Fire Your Bad Clients

Years ago, when I was selling radio advertising to small businesses, I would ask my potential clients to tell me specifically who they wanted to attract as customers. It helped me to identify whether our audience was also their audience.

"Everybody," was the usual reply.

But you can't have everybody. Not everybody is going to buy from you. For example, for the 50% of the population that doesn't play a sport, they would have no use for a sporting goods store and therefore never enter the store. So everybody is not their customer.

Identify your ideal clients and your market segment, to ensure that you aren't just spinning your wheels out in the marketplace. You can't target your potential clients effectively by targeting everybody.

Everybody doesn't see your one billboard. Everybody doesn't see your Yellow Pages ad. Everybody doesn't visit your web site because not everybody has ever heard of you. You don't have the kind of advertising budget to achieve that..

So who is your ideal client? If you don't have a clear idea of who that is, then you will end up aimlessly taking whatever you can get from whoever will give you something. Change your attitude about just taking what you can get and instead start to focus on what you want.

Do you want to do business with people who will beat you up on your prices just to knock you down to mere pennies in profit and then to have those same people complain because they don't value what you do? Be specific about who you want to business with. Don't think everybody wants to do business with you. Not everybody wants you, needs you or even likes you.

The Attitude of Service isn't just an outward attitude. The Attitude of Service isn't just about you serving others. The Attitude of Service also includes an honest study of who deserves what you offer. What is your service worth? Who would most appreciate what you do?

Don't do yourself a disservice by thinking that you must cater to price-hungry, high-maintenance customers who have no loyalty to you because it's all you can get right now. You'll never achieve greatness arguing with penny-pinchers who don't value you, your product and your service and who would never give you a recommendation. It's the wrong crowd. Maybe it's time you served yourself a little better a fired your "headache" customers. Let someone else have them. They're dragging you down anyway.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


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