How to stop getting crappy clients and leads that go nowhere

Let’s talk about how to put an end to attracting crappy clients and leads that go nowhere.

The reason I want to cover this is beacause I’ve been having conversations with some of my clients in OBM Academy and some of my clients in Audacious OBMs about the different leads that they’re getting and the different clients that they’re landing, and we’re noticing some friction here.

Let me share with you, the different things that can happen and how you can put an end to this cycle.

There’s four main things that I want to cover.

1. Why do we start to attract crappy clients?
2. How to know if this is what’s happening.
3. The problem with your current approach to getting leads and clients.
4. What you can do to get out of the crappy client spiral.

 

This episode shares:  

• The Commodity Race Trap: How competing on price attracts bad clients.
• The Magic Question: How to identify leads who just want a cheap “micro skill” done.
• Why You Don’t Want to Justify Yourself: Stop feeling like you have to prove your worth.
• The Secret Weapon You Already Have: It’s YOU! Embrace your unique personality and experience.
• Crafting Your Message: Learn how to showcase what makes you different and attract dream clients who chase YOU!

The Commodity Race Trap

Why do we start attracting crappy clients?

I’m going to start with a story. One of the people that I was speaking to, one of my clients was saying, I’ve had a few different leads. One of them said, Hey, I need an email newsletter done once a month.

This is something that I do for a lot of my clients. It’s easy for me. I do it really well. Then, when I replied to this lead, they ended up going with someone else, and there wasn’t really much visibility as to why, and it left me feeling quite bleh. Because really, nobody likes not to get the job when we want the job.

We want to be able to win the work and feel good and deliver to the best of our ability all the time.

Now the reason that this has happened is because my client was in a commodity race. A commodity race is where there is something that is easily accessible by lots of people and it’s readily available. So it’s competition everywhere because there are many options to choose from. There’s no need to narrow down our choices.

So then, because we’re human, we start to look at how do I make a decision? I have all of these options. How am I going to choose one? So I start to look for different things that will help me differentiate them. Generally in the OBM space, this is going to be price. It’s going to be the fastest person to respond.

Tip💡:  Rise above the competition, communicating your unique value.

The Magic Question

 

When a client wanted something done yesterday, who’s going to say yes? In this situation, the micro skill was I needed someone who could do a marketing newsletter once a month. That’s it. My client is going, I do this all the time for people who have a similar business to yours. And I know the kinds of things that will go into it and the kinds of things people will read when they open this newsletter, what will work for this community, the list goes on.

But the person on the other end never asked for any of that. And the likelihood is my client wasn’t able to share any of that because the person on the other end was just going, I need this job done and I need someone who has this one skill. So we start attracting crappy clients when we’re competing with lots of other people.
We’re in a big pool of the same and we don’t want that.

How to know if this is happening to you?

It’s actually really simple and it comes down to the very first conversation when you get leads or clients and you ask them how they found you. If you’re in this position, their response is going to be that they saw you answer a post. Oh, I saw you answer a post.

Or you were one of the people who sent me a reply to a job lead. Or, I just need someone who can do this thing. Or, I needed someone who could blah. They’re going to be really generic answers and they’re going to be answers that tell you straight away, I’m looking at multiple people here. A lot of multiple people or, the thing that I’m seeking is just for a microproblem to be solved. That’s how you know if this is happening. It’s that one question. How did you find me? What made you want to work with me? And see what they say. That response tells you everything.

Quite often, if you’re getting that generic kind of reply back, and it’s not something specifically about you, this lead is already a lot colder. And then that should gauge how much effort you’re going to put into it. So what’s the problem with this? The problem is that you’re putting yourself in competition from the get-go. You are putting yourself in a defensive position. Immediately, you’re getting compared to different areas you don’t want to be compared to.

