My wife Sarah, was a server while she was in college.
She worked at Cooker, which was this awesome bar and grille that served the best rolls and cornbread in the world.
Granny…not Sarah:)
Her grandmother, Granny, was also a server (waitress back in the day) in her younger years and she was always so proud that Sarah was working her way through college.
Granny, a deeply religious woman, would often brag about Sarah to folks at church.
Unfortunately, Granny could also get a little confused from time to time and she would tell people, “Oh Sarah is just such a pretty girl and a hard worker. You know she makes good tips at Hooters!”
Granted, Cooker and Hooters sound a little alike, but man, I would’ve loved to have seen the looks on the church members’ faces when Granny would tell them that.
Sarah did make good tips.
That is unless the customer would order ‘extra’ thousand island dressing for their side salad.
That usually meant about a 5% tip.
Thousand island dressing is the awful orangey stuff you find on a Big Mac.
And people were putting a double dose of this on their SIDE salad. Twice the dressing, half the salad.🤢
It wasn’t that these customers were bad, but that usually indicated that they didn’t get out much and weren’t used to a customary 20% tip.
Sarah couldn’t pick her customers at the Cooker.
She just had to take whoever walked in the door. She wasn’t allowed to prioritize her clientele.
However, we can prioritize who our clients are.
I preached this forever to my own coaching clients.
You can never outearn bad clients.
You can have a bad situation with a good client and still make things work.
You can have a good situation with a bad client and things almost never work.
However, when I started my Explainer Video business, I had a hard time taking my own advice.
In my first year or two I took on anyone with a pulse and my revenue and stress level showed it.
It was only when I decided to work with people that were serious about their marketing and had good attitudes did that change.
There were certain industries where the clients were always cash-poor and flaky.
There were clients I had currently that gave me a bad gut feeling about them when we first talked, but I ignored it because I wanted to make the sale. You know the clients that are already interrupting you to ask their next skeptical question before you can answer the first one.
There was always the, “Give us a deal on this first video and if it works and maybe we will buy more” guy. I’ve got news for you. Nothing ever “works” for that guy:).
Your priorities for your business matter; not what is on fire at the moment.
Things will always be on fire and your inbox will always be full.
Make client selection a top priority and make finding those clients a top priority.
If you are always too busy to take a look at your existing clients and make a decision once and for all about who you DO want to work with and you DON’T want to work with, then you are too busy.
This is a priority!
Once you make that decision, create quality content that attracts the right prospect.
Then you can qualify anyone you talk to to make sure they will be the right client.
You may have to take a step back to take a step forward.
If you don’t you will end up with the ‘extra’ thousand island folks.
Again, nice people, but not the right fit for you.
Sarah hasn’t been a server since college, but she does have her own bookkeeping business and she applies those lessons learned to her own client selection.
Cooker has since gone bankrupt.
And Granny finally got to meet Jesus in person.
I wonder if he told her about Hooters?
Probably not:).