Loading In business I tend to hear a lot of complaints about clients. Sometimes it is that they never pay. Other times it is that they always call. And still other times it is that they never call. When your customers are causing you stress business can be a bit of a pain in the butt.
One of the best tips I have ever discovered on this matter was to choose your clients wisely. We have all heard it said, but when you think about what that statement really means it makes you stop for a moment. If you were to truly choose your clients wisely you could very well be turning away more business than you are accepting. The checkbook doesn’t always like that.
But here’s the truth of it. Most times a pain in the butt prospect is an even bigger pain in the butt client that will end up losing you more money in terms of wasted time or unpaid bills than had you not taken them on to begin with.
Here are some warning signs that a prospect will not make a good client.
1) They ask you to send over a document that you have already sent over at least 19 times in the last week. This shows a lack of organization. If your project will need any amount of input from them beware as you may spend a lot of time tracking them down for needed items.
2) They complain about anyone they have ever worked with and state that they have all “dropped the ball” or that everyone is incompetent. While this may be true as there is a lot of incompetency in business, there comes a point when someone has to start looking at the common denominator. It could very well be that the prospect is very difficult to work with and has unrealistic expectations.
3) They ask for special billing arrangements. Now, this in and of itself is not always a problem. After all, there are many salespeople out there who have to provide very specific invoices to their accounts payable department. However, there are also people out there that need the special arrangements so that they can “balance” all of the invoices coming in. This may mean that they have debt problems and may potentially have problems paying you on time…or even at all.
4) They are consistently late to meetings or phone calls. Enough said here. If you don’t value your time go ahead and take them on as a client.
Now, these are only guidelines as sometimes with some clever management these types of prospects will turn out to be great clients. However, you must set very clear and precise expectations before going into a client relationship if you are to be successful with them.
