Hi Reader,

I once worked on a project for a health-tech founder who kept asking for a little more.

The scope we wrote described the work we'd be doing along the way, not what she'd walk away with at the end. That gap was on us. When the work didn't match what she'd pictured, the "can you also...?" requests started, and we kept saying yes because we wanted her to be happy.

It got expensive. Everyone was stressed and working hard, and she still wasn't satisfied.

I shared that story at the August Water Cooler 🚰, which was a whole session on this phenomenon.

What I'm noticing

Inside a company, your job description does a lot of quiet work. Someone assigns you a thing, you finish it, done. Once you're consulting independently, the job becomes making a client happy and making sure they see the value. That has no natural edges.

In my experience, most "can you also" requests trace back to the start: an expectation nobody wrote down. With that founder, it was what she'd walk away with at the end.

A partner at the consulting firm where I learned a lot of this told me the SOW is a backstop, not a weapon. If you're pointing at the contract to say "that's not in scope," you've already lost, whether or not you win the point.

In her case, pointing at the contract wouldn't have fixed anything. She'd still have been missing what she pictured, and now she'd be frustrated with us too. What would have helped was a conversation early on about what she'd walk away with, and another one every time a new ask came in, about how it fit with what she was really trying to get to.

Your next move

Next time you hear "can you also...?", don't answer yes or no. Ask how it changes the plan.

I think of new requests in terms of a roadmap (wearing my product management hat). Each one gets weighed against what we already agreed matters most. Does it get us closer to the goal, and what gets pushed back to make room? Most people asking for one more thing haven't thought about what it pushes out. Once you say "if we take this on, we'll have to push back X," they're back in the driver's seat, and sometimes they decide they don't want it after all.

You and the client end up on the same side of the table, looking at the trade-off together.

Three things to try this week:

1. Write your assumptions into your next proposal. How many rounds of feedback are included (I started doing this after an early project where the feedback rounds never ended), who decides and who advises, and what done looks like. If you can't write them yet because the problem is still fuzzy, that's a sign there hasn't been enough discovery yet. Have another conversation before you write the proposal (the two questions below are a good place to start).
2. Bring two questions shared in the session to your next discovery call. Jonathan's: "What does success look like to you?" He's listening for a story, not a number. And John's: "Why can't you do this on your own?" The answer tells you what they're hiring you for. Sometimes it's permission, cover, or an outside voice.
3. Check in on the goal, not the contract. On longer projects, what the client is trying to get to can drift. Have a quick "is this still what you're after?" conversation during the project, while it's easier, and not at the end when someone says "wait, I thought I was getting..."

Life beyond the screen

The best negotiator in my house is a toddler.

"Three more minutes," I say.

"No. Five minutes."

I've learned that just saying no starts a standoff, and saying yes every time means three minutes is never three minutes. What works better is the same thing I'd do with a client: put the trade-off on the table. "Okay, five minutes, but then it's one book at bedtime instead of two." Suddenly three minutes looks pretty good.

Turns out "how does this change the plan?" works at every age.

A question for this week: What's a "can you also...?" you said yes to that's quietly taking over your week?

Shaping an offer with clear edges? That's a big part of the Fractional Kickstart: we partner together over two to three months to turn what you know into a consulting offer clients say yes to, including what they walk away with at the end. If that sounds useful, hit reply and we'll find a time to talk. (More about it here: https://www.chillaborate.com/fractional-kickstart)

Come to the next Water Cooler 🚰 Thursday, October 29 (9am PT), Ian Irfan joins us on closing high-ticket deals without a proposal. Save your spot: https://luma.com/o737mad7​

Let's Chillaborate,

Dina

Founder, Chill Labs

PS: Know someone whose client keeps asking for one more thing? Forward this to them. 💙