Ugh.

An email from a disappointed client.

“Dan, we’re pretty taken aback about what you presented earlier this week. We need a call ASAP to have a serious conversation about this project to make sure we’re not headed in the wrong direction.”

If you’ve been running a design business for long enough, I imagine you’ve gotten your fair share of these emails. I certainly have.

There’s usually a common culprit. And don’t worry: it’s both easily prevented and easily corrected.

How?

Show them the future.

An important lesson I’ve learned in my 16 years of client service is that clients tend to freak out when they can’t see the future. It’s classic anticipatory anxiety.

The mental spiral usually goes something like this:

I don’t like the design we just saw. We paid a lot of money for it, and it doesn’t do what we expected it to do. Can we course correct? Do they have the skills? Did we hire the wrong person? What if we’re not able to change it? Are we stuck with it? No, we can’t use that. We don’t have enough budget left over to hire someone else to fix it. Where are we in this project?

In short, they’re disoriented.

So orient them. Give them a map and say, “You are here.“

You might be thinking, “I already did that! I sent them our project plan Gantt chart right before we kicked off.”

Be honest: they probably didn’t understand it, much less be able to commit it to memory.

I like to use my words to help with this. Before I present anything, I might preface with something like this:

Today is round 1 of looking at some design ideas. We have 2 rounds ahead of us over the next 3 weeks, so don’t worry too much if what you see here doesn’t perfectly meet your expectations. What I’m looking for in terms of feedback from you is if one of these options is most closely headed in the right direction. Even if none of them are right, that’s great feedback at this stage, and we’ll have two more tries to dial it in to a place that you’re most comfortable with.

I’ve seen this kind of preamble ease tension over and over again, especially the part about “two more chances.” It’s an orienting balm. It gives them confidence that there’s a plan—and that they’re not stuck.

When a client panics, it’s rarely about what they’re seeing.

It’s usually about what they can’t see.

A clear, well-timed message can shift a nervous client into a confident and excited one.

Show them the future, and you’ll both feel better about the present.

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