Your first meeting with a prospective client can either be successful or a failure. However, there is no cause for alarm except you are not certain of what will occur. Your clients will want to know if they can trust you or not with their project, so it’s very likely they will ask you any of the questions below.

It is completely natural for a potential client to interview you. They want to know if you are competent enough, trustworthy and have the necessary skills. No customer will want to ruin their business because some incompetent developer could not execute their project properly.

If you really want the job and want to show your clients that you are capable enough to handle their project, then you should familiarize yourself with these 17 questions; doing so will help you prepare for the meeting and increase your likelihood of securing the project.

1. “How long have you executed projects like this?”

The reason a client asks a question like this is to know how experienced you are in the project. Some clients are only interested in experts to execute their projects; others may want to try or are perfectly cool with beginners. Some ask because they want to be sure you have executed similar projects; for instance, if you have created a similar website.

2. “Do you also provide maintenance service?”

Here, the client wants to know if your service covers creating a website alone or it comes with other packages like hosting upgrades, plugin updates, and maintenance. See this as an opportunity to reach an agreement on how much you will charge to execute the project.

3. “What are your previous projects? Can I have a look at it?”

You don’t have to worry about this; it just an opportunity to prove that you have what it takes to manage the project, and if you are good enough, you can ask for more money to execute the project. Make sure you show your clients the websites you have created or your portfolio page.

4. “Can I give feedback on this project?

This can be beneficial or problematic; the client can either make your work easy or hamper your progress. You need their opinion on the site’s appearance, how they imagine or picture their website but not how it will run.

5. “Is this a custom designed site?”

Your response to this question has to be clear because if you plan on using a WordPress theme for this project, it very possible that the client will ask along the line why his/her website looks alike with another site. This is also a nice opportunity to explain to the client why WordPress is more suitable for developing the site.

6. “Are you doing this by yourself?”

You need to be careful how you respond to this question. You have to let the client know if you will handle the project all by yourself, if it will take more time doing the project as a team, or if you will outsource the project or some task to someone they can trust.

7. “How much time do you need to execute the project?”

This question is difficult. The duration of the project depends on your client’s feedback and handing over the materials you request. What you should do is give your client a timeframe for each task because each project will be executed differently. You can say you need about five months to every. Provide a breakdown of each task to the client, for instance, it will take about five days for UX research, wireframing will take about four days, and so on.

8. “What are the processes of the development?”

This is a nice way to continue with the question asked previously. You need to display transparency when responding to this question and show that you are totally committed to this project and will ensure it is executed perfectly.

9. “WordPress is free, why can’t I handle this project by myself?”

Some clients see WordPress as a simple free blogging platform. However, WordPress has evolved over the years into a powerful CMS. Ensure you explain to your client the benefits of WordPress, the security, eCommerce platform, and great leads generator.

10. “Can it generate more people to use my business?”

You need to involve the client on this because you need to know their target audience, who their customers are, and the type of business they are engaged in. With this information, you can provide an idea on the type of techniques that will be applied to increase conversion.

11. “Can you make it rank first on Google search?”

This question is usually asked by potential clients. They want the site you create to be more than a website, they want it to be a tool that will draw more customers to their business.

12. “My previous website was hacked; will this website be hacked proof?”

Make sure security is paramount for every project you will handle. Inform your client that you are using a strong security plugin, latest WordPress updates, and emphasize greatly in selecting a secure and reliable hosting company.

13. “It should be loaded immediately, can you do it?”

The client wants to know if you can create a fast loading website. A slow site can reduce conversion by 20%. Inform your client that you will be using some performance optimization methods like CDN or other plugins.

14. “Most of my customers use their phones most times, will my website be mobile friendly?”

About 52% of internet users worldwide access the net through their mobile device. This will also affect your website design strategy as well as your technique for generating conversion. With our Vast theme, you can create a Mobile-First design using a beautifully crafted section manager.

15. “Can I change the contents?”

Sure, your clients should be able to change contents, for instance, post articles. However, the client should contact you first if they want a major change like page sections or site layouts. You need to monitor the website even though Vast Theme has an easy template demo installer. Fortunately, you can set a role-specific action with WordPress.

16. “Will you also support my site when it is completed?”

It’s totally up to you; you can decide to offer ongoing support such as plugin updates, design tweaks, WordPress updates, and theme updates after completing the website, or not. Not all clients will ask this question nor will it influence the deal.

17. Once you are done, will you give the web access to our admin?”

Not only will you provide WordPress admin access, but also theme files, hosting access, images, analysis data, web mockups, styling documentation as well as social media accounts or logins for marketing emails so they can utilize them.

As a freelancer, your clients can ask you any of the above questions. They will not ask questions concerning your mission and vision like most job interview questions, but they will want to know if you have the right skills or expertise in creating a website that will make their business successful. Have you been asked any of the above questions by a client or has any of your potential clients asked a difficult question that made you lose the project? Please share with us in the comment section so other readers can know about them and learn how to respond to such questions.