Getting The Right Clients : Do Your Clients Fit Your Business Model?

Your business model.

Do you have one?

If you have one, do you stick to it when taking on clients.

Or are you just getting tossed around like a rag doll by your clients?

Have you taken the time to sit down and write out what you do and will do for your clients?

I have had a very interesting experience over the last several weeks with a few would be and current clients. I am so grateful when many situations occur at the same time. This super busy mode lets me see comparison and contrast easily. And that is was learning is all about.

Client Number One: What I thought was there was not actually there. The operating platform was different. Thus I could not use my tools. There was an outside firm handling traffic generation. Thus not enough control to work quickly. The path for the sales process was not very straight forward. Thus each of these situations gave me the sinking feeling that I would not be able to move forward with the assignment. But, I decided to move forward anyway with the idea that I could overcome these obstacles. Long and short. I was frustrated and so was the customer. Just didn’t work out.

Client Number Two: Just before starting the job the traffic source was changed. All of a sudden, it was my job to get both traffic and optimize the traffic to increase sales. Part of the initial scope? Not at all but again, I decided to move forward with the project anyway. Under the hood, I found that the sales process jumped domains and had conflicting tracking code. And then the traffic source would not activate. Boy, what a mess I found myself in.

Prospect Number Three: And lastly, I had a prospect that was coming to me with traffic and a very simple landing page optimization. But did not have a budget at all for the project. That project I considered for a moment and just told them that I would not do the work for the amount of money that they wanted to negotiate. They wanted someone to do it for them. But did not have the budget to have someone to do it for them.

Now contrast this with the last project for which I submitted a proposal. I asked every question in the world and was willing to walk away if the project scope, resources, timeline and budget did not fit my criteria. Note the switch. Willing to walk away is key.

I am not interested in learning anything new while working on a project. I learn on my own projects and time.

I am looking to get a result for the client. Not struggle to figure out what in the world they are doing and what I should try next.

Here’s how the last customer qualification conversation moved…

• met with the client and their webmaster
• spoke to the person currently monitoring metrics
• talked about the goals of the project
• reviewed the website page by page
• assessed and spoke their current situation
• had them speak if my assessment was correct
• spoke about the budget
• what platform they are running on
• who would be the point person for the project
• told them exactly what I am going to do – ran down an actual list
• when we would start
• how long it should take
• what the timeline will be
• asked if there was any other hidden situations that I should be aware of

Notice, there are no “gotchas” or “we forgot to tell you” situations here.

I know exactly what needs to be done and how it will be accomplished. I know exactly what to do.

What a difference.

I have all of my tools in place all of my vendors are setup and ready to go.

In business, no one wants surprises. Yes, things will always happen and you will have to adjust. But why go into a situation having to figure out how to make something ordinary work? I call that using extraordinary means to do the ordinary. While I worked in the corporate environment this was common. And I see that if you let it; the same situations can occur in your business.

You should have standard operating procedures for how you will do business. You should be able to assess the client’s situation and the job to make sure that you can fulfill on your promises while working with the client. If you have to stretch too far to do what you call ordinary, then there will be a problem.

This is one of those things that you already know. But until you experience it and the frustration that it causes you really don’t “know it”.

On a personal level, I am one who really likes to get a result. I don’t want to talk about it. I want to see the numbers changing and sales going up.

Is it going to be easy all the time – no.

But does it have to be extremely difficult – absolutely not.

Bottomline : Make sure that the client’s environment will allow you to work within your business model and standard operating procedures.

– David Bullock