I’ve often been a proponent of defending yourself as a freelancer, shaming clients, and even straight up telling clients when they’re wrong.
This is the ugly side of any service-based bidness. To best serve your clients, sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves, get your metaphorical hands dirty, and risk offending them to achieve the results you both desire.
But today, I’m gonna take the exact opposite stance.
Because sometimes it’s better to tuck your tail in between your legs and not pipe up. You gotta learn how to pick your battles. And this is exactly what I did last week with one of my clients.
Here’s the story:
After drafting up an email in a Google Doc, submitting it for review, and making the necessary edits, I got a comment from my client that said the following:
(Paraphrased)
“Can you make this less of a run-on sentence?”
It was the first sentence in an email and it flowed particularly well, hitting several pain points in a unique way.
It was also, by definition, not a run-on sentence. It didn’t have two independent clauses. In fact, the only reason this sentence got “flagged” was because I decided to string multiple “ands” together instead of using commas.
Why?
Well, sometimes stringing together “ands” instead of using commas makes a certain sentence sound better. And if’n a sentence sounds better, it flows better. And if’n it flows better, it reads better. And if’n it reads better, it’s more likely to result in a conversion.
Alas, my client thought it was a run-on sentence.
Instead of fighting back and coming back at him with proof that it was not a run-on sentence (read: being an annoying little prick), I acquiesced.
The reason is simple:
While defending yourself and clapping back at clients is sometimes needed, so also is refrain needed.
And if we’re being honest here, this run-on sentence confusion was not a battle worth fighting.
It just ain’t that important in the grand scheme of things. Especially when you risk coming across like an arrogant and annoying and needy prick.
And so, I simply rewrote the sentence, keeping most of the original intent intact.
You don’t need to fight every battle. The more you come across as an adversary, the more your client might actually think you’re an adversary.
And that just don’t jive with one of my Cowboy Codes: Always be on Team Client.
Anywho:
Need help growing your business through email?
Hit reply, and let’s chat.
(But I’m jetting dahn to Florida tomorrow, so let’s knock this aht today, eh?)
John
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