The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 265: Clients You Shouldn’t Work With
Today, I am diving into something every business owner should know about: saying no. I dive into saying no to clients that aren’t a right fit for you and your business, how you know a client isn’t the right fit, times I have said no to potential clients, and so much more.
CLIENTS YOU SHOULDN’T WORK WITH
By: Melissa Lin
Welcome back to another episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast! Today I'm going to be talking about something that I have never talked about here on my podcast and I want to because it's so important to know that you can say no to people that want to work with you. I also want to talk about how to look out for some of these red flags that you may want to look out for with some of these people that may not be a fit, and there's nothing wrong with that. They’re looking for someone who’s a great fit for them as their mentor, as their coach, as their guide and you're looking for those clients who are also the perfect fit for you, it goes both ways. You do also get to decide whether you want to work with them. You do not need to say yes, and you also should not be saying yes to everybody just because they want to pay you. We say no to people who apply to our programs because they simply aren't a fit for it, and that's okay. Maybe they apply for our higher-level mastermind, but they are in the very beginning stages of their business so we may share with them, “you are not a fit for this at this time, however, you are a great fit for this program instead.” Maybe they're just not a fit at all for any of our programs. So that's what we're getting into today. We're going to talk all about reasons that you may say no to some potential clients, some example cases where I have said no to potential clients, and yes this happens, how to prequalify some of these potential clients so you can avoid some future bad clients you probably didn't want to work with in the first place, and then some bonus tips, of course, and so much more.
REASONS TO SAY NO
Now let's get into today's episode. So as I had mentioned earlier, it gets to be a fit for both sides. So yes, you get to also approve those that come and want to work with you. You're allowed to say no. You get to be picky with who you work with. This is your business and you get to have fun and enjoy those that you do work with as well. So, the first thing I want to get into is some of the reasons that you may say no to working with somebody. Just because somebody wants to pay you does not mean that you should take them on as a client or that you should work with them. One of the biggest things that I will say is, as a business owner you get to protect your energy and you also get to protect your experience as a business owner, and that means not working with everybody. Even if they're willing to pay you, they may not be a fit. There will be people who come your way who want to work with you that are not going to be a fit, and that's okay. I want to give some examples of some things to kind of keep an eye out for and some patterns to look for because when it’s happened once it's likely it'll happen again. I think it'll make sense once I get into some of these examples.
The first one that I want to share with you is somebody that doesn't follow instructions. So let's say, for example, that you had somebody apply for a program and they booked their sales call or their enrollment call to take that next step with you and let's say they don't show up or they're not on time. They're not following directions. They're not following those instructions that were given to them and it’s even on their calendar. Let's say that you did have a sales call with somebody and they're going to let you know by the end of the day or by the end of the week. If they don't get back to you they're not following what they said they would do and they're not following that initial instruction. If somebody doesn't fill out the entire application, and yes we've had folks do that before, or maybe they don't follow directions on the application, again, things that do happen, if they aren't following those easier steps the behavior most likely will continue. That’s definitely something to look out for. What's happening in the application? What are they sharing? Does someone show up? At the end of the day, life happens. If somebody got a flat tire as they're heading home and can’t make the sales call that does happen, and I would say I would be open to rescheduling in some of these cases. However, I've had, and we haven't done sales calls in over two years in our business, but when we were doing sales calls years ago we definitely had people no show the sales calls. We had people not let us know they weren't going to come. Again, this is behavior that you will most likely also see when they hop in to work with you in your programs.
