Mural Client goes Incommunicado
It's happened to everyone.
All the green lights are on.
All the proper noises have been made.
Preliminary designs, or even final ones, have been worked out and submitted. Meetings are held and hands are shaken.
...and the client stops returning calls, emails go unanswered, retainer checks don't show up, and the dialog which was so productive ceases completely. Usually, resources are in place and waiting on deck. If you're salty enough, you know to wait until the first payment clears the bank before extending yourself. But even the most seasoned of us get caught up short and can spend expensive non-productive days trying to make contact and wondering why the wheels came off the project's gravy train. Days, weeks, or months pass and the profit margin dwindles.
When the client is located locally, a trip to their house or business is easily done and a quick face-to-face will answer the why of it. Out-of-town clients who go silent are trickier and even more frustrating. If traveling is not an option you're pretty much limited to voice-mail and emails. These are the leanest forms of communication with no guarantee they're being heard or seen by your target client.
When the communication stops its important to remember that the communication has stopped. It's dangerous to assume you know the why behind the silence and it's wasted energy trying to figure out the reasons. Even more dangerous and possibly disastrous is reacting to the assumptions you've made and incorporating these assumptions into your one-sided communications. The end result is usually not pretty. We've all heard the stories of the one-sided email or text conversations which ramble on into the hundreds of posts with an arc of emotion and frustration. The receiving party, having broken their phone or gone out-of-town for a family emergency, returns to a deluge of passionately disturbing posts.
The best advice is to remain courteous and professional. You really don't know what's going on in your client's life or business so don't make assumptions. The only real way I've been able to counter the frustration of a silent client is to have a lot of clients. All my eggs are not in one basket. Leave the door open for them to walk through and they will. In the meantime... sell some more projects.