First off, let me say that I really do like most of my clients. An old colleague of mine once stood up at a sales training meeting and said, "Chris lives his market. If they aren't his friends, they will be soon." I appreciated that sentiment because I really do treat nearly all of my customers as if they were friends or family. That strong relationship built on trust and likability leads to more selling opportunities and a lot of referrals!
But there are times when you have to cut someone loose. The reasons may vary. In my book I tell the story of the couple that jerked me around for over a year, never buying anything but stringing me along by asking for quotes. After spending an hour or so working up prices they would disappear, only to call me again months later and do it all over again. It eventually got ugly and I asked them to stop contacting me as they were never serious about buying in the first place.
Things like this happen all the time. People who mean well become such a pain that they honestly aren't worth the effort. The 80/20 rule states that 20% of your clients will take up 80% of your time. The key is to weed those people out and change that ratio to 90/10 if possible.
If you have enough of a book of business, you can sort your clientele into different categories, like "A" clients, "B" and "C". Make your "A" clients the ones you like, pay on time, only call when they have a legitimate issue, and give you great referrals. Your "C" clients are the ones that you really aren't making any money on, waste your time and generally will continue to be stinkers into the future. The "B" clients can go between the other two.
I've seen other life insurance agents take the "C" clients and let a rookie agent service them. "If you come work for us we'll give you a book of business" or "We have orphan accounts!" they will exclaim, knowing full well that the sales career of the new guy, according to statistics, will last the life span of a fruit fly.
A friend of mine and I went to work for such a company and were given large "books" of business to service. Deemed "geographically undesirable" quickly, these clients were literally hundreds of miles away. Their local office had closed and all of that business was transferred to our office. Our managers expected us to drive several hours and waste a lot of money on gas to see people who didn't care to be seen so we would just call them in our spare time.
I treat my work as a business, and a business has to make money. As a wise man once said, "If you aren't making money, it's a hobby." With enough bad clients, it can also be a non-profit venture.
With time and experience, one can learn to weed out bad prospects in advance by qualifying them ahead of time. If someone gives me a referral I will ask questions about them. After all, they know the person and I don't. The expression, "birds of a feather" has never been truer. If your shady client, whom you would love to get rid of or pawn off onto another salesperson, gives you a referral, the odds are good that this new prospect will also be questionable.
In the next post I'll give you some more examples of bad clients and how to spot them. In the meantime, stay healthy and productive.
Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.
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