I wish I’d come up with the phrase “The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them,” but Mad Men fans will recognize it as a quote from fictional ad man Don Draper. Now, I’m not going to recommend guzzling straight whisky or chain-smoking to get you through the workday. But among the many pieces of fantastic writing on the show, this is one that has stuck with me. (If you don’t follow the series, you need to realize he says it as a realist, not a pessimist.)
Which brings me to a question I received this week: Do you have any advice for freelancers who have lost a client because of an error? I lost a client recently this way, and it was a horrible experience. It has taken me almost a month to move on.
I have written before on the challenges of losing a loyal client, as well as losing a client due to circumstances beyond your control. But those were a bit different than what’s being asked here. We make mistakes every day that we can overlook or repair, but when it’s a doozy big enough to cost you a freelance job, well, there’s not much worse than that.
With that in mind, here are the steps I’d recommend when you’ve made such an error:
- Forgive yourself. What’s done is done, and no amount of self-loathing or running alternative scenarios in your head is going to fix it.
- Learn from the mistake. Was the error a matter of procedure, knowledge, skill, or something else? Put safeguards in that prevent you from similar costly mistakes in the future.
- Look at your budget. Particularly if the lost client was a big one, you may need to adjust what’s going on financially in your freelance business, including belt tightening. Don’t freak out, but be methodical. Mourn, but don’t feel sorry for yourself. Do what you can to avoid the temptation of dipping into your emergency fund.
- Do something positive. Get to this step as soon as possible, because it’s really the only psychological element that can get you moving on. Start cold calling for new clients, write some queries or letters of introduction, or work on updating your blog or website—with the mindset of how excited you’ll be when you score your next big project.
- If appropriate, reconnect with the client. This will depend on the magnitude of the error: If your mistake cost a client $10,000+, you may never get a chance to right the wrong. But give it some time and distance, and reach out sincerely, and you might just find you’ve been forgiven. If the client is still hurt or resentful, that’s their problem, not yours.
Which brings me to a closing thought from our virtual friend Don Draper, a phrase that has occurred in various forms throughout the seasons: “Everything’s going to be OK.” He’s right. It may be a while before it feels like it, but he really is.
Jake, this reminds me of a situation I encountered a few years back…short version: I was writing a feature for a trade pub interviewed a VP at a will-remain-unnamed big, national company. He ended our conversation with a remark with something like “Tom, Dick, and NAME OF HIS BIGGEST COMPETITOR.” It’s hard w/o the context, but I honestly felt (and still feel…) it was a friendly compliment at his very well-known, much-larger competitor — in context, it was NOT snarky, disparaging or anything like that. PLUS, it was a direct quote from him. I wrote the article, included the quote and editor at the trade mag approved the article. Article published. Competitor (who was a big advertiser) got VERY, VERY ANGRY and felt they had been slammed by the original guy. They threatened to sue the publisher AND ME PERSONALLY for damages to their reputation. Publisher assuages them somehow by telling them he’d fire me. Who knows what else he gave them, but for some reason, firing me from ever working for the pub again apparently helped. Mind you, I had worked for the pub for at least a couple of years, we all got along well, friendly, great client. In the end, the publisher did (I guess…) what he had to do to calm down big advertiser. I got thrown to the wolves, which I still haven’t figured out why they would feel like that was of any consequence. They never, as far as I know, complained to the VP of the company who actually said what he said. It took me a looong time to stop being gun-shy about quoting people if they said something that could in the tiniest way, in some contorted fashion, be considered sue-able material. And ever since then, I required quote releases from all “quotees”. Helps me sleep at night out here in the big-kid freelance world.
Oh, that’s an ugly saga, Paula. Running quotes past someone is prudent, and it’s another reason I always digitally record everyone. I once quoted a guy who was VERY ticked off that he came across as egotistical (he was) and claimed he hadn’t said what he had (he most certainly did). When my editor asked me about it, I played the clip. Like you’re describing here, it also involved him being a big advertiser, albeit in a different circumstance. I didn’t get canned, but it got my adrenaline going for sure.
That headline is definitely a grabber, Jake. I love that you put Forgive yourself first. We can expend a lot of energy on beating ourselves. up. To paraphrase your excellent post – Mourn and move on.
Love this, Jake! 🙂
Thanks for commenting, Cathy. A client loss is always tough, no matter what the reason, but you need to move past it as quickly as you can. The only other measure you can really take is to protect yourself with a diverse client base, in order that a departure doesn’t wreck your business–but you already knew that!
As usual, I’m late to this party, but my tardiness does not prevent me from feeling empathetic. It sucks to lose a client, no matter the circumstances, but to then have to wonder if you could have done things differently…well, that’s just uncomfortable.
Last spring, I took on a full time job, and really, really loved it. It offered everything I could have required to leave freelancing. Then, I had a small (or at least I thought it was small) conflict with a supervisor that ended up costing me the opportunity. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night thinking about it, and wondering if I was in the wrong, or even if I was right, if I should have handled things differently.
But, just as with losing a client, I had to forgive myself (or convince myself forgiveness wasn’t necessary) and move on. Now I think it was for the best — I do love freelancing and the flexibility and variety that come with it.
Never too late, Dava! That’s a bummer about the FT mishap, but glad to have you back in the freelance fold–and know you’ll rock it.
Please consider doing a post of all Don Draper quotes and your modern interpretations of them. It would be amazing.
It’s actuall from roger sterling
Hey Mosh, my understanding from researching numerous sources is that both Don and Roger say it; first Don to Pete, and later Roger echoes it to Don. I’ll be honest that I haven’t rewatched the episode to verify.
Anyway, thanks for reading and keeping me on my toes!