal report, you have to ask questions related to the project or the special requirements of the customers. These are all very important; if the client is not sure, you can make a market research in advance to understand the specific needs of the target audience. That's right! What customers need is a strategic minded partner. Of course, the initial talks with customers do not mean that you can solve their problems on the spot - what you want to show in front of the customers is your value.

　　 Hypothetical 4: Customer Do not want to disclose "confidential"

According to past experience, when a creative worker asks, "how much is your budget?" or "you are still considering which creative company?" and so on, the customer will reply: "this is confidential." However, this does not mean that you should avoid talking about these topics. Instead, you should ask another way to get more information you want.

Instead of asking customers, "which companies are compared with the draft?" you might as well ask a more comprehensive question: "which company are you considering, which one or which type of agent?" you can further explain: "this information will help us make a more competitive proposal report." In other words, if your competitor has not worked with this client before and you have, then you can mention your understanding of the company and your experience again. Conversely, if your competitors have worked with customers and you do not, you can emphasize that you will inject new blood into this partnership. Besides, you have also had other good project experiences and insights in this field.

The same applies to budgeting. You first asked, "how much is your budget?" and then explained, "having a certain understanding of your budget can help us tailor the plan to you, and also make us more aware of the value and importance of this project." If you simply change the way of asking questions like this, you will surely get more valuable answers from your customers.

　　 Hypothetical 5: customers are clear about what they mention. Amendments Impact on projects

Many creative people try to avoid sharp problems. They prefer to stay in the safety zone instead of challenging their customers' wishes.

The worst assumption that a creative person can make is to think that the customer can understand the impact of the customer's own delay or arbitrary modification, whether it is the complexity of the approval process, the complexity of the content, or the scope of application. As a creative person, you know that any round of examination and approval of any node in the project process will cost more time and money. But before implementation, you have to talk clearly with your client and let them know the impact of these changes.

Before adding extra time, services or money, we must let the customers have a clear understanding of the impact of these changes, the impact of the original arrangements and the cost. If they really realize these consequences, they will not be able to make changes so easily.

When we were young, adults always taught us that honesty is the best policy. This is true in business. Don't worry about asking whether these questions will scare away customers, as long as you explain why you need answers. Over time, you will find yourself becoming professional and considerate, and most importantly, you will do better.