The second thing to be looking for, a reason you may say no to somebody that wants to work with you is somebody that just needs to make this work. It’s their last resort, they're desperate, they've got to make this work. They're expecting everything to be fixed or they're expecting their income to be doubled in their business within the first two hours of them hopping into your program or losing 10 lb in the first week or the first day of working with you. What I first want to say is legally you cannot guarantee your clients results. That's the first thing we get to just put out there. You also just don't know how your clients are going to show up in your container. Will they actually lean in? Will they show up to the calls? Will they do the work? Will they ask questions? You know what you're going to be doing on your side, but you just can't guarantee what they're going to do. Expecting you to just be their saving grace for their business can really start off your relationship as a coach and client together on a negative note, especially if they aren't seeing results within the first hour or two. You just have to know you can't guarantee that and you just may not want to work with somebody who is desperate, especially if they aren't sharing what's been done in the past. That's going to kind of get me into the next example, and usually if you see that second example or the one I’m about to share, if you see one of them it’s likely you'll see the other at some point as well as you’re on a sales call with them or chatting with them. Again, I'm these examples because I've seen it in the industry and I truly want you to love who you're working with. I've had the experience to know who is a good fit for us and who is not a good fit. If you're listening to the podcast, you most likely have very similar values and would definitely agree with most of these I'm assuming.
So, again, the next one kind of relates to the second example, but if the potential client that you're talking to, maybe it’s on the sales call or in the DMs as you're pre-qualifying, if they're talking poorly about other people or they're talking poorly about their last coach, maybe they're not taking responsibility for their results. They may be blaming their last coach for where they're at, so maybe they're consistently breaking contracts with their coaches. Typically, this means they will continue that same behavior and also point fingers and blame when things get hard. There are days as entrepreneurs where it is going to feel hard. Challenges do rise, but everything's doable. Everything is figureoutable and fixable, however, it may feel hard for moments here and there. I do want to share that it is possible. You know, this happens and it blows me away when somebody comes to me and just completely trashes their last coach and how they didn't do XYZ. It's definitely a flag for me because I know typically if it's happened once, twice, three times it's definitely a pattern, right? If somebody is blaming their last business code and also their last health coach and their last financial adviser, it definitely can be a pattern, so just something to keep an eye out for. If this happens or if a potential client starts showing some of these signs they may not be somebody that you want to work with.
So the next one is somebody that breaks some of your boundaries. Maybe they're trying to call your personal cell phone number if they found it somewhere or maybe you do sales calls with your personal cell phone number and they try to call you on the weekend. Maybe they're trying to video message you on Instagram. I'm going to go into some actual examples from when this happened or where similar things have happened to me and why that's a hard no. I had some folks, and again this has happened many, many times, but before I had the privacy setting up people were attempting to video message me right there on Instagram or call me directly on Instagram years ago when I was just starting my business. I believe I only did my first five or six sales calls with my personal cell phone before I moved to business numbers and Zoom, which I will talk about a little bit today too because I have a story. I had people trying to get in contact with me all of the time and breaking those boundaries because it was mentioned at the very beginning of the call that it was the only time that I would be calling and we would be in contact via that phone number and I just expected that people would respect that and stick to the boundary and if they don't then, again, that’s a red flag to kind of keep an eye out for. I do have some social media boundary examples I’m about to share with you to give you some other perspectives.
CLIENTS I HAVE SAID NO TO
Now I want to get into some example cases when I have said no to potential clients. So again, we say no. We have applications come in daily and I personally look at every single one of them and these are going to be examples of people that I did not accept into my programs, so we did not end up working together. I want to share these with you to also give you the permission slip to say no if it doesn't feel good to work with that person. If it doesn't feel good you most likely aren't the right person to work with them, and that's okay. There may be somebody else that's a better fit. This is to also protect your energy and your experience as a business owner, as a couch, as a service provider.
