Client Selection by Reputational Value

Of all of the factors contributing to your lifetime career success and satisfaction, nothing comes close to the importance of your reputation. Nothing.

Given that, everything we do as professionals should be done reflecting on the care and enhancement of our reputations, and there is no area of our practice where this is more critical than in the selection of our clients.

The notion of “selecting clients” may sound heretical, especially to early stage professionals, who just want to see volume. “Any warm body will do” is the motto of many of us, particularly in the beginning stages of our careers. The truth, though, is that the sooner young professionals get choosy about the kind of work they take on and the caliber of clients they accept, the sooner they will develop a reputation for being the “go to” person in their field.

Think of it this way: to a professional, the client is the canvas upon which you paint. Every file or project is an opportunity for you to do your job more effectively, more efficiently, more elegantly, more safely, and more thoroughly. Doing so is not only more enjoyable than grinding away at run-of-the-mill stuff, but quite frankly, it makes you look good.

Even more important, the better your work product, the more likely your client will be to be grateful and feel that they have been served “above and beyond”. The better your work product, the more likely your peers will recognize that you are a “pro”. And these are the things that get people talking about you, in a good way. And that’s what reputation is all about.

Clearly, the tighter the Alignment between your Giftings and the client’s Needs, the more likely you will be able to knock the ball out of the park. When the task for which you are apt is the task the client is crying to have satisfied, the better your chance will be of looking really good in the outcome. And the better you look in the outcome, the more your good reputation will grow.

It’s obvious that all of the clients who are suited to enhancing your reputation are those whose Needs are precisely aligned with your Giftings. But some are more equal than others. While such qualities as thoroughness, care, precision, and timeliness are important to satisfy any client, and all these things help build reputation, the supercharger of reputation is how you handle difficult matters. It’s in the slaying of dragons that the world takes notice of your superior aptitudes.

So while all “A and B” clients are valuable and should be cherished, certain clients and projects are to be especially sought and cultivated. These are the ones who provide you with opportunities to work in the most refined areas of your Giftings, to do work that few or no others can do. It’s upon the canvas of such clients that you get to paint your masterpieces, and it’s when you paint masterpieces that your reputation soars.

The beauty of this, of course, is that as your reputation grows, more and more clients will seek you out, and if you handle the process well, your growing expertise increases in tandem with the increasingly challenging work they bring to your door. And the cycle repeats.

Professionals who grow their practice primarily by growing their reputations discover that work comes to them without the need to take out glitzy advertisement, sponsor little league teams, or spend a fortune on search engine optimization. Their version of “advertising” is more typically in the form of reputation-enhancing contributions such as teaching, providing webinars, newsletters, and, of course, writing textbooks.

But at the end of the day, it’s the clients and the projects, one by one, who provide us the opportunity to demonstrate our unique capabilities, grow our reputations, and, frankly, to enjoy our work more with each passing day. What’s not to like?

(Again, this message is especially important for early stage or frustrated professionals. If you know one, do them a favour and pass it along.)