The most common mistake is a designer can make is sitting down and immediately starting to design.
Slow down!
Some preliminary questions a designer must ask him/herself and answer before doing so.
The top six questions (in a different form) have always been a part of my prospective client interviews. But number seven is a different story—I have served thousands of customers and have helped them make a truckload of money, but I personally have never heard of this question and none of my customers would know how to answer it.
So, what kind of question is this? How do you expect your customer to answer it or even know what you are talking about? Will the potential customer think you are just trying to act intellectual or trying to "show off?’ Does it relate to media types? Does it mean, what shelf does your product sit on? Are you from a different planet? Etc.
I’ve found that a typical client will stumble over about half of these questions. They’ll try to answer, but it soon becomes apparent that they haven’t thought through these things themselves. That’s OK, though, since it provides an opening to discuss them and demonstrate your expertise in ways that they might not have considered.
These kinds of enlightening and exploratory back-and-forth discussions are hard to do remotely, though. And I agree with @PopsD, it matters how they’re asked and explained.
We trialed questionnaires for clients who wanted logos - it didn’t work. Feedback was it felt like too much work.
Much easier to have an informal meeting and massage the questions into the general chit-chat.
I’ve found with many clients that is the case, but for others, it actually steels the mind and forces them to think about aspects of their business, they perhaps hadn’t given much thought to previously, and spending the time writing down answers can help them with direction. Some of the questions the OP used, I would want that information from. However, I wouldn’t necessarily phrase them the same way. Direct, staccato questions can be confrontational. As you say, you need to get the client in a comfortable frame of mind, so they can wax lyrical about their baby.
Sometimes questions are a pre-cursor to a phone / Zoom / face-to-face meeting. Sometimes the client ends up writing a tome and you get most of the info you need, then any meeting (in whatever form) becomes a simple relationship-building / trust exercise for both parties.
I think it is too complex a subject to reduce it to, ‘Do, A, B and C to find D’. Ultimately you are dealing with the complexities of human nature and you have to judge the approach on a client-by-client basis. In many cases, if I do send any written questions (and that is definitely not always the case) it will come after an initial meeting to judge the client’s approach and personality.
At the end of the day, I don’t think there is ever a one-size-fits-all approach. Takes time and experience – like anything really.
I think he/she meant industry maybe, pops… Haven’t read the rest of the post sorry if it was answered…
Well Smurf it depends, because sometimes the company has to go up the totem pole and it forces them to work together. Although we need to be the DJ and host of the shindig, sometimes we cannot be there because of unseen circumstances. Questionnaires can work in that way. I send mine in a fun playful way so its feels like someone human is talking to you. Not CHOOSE AN INDUSTRY NOW, but, “Hey what industry do you want to take over?”
It helps swallow the pill.
I freaking love the catch after the stumble, they look at you like the prom date who tripped over the dance partner, with glee and trust and say “take me you big burly ma…” I mean, well you get it. Lol.
They see your expertise shining through, yeah, that’s what I meant…
They don’t work - they hate filling them out. We trialled it and gathered actual data that confirmed that a quetionairre was the wrong way to go.
Instead, we built a Logo form - it has about 6 sections of about 10 different things each - about 60 items to check off.
We have a call or a video chat or an in person chat.
We do not go through 1-60 in order.
We talk to the client and take notes in the appropriate sections to gather all the info we can.
It’s an informal chat, the clients love it, and we gather the info on the side.
Essentially, we fill out the questionnaire for them.
And it works out really well, as we now put that Form to the designer, and when they are finished getting all the details - we take that form and put it into a box marked - for follow up.
Once we have the logo done - and delivered and some marketing materials.
We go through the follow up box and we make contact again to see if there’s anything else they need.
We have found this approach has more than tripled the business flow.
Always follow up at least twice within a 4 week period.
After that if they haven’t come back for more work - we give them a call 2 weeks later - then it goes into a cold case box.
Then once every two months we’ll make contact and if they are not biting we just file them away.
We only file away for 12 months - then it’s dumped.
My first question is always
“Who does this need to impress?” Who do you want to appeal to? Your customers are the ones who will be buying this, so who are they?
Oh and Yeah budget.
It’s my no.1 question.
What’s the budget?
€50
Our starting price is 8 times that.
Right on. The big B word is the scary part. Lol if they are small time they start shifting in their seat like a root canal lol…
Your a savage Smurf. I start that dance in Miami and people immedistely get offended lol.
What are some example questions? Like usage, relevancy of industry, color or not?
It’s quite basic, I used to tolerate the 50 quid and reluctantly took them on. But for 50 quid, is not going to cover anywhere near even 2 hours at a push.
What I found is you end up doing more work for the 50 quid crowd than you do for the person who is serious and has a relevant budget.
There’s no way I can do 3 logo options for 50 quid. You will never make a living that way.
If they don’t want to take it seriously they can go somewhere else.
For roughly 450 they can get a portfolio presentation including
Their current logo
Point on what is good and bad about the current logo
Various logos from different companies in the same space
A synopsis of their business and core values
Colour breakdowns based on their logo and competitors
3 options of logos including in situ relevant
And a thank you note
If the meeting or presentation is for more than one person they are printed and/or delivered digitally personalized to the clients.
And that’s how the conversation begins.
Whole presentation is, depending on the client, about 15-60 pages.
Depending how in depth they are looking for.
All this takes about 8 hours and at an hourly rate which ranges from 30 (for charities) to 150 for (big brands)
The initial conversation can cost.
But it provides the client with a clear breakdown of the process and how the options are arrived at.
So of you want to keep doing logos for 50 quid, you can have those clients. I’m never going to work with someone that has a budget of 50quid for their valued business.
Same here. I don’t want to give the exact amount (forum rules), but my cut-off is several hundred dollars. I’ll perform work for smaller amounts for good clients or when those pieces are part of a larger job, but for a new client asking for something below that minimum, no, it’s not worth it.
On smaller-budget jobs, the back-and-forth emails, phone calls, research, shifting of gears, working up a quote, etc., exhausts the budget before the work even begins. Besides, as you mentioned, small-budget clients are typically the most difficult clients. They change their minds, micromanage, have bad ideas, complain about costs, and have no idea how to work with a designer.
Of course, forum rules and all, 50 is just a round number to post here.
Id never give exacts