So there was one time that I went on a call with an applicant, somebody who applied for our program and seemed perfect on paper. The application was perfect, they looked like a great fit. On the application we asked every applicant, “Do you agree to make sure you're in a quiet area and can give the call your full attention?” Of course she agreed to be fully present in a quiet place for a sales call and when I hopped on her call, and this is when I was doing sales calls a few years ago, and it was a video call on Zumba, and her video was off and I could hear her at the register at the grocery store literally checking out as I'm getting our call started. In her application she had mentioned that she would do whatever it took to work together, however, for me this was a red flag. If the directions she agreed to weren't followed it could easily turn into a pattern once we started to work together. I also felt a bit disrespected because I had set aside time to give this call my all on my end, however, it wasn't replicated on her end. So for that reason, I was out and did not feel like it was a fit moving forward. So we did not end up working together and I did not invite her into the program to work with me. It just wasn't the right fit at that time with where she was at in her life and her business and things like that.
Another example I want to share with you is a time when I was pre-qualifying a potential client. I prequalify everybody because I want to make sure that those coming into my group programs, or my masterminds, or even working with me privately are fits that are going to align with the other women in our groups as well or align with me. I always want to work with women that I'm going to enjoy working with and really get along with as well. So I was pre-qualifying someone and I had already gone through her application and I was starting to check out her social media page and her website and we had found out that this person had plagiarized a lot of content from me, and surprisingly this has happened more than once. It was verbatim, word-for-word in multiple captions and also sales pages, like full blown out copyrighted sales pages of ours. This behavior is unacceptable, so we actually needed to take legal action in that case and a few other cases, because again, it's unacceptable 100% and we definitely let them know. There are some cases where people will hire copywriters to do XYZ for them on their sales pages, however as the business owner I truly believe that you get to take radical responsibility for everything that happens in your business, whether it's your actions or somebody else's. So that was another example of unacceptable behavior. It was very unethical, it definitely drew the line, and it was not a fit and something I would say to definitely look out for. If that happens I would not recommend working with that person, but again, case-by-case.
The next example gets into boundaries a little bit. So I was chatting back and forth with somebody in the DMs, this was not a sales call and it was maybe two years ago, so not super recent, but this has actually happened more than once. I was chatting with this potential client and she'd applied for one of our programs and she was very offended and attacked me a bit in our direct message when I didn't get back to her right away answering a question that she had. It had been less than an hour since I had last gotten back to her, so less than 60 minutes, I had just gotten back to her and then she asked a question and I didn't get back within 60 minutes and she got really upset with me. This is a big red flag for me. So for me personally clients are always supported first. I can't remember, maybe I was on a client call during that one hour. I'm running a business and supporting hundreds of clients and my clients are number one. I'm always checking with my team as well throughout the day, so clients are supported first and social media is after clients are supported. Typically I’m able to get back to most on social media within 24 hours, maybe 48 hours max if I'm traveling. So if a potential client is wanting to work with me and is upset that I'm not responding within minutes then I can already tell she may not be the right fit because that is going to also be expected in the container that she hops into and that's just not the vibe and not the energy that I want to be bringing into my program. So again, big boundary, big thing that I look out for. I've got another example or two that I want to go through and then I also want to share with you how we can start to prequalify some potential clients so that you are having those conversations and hopping on sales calls with those that truly are going to be a fit because I definitely don't want you to waste your time. I don’t want anybody to waste their time. Your time is very, very special so if we can prequalify and eliminate some of that through applications, amazing.
The next example is another unethical one. I had somebody apply for one of your programs and she had shared with me that she was starting her business and hadn't been making any money and was struggling since the beginning. She'd only shared her Facebook account with me at the time so we had been chatting back and forth through Facebook. She'd applied for my program, and during the application process I prequalify everybody. So I think I mentioned this earlier, I look at every person's application. When I went to go check out this Instagram account, she was sharing all over Instagram that she was bringing in six figures, actually more than six figures in her business, but was telling me over on Facebook that she wasn't making any money, so that was a big red flag for me and also very unethical. She was telling me one thing but then telling her audience a completely different story and lying to her audience too. So again, that was somebody that I just could not work with and could never get aligned with in terms of value. I just did not and will not ever feel on the same page or be on the same page.