I don’t want to be compared by price. I don’t want to be compared to every other person who can put together a newsletter. Because I know the person on the other end is going to be overwhelmed with how much choice there is. And then I’m going to end up spending all of my time and my energy trying to get leads that don’t pay well and don’t value the service.

So what we want to do is invest our time and our energy in better leads, in the right clients. And it’s not saying that these leads won’t become better leads or won’t become amazing clients, but what they’re looking for right now isn’t that. So the amount of effort and energy we’re putting in is costing us that same effort and energy of how we could be going after the leads and clients we really want, that we can really get results for.
I don’t want you to feel like you have to justify yourself.

Tip💡: Invest your time and energy in better leads, in the right clients.

 

Why You Don’t Want to Justify Yourself

 

Have you ever been on a call with someone and all of a sudden you feel like you have to justify why your price is your price? Or do you have to justify why your process is your process? No, I can’t do it right this second because we need to do a work agreement.

I really need you to sign that work agreement. If you’re having to defend things like that from the start, it’s not a great place to be and it doesn’t make you feel good. Again, it’s more time and energy and you feel like, in the very beginning of that relationship, you’re having to prove something.

Prove why. Prove the value. Prove why I should listen to you. Prove why your price is your price when I can get it cheaper down the street. Well, you know what? If you can get it cheaper down the street, go down the street because you get a say in how your business runs and that’s what we want to start showing people.

If we find that this is the position that we’re in, how do we get out of this spiral?

Tip💡: Stand firm in your value and process, you’ll attract the right clients.  

The Secret Weapon You Already Have

 

We want clients to chase us instead of us chasing them. Now what you’ll notice is that the way that you are getting clients, the way that you are getting leads is the bit that is off here. There are different ways to get new leads and to get new clients and some of them will get you far better ones, but the process can be longer.

Sometimes we opt for, Hey, I’m going to comment on that Facebook post with a hundred other people that have commented, or I’m going to reply to these job leads, even though I know 50 other people are going to reply as well. I’m going to put my name in this directory. All of these things are fine to do and don’t get me wrong, I’m in directories. I love directories. I get tagged in Facebook posts and I’ll comment and say, Hey, this is what I’m all about. But, I don’t go to extreme levels of effort to chase those people down. I’m not going to message someone who’s posted a post on Facebook  14 times to say, Hey, did you see my response? Hey, did you see my response? I’m not banking on these people. I’ll use it for visibility. I’ll share more about my personality and who I am because then they can pick me.

I want people to have the choice and not just be looking for the cheapest person, the fastest person. I want them to get to know me and want to work with me.

 

Tip💡: Showcase who you are, beyond your services, to foster connections with people who value and choose you for your distinct experiences and personal touch.

 

Crafting Your Message

 

There is nobody else that has the same life experience, that has the same history, that has the same work experience, that has the same training, in the same way, in the same time as you do and that is what we need to leverage to get out of this spiral.

The way that you do that is through your messaging. Your messaging is what you put out into the world. Of who you are, what you do, what you’re about, who you help, and how you go about doing that. And so when we craft our message based on who it is we are, based on our journey, based on our experience, based on the reasons that someone should work with me. Based on who it is I want to work with or who I’ve gotten results from and what their lives look like, that is when I’ll start seeing people who will come because they want to work with me.

They come and they know my name. They don’t want someone who’s an online business manager. They want someone from Audacious Empires.
Because I know they’ve worked with seven figure businesses. I know that they’re super honest. I know that they have systems and processes that work. Regardless of how much they cost, I’m going to save up my money until I can work with them. That’s who I want and that’s the position you need to be in.

To be top of mind for all of the different things that make you, you. It’s that combination of things that no one else can compete with. And that’s what we need to put at the forefront. That’s what we need to show people. Because if we’re not showing people that, we have no choice but to be in the commodity race.

We have no choice, but to pitch based on price or based on one skill. And then we get less say in what our business looks like, whether that’s because we don’t have as much money. So we have less avenues we can go down. We have less growth strategies. We have less ability to invest in new training, whether it’s, we have to do so much work that we don’t have room to think strategically, what we want is for people to choose us for us and for us to be able to work with people who see the value.

