Meeting the client

 
   Most Importantly You Must Build Trust From The Start! !!

   A client’s trust will make or break a project. Without it you’ll spend endless hours explaining and defending your ideas. It’s easy to build trust when you’re meeting once a week to present your work and report your progress, but how do you do it with someone 10,000 miles away or someone you only meet the once?
First, introduce yourself – and I don’t mean send them a link to your portfolio. But it’s essential. Before you dive in to any work, schedule a quick kickoff meeting. A video conference is ideal – I recommend Skype – but if they can’t manage it, a phone call will work almost as well. But I prefer the personal touch at least If only for the first meeting.  If you’re in different time zones, wake up nice and early (or go to bed very late) to accommodate them. If in person be prepared, do your homework and arrive punctual to the meeting.

This is important for both sides. You already know you need deadlines to keep yourself on track, but you need to set them for the client as well. Asking for timely feedback keeps the project moving forward. Every time you produce something that requires feedback or sign-off, set a short-term deadline and make sure it’s documented in writing somewhere. If the client lets the deadlines slip repeatedly, they can’t complain when the project is or is not delivered. But a true professional still keeps to the brief and all deadlines.
Having deadlines motivates clients to focus on your work, which may be one of a zillion projects sitting on their desk needing attention. It is also a subtle way of asking for (and getting) respect.

Since perhaps you’re not meeting face-to-face (and probably aren’t calling too much either) the limited interactions you do have are incredibly important. Make sure you craft your emails and messages carefully; realize that every word you write is amplified and your dry sense of humor isn’t going to come across very well. Best to just be straightforward.
Don’t inundate your clients with needless emails, but make sure you communicate enough to keep them feeling comfortable with your progress. Quick, regular check-ins help set everyone at ease. If you think the client is confused, pick up the phone and have a real conversation. You’ll be amazed how much can be cleared up in 2 minutes when you’re not trying to explain it over email.
Keep a copy of all your correspondence for future reference – you never know when you might need it.

Collaborate and negotiate. Be able to explain your vision to the client and why it’s the best possible solution to their design problem. While you should defend your ideas, when possible it’s a good idea to give in to the client.

Maintain contact. If you are proactive about contacting the client and providing updates, the client will feel important and have more confidence in your work.

Stick to deadlines. It doesn’t matter if you have to give up an occasional weekend or work thirteen-hour days for a week. Part of being a professional is getting your work done on time.

For the Thornham project I had not met the client (Colin Venes) prior to today. I had only liased/ mediated of what the breif was via my correspondent James Fox at SpringboardTV.com. So to gauge what it was that was expected of me and what the client had envisioned. I formaly aproached him with James Fox simply to grasp a larger understanding of what the project meant to him and the community. I instantly began building a rapport and ask multiple open questions to extract the information and his vision for the project. I relayed various ideas I had asthetically regarding the style of documentary i would like to create. By doing this we were able to colaborate on the tone and desired style of the documentary I was to produce. But ultimatly he and I were finally on name to face basis and placed him in ease of who would be in charge of ensuring the documentaries fruition from inception to creation. Later we discussed a Deadline for a viewing of the documentary's finished edit; which allowed me to gauge how long I had as producer for production and post-production. Which became the foundation of my production schedule.

Client- Colin Venes at the Thornham 'Drill Hall' closing ceremony.