You can filter out bad clients
I just finished recording a super fun interview with Jocelyn Kopac, of TheDigitalMarket.co brand & audience building agency for The Supported Entrepreneurs Podcast, and we had the best chat about how to manage your energy when you’re growing your business. I’ll post the link as soon as it’s live. But, we also talked a little about dealing with ‘crazy clients’ and I realized that I don’t have any really terrible client stories, at least not within the last 8 years.
And that’s because I’ve learned techniques to pre-screen the bad clients out.
What makes a ‘bad’ client?
A client who doesn’t like anything you do and doesn’t trust your expertise
Narcissists who greedily take everything you have to give, ignore your boundaries, ignore their contracts, and then don’t pay you
Cheapskates who pick you because of your price, then ask for a discount, then take up 5x more of your time than any other client
A client who just isn’t a good personality fit. They don’t get your jokes, they don’t love your vibe, and every conversation is harder than it should be
A client who is verbally abusive and engages in toxic relationship patterns of yelling at you, making up, and throwing you under the bus
I’ve dealt with all of the above in my 12 years of copywriting, but very early on, I developed survival skills that go beyond spotting ‘red flag’ behaviors with enough time to run.
I’ve created an entire brand, website, and copy that act as ‘bad client repellent.’
You can do this too (so every client who comes through is AMAZING).
Create filters in your copy to repel people you don’t want to work with.
Tell me who your ideal client is, and I’ll tell you how to use your copy as a filter so only they come through.
One of my clients uses swear words in her copy, not because she swears (she has 5 kids, her language is pretty clean), but because her not-ideal clients adamantly DON’T swear. Another client works with highly educated female professionals (lawyers, etc.), so for her copy, we throw in some big SAT vocab words, because we want to attract people who are excited by her intelligence (and not intimidated by it).
You can even be completely upfront about the characteristics you want in a client, and the things you don’t with a “this is for you if / this is not for you if” section on your home, services or sales pages.
In my own website, I drop an F-bomb once (on my About page) - and you’d be amazed at how many people tell me “as soon as I read the ‘fucking gophers’ line, I booked a call.” And I purposely use the word “woo-woo” on my home page, because my clients tend to embrace the term — and people who are not my clients are either not into ‘woo’ (crystals, herbs, intuition, magic), or are actually offended by the term.
Weirdly, the chicken on my home page header image also seems to act as a filter, and I’m still trying to figure out why/how that works. (If you have a theory as to why the chicken photo attracts awesome clients, please email me, I’d love to hear it!)
I guess the take-away is: Be unapologetically yourself, and you’ll attract people who dig it.
2. Check for fit
I include “fit” criteria in my services and sales pages, and what that means is I spell out: What needs to be true for you to have a great experience with me? One type of fit is the stage of your business. I love working with newer coaches, or coaches making big changes to their businesses. I don’t want to work with Marie Forleo types who are already marketing juggernauts with new programs coming out every month — I’d be exhausted. But, I love helping newer coaches find clarity, refine their niche, and really hone their point-of-view and messaging.
The other way I check for fit is to offer freebies - my 30-minute Tea Date and my Free BYOD (bring your own draft) session both act as filters to ensure that we hit it off. And, if we’re not a fit, I’ve wasted an hour of my time, max, rather than a month. I also get a very good feel on these calls for whether the prospect is likely to be problematic (ie. abusive, narcissist, boundary-pusher, cheap-skate).
Five of my favorite fit checks:
Listing your prices on your site (affordability fit)
Spelling out the technology clients need to know to work with you (technology fit)
Stage of business or income level at which they are ready to benefit from working with you
“This is for you if / this is not for you if” bullet-point lists
Introductory calls and freebies
3. Set expectations early
I am an over-giver, so this took me a while to learn, but setting expectations clearly, early, with carefully worded contracts, hard deadlines for payment and feedback, and strong boundaries is the best thing you can do to repel boundary-pushers and narcissists (they hate boundaries - draw a hard line and they will run, but the good clients will respect you). Know your limits for how much time you can spend with a client, or on a project, or on a call and enforce them, kindly but firmly.
And here’s a really good one: Make it a policy to charge for extra time. I lowered my service prices because I no longer include revision time in the quote (revisions cost extra, unless you buy my “Make the Words Go Away” premium packages). This safeguards me against serial-revisionists, clients who want fifty-million minor tweaks that they could easily make themselves, who are actually terrified of finishing their copy (because then they have to start their businesses - ack!). You can do that if you want to, but I now charge by the hour. Really, it’s just as much to protect my clients from themselves as it is to protect me!
Also, make it clear that you don’t answer texts, emails or calls on weekends. Do that for you.
4. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot
I am a recovering “yes woman” — I have a very hard time saying no. And most newer coaches have that issue too, because you don’t want to turn down any client when you don’t have a full roster yet! Here’s the lesson I’ve learned the hard way, several times:
Do not accept client work out of desperation (ie. ignoring whether they’re a perfect fit, ignoring red flags, and hoping your instincts telling you to run are wrong. They are never wrong.)
Also, never accept a service trade unless you have a very clear contract in place, and you know the person well, and they are NOT your closest friend or family member. Because doing favors with an expectation of reciprocation, without a firm container explicitly stating how the energy exchange will go, can turn perfectly lovely people INTO crazies. Trades can be wonderful, as long as there are firm boundaries and clear expectations in place.
5. Don’t create a bad client!
Early in my career, I didn’t set strong boundaries, my contract was a joke, I would work with anyone, and I didn’t trust my instincts (I wanted to give everyone the benefit of the doubt). So I let some of those early client relationships get way out of hand, and actually attracted narcissists, abusers, cheapskates and boundary-pushers as a result. My best intentions, and my assumption that everyone’s intentions were good, set me up for bad clients.
But as soon as I started setting firm boundaries, raising my rates from dirt cheap, and setting expectations with a decent contract, that dynamic changed.
What really made the difference was niching DOWN and being completely myself. Not trying to please everyone, or even most people. Not trying to conform to what I think a “copywriter for coaches” should look like, sound like, or brand like.
That’s the magic combo that sends the signal to right-fit clients, and repels the rest.
And seriously, if you know why the chicken (her name is Russell, after Jane Russell) helps attract some of my amazing clients, tell me your theory!