But the only way you can get there is to start showing people that, start telling them what’s so valuable about you. And it’s that combination. It’s not just your professional life. It’s not just showing people your resume.
Because here’s the kicker, right? People like doing business with people they like. Think about it. How often do you walk away from any business transaction and go, Ugh, I really do not like this person. But next week when I need a newsletter, I’m going back to them. You don’t. You want to work with people that inspire you or that feel good or that you get along with.

People that you like and more times than not, people will connect and like you based on who you are, not what you do.

Show them who you are first, then show them what you do. That’s going to make connections for you. That’s going to build better clients for you. That’s going to create valuable services.

It’s going to make your business more profitable and the best part is no one can compete with that because no one is you. Think about it. If you’re looking at buying an Apple, you want a new Mac. You don’t walk in to the PC shop and say, I want a new Mac. You go straight to the Mac store. You go to Apple. Or you don’t walk into Apple and say, I want a PC.

You’ve walked in there specifically because you know exactly what you want. And you don’t go in there and then argue about the price or go, Oh, maybe a PC would be better. I do not think that they’re the conversations people in Apple are having. Apple has built its brand so that it’s the brand that you want and you already know all the things that brand stands for. You know what you’re getting and so you’ll save your money for the newest iPhone. Or you’ll save your money for the newest MacBook. Because that’s the one you want. This is what we need to do in our businesses. And we do that by sharing more of who we are, what we’re about, who we work for, with, who we get results for, and what it looks like with people.

But if we hide away and we don’t share any of this stuff, or we just put our hand up and say, yeah, I can do that for this much. We’re never going to attract the clients that will really get the best from us and that we will love the work that we do for.

If you’re finding that you’re getting crappy leads or you’re getting crappy clients and you’re just like, what is the problem here?
What am I doing wrong? Why do I have to keep proving myself? Why is this so hard? It’s because you need to work on your messaging. You need to think about what it is. That makes you different. It could be a whole bunch of stuff that is the same. It could be, okay, there’s me and I’m set at $80 an hour.

There’s a lot of other people that are $80 an hour, but that’s just one piece. Okay. I’m an affordable OBM. What’s the next bit? I work really well with course creators. Okay. Now I’m an affordable OBM who gets results for course creators. Okay. All of a sudden you’ve narrowed it down one step, just with that one extra bit, you’ve made your brand, the course creator OBM, the affordable course creator OBM.

Okay. I’m an OBM who is affordable, who works with course creators, who really loves jazz music. Can I tell you any course creator that likes jazz music is going to start paying attention the second that they hear that because they love jazz music. And you don’t have to say these things in every single sentence all the time, but it’s the stuff that goes, hey, you might be interested in me because we’re going to get along or because I’ve got what you need and we get along.

It’s that combination and it does not have to be this secret weapon that no one else has. You’re not saying no one else likes jazz music, guys. What you’re saying is, I have the right combination of things for you. That is what will make people start chasing you. That is where you get the better clients.

 

Tip💡: Offer the right combination that your brand has, it makes you unique.

And… that’s a wrap!

 

I have the right combination of things for you. That is what will make people start chasing you. That is where you get the better clients.

That is where you get more money. That is where you stop looking at your emails and feeling so disappointed because you didn’t get the gig again. If you’re going to take one thing away from this, episode. It is to think about what your process for getting leads and clients is and how you can tweak your messaging a bit more and see what happens.

Then in a month, reflect and tweak it again and see what happens. You won’t be sorry, I promise you. If you listen to this episode and you’re going to go and try that, send me a DM and tell me. Because I’m in your corner and I want to know how you go. If you’re listening to this episode and you found it helpful, don’t forget to leave us a 5 star review because that’s how other people find us so we can help them too.

 

 

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