“What you do is hard, and I’m going to make you feel very bad about it for the next hour. When I’m done, I’ll make you feel good again, and it’ll be worth it.”
That’s how this presentation begins and that’s pretty accurate.
This video will hurt. Mike doesn’t pull any punches. If you are a graphic designer you NEED to watch this video. All of us make these mistakes. When you can recognize when you are making them though, you can correct yourself!
Watch now:
Can’t watch right now and just want a summary? You got it.
Design is about more than the feel good fluff you learned in school.
It’s about more than just believing in yourself or doing what you love. Design isn’t for other designers. That’s bullshit. Design is a tool that is used to sell and help clients make money. You’re not an artist. You’re not creating art. You are a service professional with industry-specific knowledge that you can use to assist your clients.
Good design doesn’t sell itself. You better learn how to sell your work.
If you want to get paid to do design, you need to learn how to sell design. Sell it to your creative director, to you account manager, and to your client. How does what you did solve the problem? How will your design achieve the client’s objective? How will your work advance the mission of your place of work? When you can sell your work, you become a more valuable team member. If you can’t sell your work, you become a liability to your team, and you’ll be first on the chopping block when it’s time for layoffs.
“A good designer who can sell work is more valuable than a great designer who can’t.”
“Nobody’s gonna fire the money-maker.”
Selling is a core skill every designer needs to know.
When you leave the job of selling to someone else, you can’t complain that it wasn’t pitched right. If you want a say in how client feedback is approached, get in there and take the feedback yourself. Otherwise, don’t bitch to your co-workers about how dumb the client is or how wimpy your account manager or creative director is because they didn’t respond the way you think they should have to a seemingly frivolous client request.
I can tell you as an agency owner, almost nothing was more irritating to me than a design employee who would complain, complain, complain about how wrong our client was, but the second I offered to let them come to a meeting to defend their work, they were suddenly very busy or not that upset about it.
Also, as an agency owner, I can confirm Mike’s assertion that design employees are judged on whether or not they help you make money. If you are just a butt in a seat putting things together in Illustrator, you are replaceable. A designer who can talk to clients, guide feedback, and create work that meets objectives is special.
And now, what you came here for, a summary of the 13 Mistakes Designers Make During Client Presentations
Trying to be the client’s friend
That’s the account manager’s job. Your job is to solve the client’s problem, not be their yes-man (or yes-woman). You need to present yourself as the expert and tell the client when you think they are wrong. But don’t be a dick about it. You need to be able to show the client that you have their best interest in mind, and that their goals are your goals.
Not taking control of the presentation
Are you the expert or not? Own the presentation. Develop your “boardroom presence”. Be confident in what you have to say. This is your opportunity to reassure the client that they made the right decision choosing to work with you, that they are in good hands, that they can trust you.
Never start with an apology.
When you apologize for your work it freaks the client out. When you apologize, the client questions why they hired you in the first place. It’s better to cancel a presentation that you don’t feel confident about than to present crappy work you feel like apologizing for.
Not setting expectations.
If you don’t set the expectations properly for a presentation ahead of time, your audience will make assumptions about the purpose of the meeting that you might not like. Tell your audience at the beginning of the meeting what the purpose is. When that purpose has been met, the meeting is over.
Describing your design instead of selling it.
Don’t just walk through your design describing the parts, color, and fonts. Talk about how the design hits the goals and why you made the choices you made. Remind your clients of the research that came before the project. Who is the design for and why will that audience respond to it exactly the way we want them to?
Taking notes while you are presenting.
The presenter doesn’t take notes. They present. Get someone else to take notes for you (or record the meeting) and then review those notes after the meeting.
Not being excited.
Come on, nobody wants to sit through another presentation. Be excited, be passionate. This isn’t another boring, worthless presentation. You are going to show the client something that will help them. That’s awesome. Act like it. People like to work with happy people. Your clients want to work with happy, excited designers who love their craft.
Taking criticism personally.
Don’t get defensive. Your work needs to meet a client’s goal. When the client criticizes your work, LISTEN, because their concerns might be valid. Then defend your work with an open mind, or suggest time may be needed to think about it and get back to them.
Talking about fonts.
If you talk about fonts you invite unwanted feedback. As long as the work is meeting the goal, you don’t need to try to sound smart by talking about typefaces.
Saying how hard you worked.
Good design doesn’t look like it took a long time. It looks effortless. Don’t remind the client that it took you a long time to do something that looks simple to them.
Assuming questions are change requests.
Just because a client asks a question, it doesn’t mean they want something changed. Don’t open that can of worms by assuming they don’t like the thing they are asking about.
Not leading feedback.
Tell your client what kind of feedback you are looking for. How well does this reflect your brand? How well does this reflect your users’ needs as we discussed in the research? If you don’t guide the feedback, you will get opinions about colors and other aesthetics.
Asking “Do you like it?”
It doesn’t matter if they like it. DO NOT ASK THIS QUESTION. Also don’t ask, “What do you think?” It doesn’t matter what their subjective opinion is. It doesn’t even matter if YOU like it. If the work meets the goal and gets the job done, that’s what matters.
Good design can make a difference.
Don’t be content to sit back and let others get in the way of you doing good design. Take ownership of your role. Fight for your client’s success.
