In my travels as a copywriter, I’ve found there are basically two kinds of clients:

1. The first kind gives you no information to do the job, but expects you to not only “get it” immediately, but produce a work of strategic brilliance by the end of the day.

2. The second kind gives you so much information it’s like trying to find the proverbial golden needle in the haystack. You spend hours trying to sift through it all to figure out what the assignment is and the best selling strategy for it.

Both types of clients are difficult to work with. The first requires a CIA-style of interrogation to extract pertinent information. The second requires constant deflation of hot air to bring them back down to Earth, and the task at hand.

Of the two, I prefer the first since I can ask lots of questions, lots of different ways, to get the answers I need. The second one is tougher because it’s like herding cats. I personally like to handle the discovery process at my own speed. When someone vomits out a lot of information and says, “Well, what do you think you can do with this?” my first thought is to turn heel and run, so I don’t catch the sickness too.

Why does every job seem to be a fight to establish the value of copy? I have more and more people telling me what they’re going to pay me these days vs. letting me estimate the job. And please, no more unlimited revisions included in the fee. I’ll give you one round of revisions. Any more than that and the client is changing direction. Which warrants an entirely new estimate. Or how about those “quick turns” that turn into “slow pays?” I have to get it to them fast, but they don’t feel the same sense of urgency in cutting the check. Anybody else facing this (besides Gary Jensen, who is the GOD of copywriting boundaries)?!!!