Several years ago, I fundamentally changed the way I do business. As such, my perception of business and client relationships have changed as well.
To this end, my contracts are very basic. I don’t like to spell out everything that will be done, and the penalties if things go wrong, as it feels petty for my tastes. I only work with clients who act in good faith, and will trust them accordingly. It’s only fair, as in return, they often pay me up front and trust me to deliver.
I realize I’m able to afford this luxury because I only need to care about myself and my client. I don’t have to worry about keeping a team employed.
That being said, Salesforce agencies are not always as fortunate. Sometimes they need to spell out every detail and have lawyers review them endlessly.
In these cases, when a project passes the point of no return and the client suddenly changes priorities, you can refer back to the contract.
If, for some reason, the contract doesn’t spell out what should be done in this scenario, well, you don’t have many options.
But we’ll discuss that in the next email 🙂
The takeaway
Before working with clients, you need to decide how detailed your contract or master service agreement (MSA) needs to be.
If you’ve been burned by bad clients before, it may be time to update these documents to protect yourself from future harm. Or change the way you do business 😉