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Cover image for 5 ways to say 'NO' to Clients
Jenuel Oras Ganawed
Jenuel Oras Ganawed

Posted on • Edited on

5 ways to say 'NO' to Clients

When we are working with a client, sometimes clients can ask a lot of questions that if we answered it incorrectly we can suffer from it.

So here are some question you might encounter in your gigs or career, as a full timer or a freelancer, and how to say "Hell No" without losing a gig.

1. Can we see a pass before we hire you?

I need a deposit to reserve my time
and pay for my assets needed to knock
this out of the park for you.
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2. Can you do this for less?

If budget is our priority,
lets start with the amount
you have in mind and
back into a deliverable
that makes sense for
that number
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3. Can you do this for free/your portfolio?

The results of this
campaign (done properly)
will more than pay back
this initial
investment
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4. Can we add this quick little deliverable?

Absolutely, i'll just
tack the extra hours
on to your final invoice,
does that work? 
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5. Can we get unlimited revisions?

Sure! My quote includes
2 rounds revisions.
After those, you can have
as many as you'd like,
we'll just switch to
hourly billing.
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"Remember: If you add value, you get paid."

Don not respond to the request, Respond to the issue behind the request.

Top comments (7)

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hasnaindev profile image
Muhammad Hasnain

Damn! TBH I've seen this happen in other professions too. Let's take a neurosurgeon for example, they don't come cheap and people consider their work serious and pays them as much as they demand and rightfully so.

What people don't understand is that how complex software engineering can get, in fact, this has to be one of the complex fields out there. You build bridge once and you're done, people have been doing it for centuries using laws of physics and what not. But software engineering, puff, you can't even write the same code as the other developer.

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tilkinsc profile image
Cody Tilkins

Art commission people have it the worst. People goes as far as attempted theft of the work.

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hasnaindev profile image
Muhammad Hasnain

Yes! That's really sad. P.S, visited your profile, you got some complex stuff going on. You play AOE 2?

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tilkinsc profile image
Cody Tilkins

I played AOE2 on voobly, but not much anymore. The meta evolved as it gained traction into something I don't find enjoyable anymore. Thank you for checking my profile out. I am working on a lot of complicated things right now. Currently I am developing in NodeJS using the TwitchAPI for an overlay control panel.

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hasnaindev profile image
Muhammad Hasnain

Great to hear! Spent my childhood playing AOE2 and I guess that's true for all AOE fans, never online though. Thank you. :)

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zimanaanalytics profile image
Zimana Analytics #BlackInDataWeek

This is a great framework to get to the root of the problem and to control scale - really liked how number 2 ask for the budget upfront. Unfortunately there are people who will still try to take advantage of a price, and they may not be really the best customer to have long term. You really want customers who will make good referals or repeat business. But cutting through the pricing concerns is always a good suggestion. Thank you for sharing it.

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andreidascalu profile image
Andrei Dascalu

"Do not respond to the request, Respond to the issue behind the request"

This