How to Attract the Best Customers While Saying “Bye-Bye” to Difficult Clients

Are you finding that in building your business, you're attracting people who are hard to work with? For example, you may encounter people who low ball you on pricing, people who feel that they're doing you a favor by supporting your business, and people who don't value your time.

You may be living by the old adage that says "the customer is always right". However we'll show you how to get better results when you're a little more particular about who you work with. 

If you're having challenges with customers, this article will show you how to start attracting the best customers and say good-bye to the ones who are not working out.

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Begin with the End Game in Mind

Whether you're a sewist, jewelry maker, an affiliate marketer, a knitting enthusiast, a direct salesperson or a graphic designer, we all have one thing in common. We need loyal, engaged customers! 

So the first step involves determining what "support" means for your unique business. Of course we want customers in the end who buy from us again and again, giving us rave reviews. That's the end game.

But what about all the things that happen before, during and after the sale? What do we need from our supporters? 

Does it mean, engaging on social media, helping us spread the word, asking great questions, participating in live events? What does "support" mean to you as a business owner?

There are tons of "micro" tasks that happen before someone makes a purchase, and tons of micro touches that occur during the sales process.

After the sale the story is not over, there are even more things that happen on the customer end that can support your business. 

What are the steps (other than buying) that you want your ideal customers to take that will help you build a thriving online business?

Leaving the Traditional Way of Earning Behind

You started an online business (or you're interested in starting one) to move away from traditions and norms that require the following:

Changing Your Approach

You may have a business model that doesn't require much interaction at all. You may have customers who are less high maintenance, that buy from you again and again, without much fanfare. If that's the case this article may not apply to you. 

However if you encounter customers (in person, via chat or email) on a regular basis you should consider some or all of these tips.

And now that you have started an online business, it's important to build an audience that will support your business. However, in your quest to get results quickly, you may encounter a number of challenges unless you set up systems that will help you manage the process of acquiring new customers. 

In the beginning, you may work with anyone who has a pulse, and as a result you might have people in your audience who are not the best fit. 

At some point you, you may find that you're working with people who, while they have bought from you, are hard to work with.

For example, you may encounter people who low ball you on pricing, people who feel that they're doing you a favor by supporting your business, and audience members who don't value your time.

How do you handle these folks, without running away your much needed leads and customers?

No matter what model you use, or the types of customers you encounter, now is the time to examine your approach and process to see if there's a reason you're attracting these kinds of customers.

Do You Find Yourself Doing This?

Does it seem like you have to practically twist someone's arm to get them to take action? Are you doing a lot of "talking people into" taking action or convincing them to work with you? I found that using these methods can result in working with a somewhat disinterested crowd.  

For example, when using these strategies to build my business, I ended up with highly unmotivated people who never engaged, or read my posts... people who never returned my calls, those who always had an excuse, who routinely skipped appointments and never opened my emails.  

Using these tactics can result in sales that barely trickle in. Once the sale is over, you can't get a return call, an email and you can forget receiving a review. There is no relationship that would result in repeat business or referrals.

When you arm twist, run down customers and clients, and tolerate negative behavior, your relationship is transactional, which means it's only going to last as long as it takes to process the order.

There is no dialog between you and the customer, it's just a sale. It's not built on the know, like and trust factor.

And if any of this is your experience, there's a big question you need to ask yourself... who needs it? These experiences are not a good way to make a living.

I would venture to say that this is not what you signed up for when you started your business.

Changing Your Approach

So that your business can grow and thrive, it's important that you discover different ways of doing business. The first step might involve learning about proven systems that will help you work with quality people while growing your business on auto-pilot.

• And that means you'll never have to talk to a person who feels that they're doing you a favor again.
• You'll only talk to people who seek you out because they want to take action and get things done.

Your time is valuable, so don't waste it on people who could care less. We can help you reach your goals without breaking the bank.

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Actions You Can Take to Turn Things Around

It's important to implement systems that will allow potential customers to reach out to you for help with their challenges while maintaining your posture as a professional.

This means setting up systems that will attract people to your business versus you reaching out to them and asking them to take a look. Basically, no more reaching out to potential customers with unsolicited correspondence. 

If implemented well, this has several business building benefits that will change the dynamic that occurs between you and potential customers. 

Instead of seeming like a person who is starving for business and orders, you focus on how you can help your customers and potential customers solve problems. You become the trusted, sought after, "go to" resource for solutions to your customer's problems.

Here are some of the specific steps you can take to change the dynamic between you and your potential customers. 

• Start Using New Tools - Tools that help you transform visitors to leads, leads to customers, and customers to raving fans. You focus on setting up your systems in a way that helps you sort through potential customers that are a good fit and those that are not.  
  1. Set up systems - Tools like Thrive Suite, Elementor, and Astra are site builders that have the functionality needed to build the kinds of systems that will help you screen potential customers. 
• Require that potential customers complete specific actions - Actions potential customers may may take to work with your company.
  1. Fill out an application - Have your audience fill out an application that really helps you understand what they want to accomplish, which helps you determine whether they are a fit. This is a good fit for consulting and coaching businesses. 
  2. Become a lead - In certain cases, you might require that someone becomes a lead before they get the perk of working with you one on one.
  3. Schedule a Coaching call - This is also something you can incorporate that allows you to perform a review or talk to someone who needs help to determine whether you have something that will help them. 
• Know your audience
  1. Perform market research - Market research helps you understand who your ideal customers are and how to address the pain points they have.
  2. Take surveys - Get direct feedback from your audience, to determine what they are looking for. Or if you're not receiving interaction from your audience, reach out to new people!
  3. Polls - Taking a quick poll will make it convenient for visitors to leave valuable feedback.
  4. Hashtag research - Using the right hashtags can help your content stand out and reach a larger audience. 
• Position Yourself as an Authority
  1. Hobbies, skills and interests - Take the hobbies, skills and Interests Inventory, and learn about areas that will showcase your expertise. This is a great starting point for a business.
  2. Blogging - A blog is a great way to showcase your expertise and display your work, helping potential customers understand how you can help them. Be sure to pay attention to spelling and grammar and structure your posts in a way that makes it easy for customers to see the benefits of working with you over your competition.
  3. Create Videos - Create videos (live Q&A, faceless, 10 second shorts, etc.) to showcase your knowledge.
  4. Podcasts - A podcast is a good way to reach an audience without showing your face.
  5. Digital Products - Digital products like guides, eBooks, courses and worksheets can be created and sold or given away as lead magnets and they do a great job of showcasing your expertise. 
• Work on your confidence - If you need to stand in the mirror or perform your 30 second elevator pitch in front of your friends and family, get used to talking in front of people.
• Optimize your social media posts
  1. Hashtags - Using the right hashtags can help your content reach the right audience, helping to grow your reach.
  2. Keywords - Keywords can help your content be found by those who are using Google to search for products like yours.
  3. Industry Lingo - Using industry lingo and the lingo used by potential customers to describe their pain points.

Words matter when you only have a few seconds to catch someones attention. Learn to build simple systems that will sift through those who are not serious about moving forward. Take a look and see if our solutions are a good fit for you!