Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of being a medical writer is learning how to manage clients effectively.
For medical writers, clients can be anyone you need to deliver work for. Whether you’re an employee or self-employed, your clients could be pharma companies, contract research organisations, agencies, biotech companies, charities, academics, researchers, journals/publishers, healthcare organisations, or medical societies.
Learning how to manage your clients is a skill that cannot be underestimated in importance. Effective client management has the power to make your life enjoyable as a medical writer. Whilst poor client management can make your working life very difficult indeed. Building productive and effective working relationships with your clients also enables you to be a proficient and highly-sought after medical writer.
Looking back over my own medical writing career, I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside many clients with whom I’ve shared similar work values and approaches towards business. This has made my medical writing career much easier over the years and a lot more fun!
That’s not to say that I haven’t come across people who are a little more difficult to work with from time to time. And this is not so much fun…
Through trial and error, I’ve learnt better ways to manage different types of clients, figured out the types of clients I work best with (not that it’s always possible to choose), and identified a number of the warning signs associated with more challenging clients.
So, what do you need to know about how to effectively manage clients? Whether you’re a seasoned medical writer or just starting out in your career, the ability to cultivate strong relationships with your clients fosters a collaboration that facilitates project success. From establishing clear communication to understanding your clients’ expectations, we’ll delve into the crucial aspects of effective client management.
Client negotiations
Throughout medical writing projects, and also as a freelancer when signing a contract to work with a new client, there will be an element of negotiation involved to achieve a successful outcome for all parties involved.
For example, a client may come to you with a project that requires an unrealistic deadline. In such a situation, you have to have an upfront conversation with the client about what can be achieved within their suggested timeframe.
It’s important to remember that as a medical writer you’re the expert when it comes to publishing and/or communications. You’ll have a far better grasp of what can be achieved in a particular timeframe when working within your own standard operating procedures than your client will. It becomes a matter of managing expectations.
Managing client expectations
The key to effectively managing client expectations is to prioritize clear and transparent communication. By fostering open dialog with your client, you’ll find it a lot easier to be transparent about project progress, which will help you build strong client relationships and to achieve successful project outcomes.
A few things that help manage expectations with every project deliverable are to:
- Define the deliverable scope upfront
- Set realistic timelines and milestones
- Create regular touchpoints to keep your client well-informed of progress
- Be proactive by addressing potential issues early on
- Offer solutions when problems arise
- Stay organised and keep track of project details and deadlines, taking this burden away from the client
- Establish clear guidelines for managing document revisions and changes
- Educate clients about communications standards and compliance limitations
Problems can always arise when working with others, but by providing transparent communication, addressing concerns promptly, acting proactively to provide solutions, setting realistic expectations, being organised, and delivering on your commitments, you can foster strong client relationships, which will help you effectively manage client expectations. In this way you act more like a consultant to your client rather than a service provider.
Consultant mindset
One of the most difficult things I found when starting out in my medical writing career was to build up to a level of understanding where I was able to create a consultancy relationship with my clients. It wasn’t until I reached a senior level that I felt able to do this and challenge certain approaches being taken in projects. This comes from being exposed to a large quantity and variety of project types that you can learn from, to provide viable solutions for projects.
In my opinion, having a consultant mindset is what sets exceptional medical writers aside from good ones.
So how do you develop a consultant mindset?
It starts with acquiring deep industry knowledge through experience, attending congresses, diversifying the projects you work on, working with multiple clients, writing for different audiences, and using different styles of writing.
To act a as consultant you need to understand your clients’ needs and tailor your approach according to this. Focus your efforts on solving problems for your clients, offering insights and solutions for their work. This requires strong communication skills so that you can effectively convey your ideas.
The key is to foster collaboration with your clients rather than assuming you’re just there as an extra pair of hands to follow their direction. Clients often require and value your input as a communications/writing professional.
Your expertise can help your clients to shine in their roles, and when this happens they will view you as valued collaborator for their work. Through this approach you can cultivate a relationship of trust with your clients.
Also, don’t be afraid to seek feedback from your clients to enhance your work. This can feel intimidating, but can be key to improving collaboration, since you can tailor your approach to what they need and adapt to individual preferences.
Managing high-stress clients
It’s not always possible to work with ideal clients. At some point in your medical writing career, you’re likely to encounter some people who are more challenging to work with.
In my experience you usually have to go through at least a couple of challenging situations before you begin to learn who you work well with. And once you find your ideal clients, you can try to continue to work on projects with them.
Bad experiences enable you to identify ‘red flags’ that can help you see early on if a client might be challenging to work with. Such red flags include a lack of clear communication, poor (or no) direction with projects, speaking impolitely/being blunt, pushing boundaries in terms of calling or messaging you too often/all hours (without permission), or someone who refuses to stay within the boundaries of the project scope leading to scope creep. Scope creep is the unauthorised expansion of project requirements and deliverables, potentially leading to increased workloads and disruption to project planning/execution.
In terms of project scope, you may be able to get support from a project manager/account manager with this. If you’re writing and project managing alone, however, you’ll need to deal with any scope creep issues by yourself. It’s best to deal with scope creep as soon as it arises, otherwise you run the risk of the issue escalating as the project progresses.
As a freelancer it’s easier to walk away from high-stress clients. After all, as a business owner you’ve the right to refuse service to people who are difficult to work with. And don’t feel afraid to exercise this right!
As an employee it can be more challenging. Often issues can be alleviated early on if there’s a teething problem with a business relationship, through open communication.
If issues persist, your manager can be called in to help set boundaries and provide a solution. This can be either managing the client’s expectations to establish a relationship that works for all stakeholders involved, or (in worst-case situations), refusal to work with a client altogether. The latter solution is rather extreme and I’ve no direct experience myself, but I have heard of this happening in other medical writing teams on more than one occasion.
Working with your ideal clients
Alongside identifying people who are not ideal to work with, you’ll start to learn who is. For many writers, this is when it feels like you’re on the same wavelength. Your ideal client is not necessarily an individual with whom you want to work with (although it can be). Rather, your ideal client refers to a representative of the types of clients that you work most effectively with.
This will vary for every writer, but it could include people who:
- Provide interesting and varied projects to work on
- Are respectful and demonstrate professionalism in their approach
- Respond promptly to enquiries
- Maintain open channels of communication throughout a project
- Trust and respect your professional knowledge
- Allow you the freedom to provide recommendations and guidance based on your expertise
- Foster a collaborative environment
- Allow open discussion
- Provide constructive feedback
- Make timely decisions
- Recognise that delays in response can negatively impact project timelines and deliverables
- Appreciate and value your efforts
- Value building strong working relationships that can lead to ongoing collaboration
It’s unlikely you’ll find a client who possesses all these traits (but if you do, hold on to them)! Think about which of these characteristics would contribute most to positive and fulfilling work for you as a medical writer. Then try to recognise them in the client teams you work with. Collaborating with such people will increase the enjoyment of your everyday work.
Summary
Effective client management is a crucial skill for medical writers, as mastering it has the power to impact the quality of your working life and overall career satisfaction.
From negotiating project terms and managing client expectations, to adopting a consultancy mindset and effectively handling high-stress clients, practical approaches including clear communication, proactive problem-solving and collaboration can be leveraged to cultivate strong working relationships with your clients.
Effective client management leads to successful project outcomes and paves the way for productive and fulfilling work as a medical writer.