I have some other examples that are just things that have happened in the past. If somebody reschedules a call last minute, and again, life happens, but if it's last minute and they don't give you any warning or if it happens more than once and they reschedule every single time or if they are no show without any warning it's just a pattern and patterns repeat, so just kind of keep your eye out. Know that you get to say no, just like they get to say no. We all have the choice to say no if it doesn't feel like it fits.
PREQUALIFYING POTENTIAL CLIENTS
So now I want to get into how we can prequalify potential clients to avoid some future bad clients. So social media truly gives us so many tools and resources to do this. If you're chatting with somebody in the DMs already you can pre-qualify them there and ask them questions right there or send them to an application form. We do both. We have people coming to our application forms and applying daily and then we also prequalify as we are chatting with new people over on social media. So we've done both. Personally, if I'm already in conversation with somebody, I like to prequalify you there instead of then sending them to another platform to then go fill out another form and coming back to me. I like to give our audience multiple ways to qualify that are pre-qualified for a program. So again, conversation in the DMs.
Throughout our launches throughout the year we’ll also make notes in our Instagram stories who our programs are for and who they aren’t for. Again, this is us prequalifying and letting them know that they can send us a message with any questions. We always have sales pages available, the link in my bio, where you can fill out an application form. You can also pre-qualify right there on your sales page. Let your potential client know exactly who your program is for and who it isn't for. We want to make this as clear as possible on our sales pages. We'll even add it to our sales page for a second time in the FAQ section. So be clear, be clear, be clear. I always say it. Be as clear as possible.
So now I want to share a few questions that you can ask to prequalify potential clients. Grab that pen and paper of yours if you've got it or Google Docs or notes on your phone and I want to share some of the big questions I like to ask. One is, where are you currently at in your field? Whether it's in your business, your health journey, your life, whatever that is. Where do you want to be in 3 months? Why do you want to work with me? Are you ready to invest? Have you invested before? How willing are you to invest the time, energy, and money when it comes to hitting your desired outcomes? I would say these are all going to help you establish number one your authority. You’re showing that you are selective, that you don't work with just anybody, that you do say no to people. Another thing to kind of think about is how much detail are they adding to their application. Is it all one word answers? I love working with people who are just so excited and ready to take action and go getters because they see such great results. They put in the work and they're so coachable. I can typically tell if somebody is answering an application with one-word answers, like “yes, yes, yes,” but not giving me any information. When I ask you, “What's your biggest role at the moment,” and all they answer is sales then I can already kind of get a sense that this may not be somebody I want to work with. I want somebody that's going to say, “at this moment my biggest struggle is sales. I tried this. I tried that and this is what's hard for me, at the moment. I get into my head around sales. I don't know how to handle objections.” I want them to get into some detail about what's happening in their business and why they want to work with me. Again, it's an interview both ways. It's not just an interview on their end. They're not just coach shopping. You are also selective about who you work with and you get to be.
I want to add in one more quick bonus tip. So if it's not a fit you can always let them know via email or however you're already in contact with them. Like, for example, “Hey Melissa, at this time we don't feel you're fit for this program, however, here is a free resource,” or here is a better fit for you. If you have a different program that you feel to be a better fit, that's a self-paced course and isn't necessarily a container if you had any concerns about XYZ. You can definitely give them other free resources, offer a different offer that you have, or even sharing somebody else that you feel could be a fit. Or you can let them simply know that they aren’t a fit at this time, thank you for your interest, and then moving onward with the rest of the applicants that you have.
So today we've touched on some reasons to say no to some potential clients, some examples of cases where I've said no to somebody who's wanted to work with me, how to prequalify some of these potential clients and applicants coming in to avoid any bad clients in the future, some bonus tips, and so much more. We're already getting ready for next week's episode and cannot wait to share with you. We will see you next week in another brand new episode of the Fierce Business Babe Podcast bright and early next Monday morning!
Topics we cover include:
Reasons to say no to potential clients
How to prequalify clients
How I say no to clients that aren’t a fit
And so much more!
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