The Clint Eastwood guide to dealing with difficult clients

As professionals, we talk a lot about how to satisfy our clients—how to keep them happy and find ways to make their campaigns a success.

Every once in a while, we get a client who wants something for nothing, makes unreasonable demands, or seems to go out of his or her way to make our job more difficult. Dealing with this type of client calls for a different tack.

We still have to maintain our professional manner, but there’s no reason we can’t take a bit of Wild West attitude with our client relations.

The next time you’re dealing with difficult clients, ask yourself, “What would Clint Eastwood do?”

Problem: Difficult clients expect more work

Clint wisdom: “I tried being reasonable. I didn’t like it.”

You’ve just finished your final round of (very substantial) edits on a client project, but the clients aren’t happy. They want you to go back to the drawing board and try something else, and they don’t seem to understand this isn’t what “revisions” are about.