We were told a piece of advice that had to be the worst ever when we started out in business. That advice was:
“When you’re first starting out, you need to take all the money you can get.”
In other words, they were telling us that we couldn’t afford to say no to any client, customer, or form of income. That’s terrible advice! It’s the same as “beggars can’t be choosers” but who ever said we’re a beggar just because we’re a startup company?
First, in business you need to have patience and it’s important not to make brash decisions. You want to make beneficial decisions and part of that is learning now, before it’s too late, how to choose those you work for. You want to choose clients you like. The criteria for what you like may be different. For us, it looks like this:
- Know at least 80% about marketing strategies that work and ones that are bogus
- Not being involved in shady tactics or scams
- Good at their own sales
- Patient and respectful toward us
- Active in their own marketing efforts and not sitting on their thumbs
We have met so many business owners who depend solely on their marketing team to bring in the leads. And they think that a marketing group is supposed to do it all – social media management, content creation, PPC, website development and management, speaking to Google agents, Yellow Pages, and Radio Stations to organize campaigns. The list goes on.
A business owner who has no clue about the scams of marketing lies out there is going to be calling their marketing group wondering what they’re doing for them and will suggest ways you can be better. If your client has traffic but no buyers, that is not your job to resolve unless you are, by definition, a Conversion Consultant.
We can’t tell you how many clients we worked with, who we ended up losing in the short run, who called us on why they weren’t getting conversions with their phone calls. If you’re a business owner, let us speak for all the good marketers out there and tell you this rule:
If we brought you the lead, our job is done.
It is not our job to filter only the legit ones. There is no possible way to do that. We get you seen online. That’s why you hired us. If you get a phone call for services, then we did exactly what we said we would do. That means our methods are working.
So, when you’re starting out in business, we highly encourage you to vet out your clients and not say yes to everyone. There is no rush. We made the mistake of listening to this advice and it cost us a lot of time and money. Those clients we chose out of desperation for money were needy, uneducated on business, and just as desperate. They always wanted more than they paid for. They complain often. They were rude. It was awful to do business for them.
Just because someone owns a business does not mean they are good at doing their business. You 100% do not have to work with people like that just to get a buck. It’s going to be the worst ROI you’ve ever experienced. It’s not a risk we recommend you take in your startup because one of the worst feelings in the world is being nervous to open your email or look at your phone each morning hoping that client hasn’t messaged you. If you cringe when they send you a message, it’s time to let them go or turn them away for good.