Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Total Profit Podcast. I'm here with Tommy P.
And today we're going to talk about how you can stop marketing to people who cannot afford you.
So if you, if your calendar is full but your bank account is empty, you're probably selling to the wrong people. And that's just one of the hard truths that we're bringing to you every week. So this episode is really all about drawing a line in the sand and learning to attract clients who really value your work and can actually pay for it.
So.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Ah, that's so true.
You know, I, I think sometimes people get confused that busy is profitable and you said it and it's not, not so much. You know, we're, we're not in the, our hearts tell us we want to give good information and sometimes lead towards free information, but at some times, you, that doesn't pay the bills. You, you, you can.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Why do business owners do that, Tommy? Why do they keep chasing that low margin work and those clients that are just not a good fit, why do they do that?
[00:01:10] Speaker B: It can be anything from they want to keep their, their employees busy or they, they just want to, to help somebody out out of, out of kind of the goodness of their hearts. And you can, you can do the end of the day, those are going to put you out of work quicker.
So it's, it's kind of knowing that barometer of where you should be and how much time you should spend. But yeah, look at your calendar and see what you got there. But yeah, it's those resources need to be profitable.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Well, and I think that some business owners have a fear of that pipeline drying up too, and they get into desperation mode. And so when you're feeling that way, it's really easy to say yes to every, every inquiry.
But you've got to understand that cheap work will eat your time and your energy and your margins and, and you end up, you know, you find yourself building a business around survival and not strategy, and that's not the way to do it. So exactly what are some of the signs that we can kind of look out for that, that you're marketing to people who can't afford you?
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Well, you, you get those ghosts after you've quoted somebody. You don't hear, you don't hear. But then you drive by the job site and there's somebody else's trucks and people doing the job that you just bid and it's, it's kind of a gut, gut check, just like, what the heck happened? So you know that, that puts you In a mindset of what do I need to do next? But taking that initiative and going back and, and troubleshooting the why you aren't out there taking that, that work and performing it that the other people are is a good question.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
You get ghosted. Yeah. After quoting or if you find yourself that, you know, everyone's trying to haggle with you or they just want a ballpark number. You know, if you start to hear phrases like that, that's probably a pretty good indicator.
One that's really annoying, that probably would jump out at you very quickly is that you're constantly being asked to justify your price. That's not good.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: No.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: So. Yeah.
So how does, how does saying yes to the wrong customer actually hurt your best ones?
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Well, it takes your availability away for one, and the time and attention gets sucked into a problem job instead of a job that is, is a benefit. You know that that's going to help your company and keep your employees engaged because it's, it's a really good job. So, you know, I think that that's the big one for sure.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Your best clients don't get as much of your, your good energy. Right. And they don't get the resources that your business has to offer. And that's really important. It also does a lot of damage to your brand perception when you are looking desperate. That is not a good thing.
So you definitely want to, you just, you want to watch out for some of those red flags and you want to make sure that kind of like we talked previously about your best employees, you want to make sure that you, you treat your best customers, the ones that have been loyal to you for a very long time, the ones that give you more of their money.
Those are, the customers do have a bit of, a, bit of a ranking.
And so there are some that are more valuable to your business than others financially and they need, they deserve, they are purchasing more of your resources than your time and energy.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: What do you think owners should focus on if they want to start attracting more of those better clients?
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Well, I'm going to continue the, the conversation that you were just on is clarifying who is your ideal customer. It goes back to having a, an operating procedure that clarifies what a good customer looks like to you and to your, your workers, your office staff. You know, if you, you go out and you do a job and you, you do a performance, but the customer pays, you know, six months later, that's, that's not such a great opportun.
You want those a, performances with the A compensation and attract those people because they usually have a good network of people that are like minded. And you're going to work on collecting that great database of clients.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: You know, that is a really great point because especially if you're dealing with other businesses, they're trying to grow their business as well. And so they have a whole network of people and they're not going to put their personal reputation on the line for you if it's not a good experience. So you need to really show those customers some of the authority that you have. All right? You're not going to beg them for their business, but you are going to spend some time, some quality time educating them about what you know and why you're the expert. And by all means use proof before and afters, testimonials from previous customers, some of your statistics and, and the expertise in your niche. Those are all really, really good things. And so your marketing of your business should, should repel as much as it attracts. And I know that sounds really weird, but you want to filter out those bad fits early on in the process. You want that, Trust us on that. You want that. And your messaging needs to be very clear and it needs to be confident and it will repel some of those price shoppers. You know what I mean?
[00:07:00] Speaker B: And, and you made a comment about the, the customer, you know, questioning the, the cost or the, the expensiveness of the job.
And, and in your mind, you, you have to, what are they ref, what are they referring or comparing this to, to make that statement and you know, use that as, as kind of your, your judgment, your operating procedures on how you can justify to your, to your customers what your value is. Why. Why?
[00:07:33] Speaker A: It's really a value question. Yeah, it's really a value. How much bang am I going to get for my buck? Customers will spend the money if they feel like they're getting a very robust package from you and getting a lot of value.
Any pricing pushback is a value question 100%.
So let's talk about pricing a little bit. What role does that pricing play in setting the tone for who you attract?
[00:08:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's such an indication of, of who the person is that's going to do the work. And low pricing signals inexperience or low quality, usually cheap people refer to as low pricing is cheap.
Well, I hate to break it to you, cheap is not going to be your friend at the end of the day. You need to have a quality product, a one and done because you typically don't build warranty Time into your pricing.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Yeah, confident pricing is going to repel some of those tire kickers. Right. And it'll attract serious buyers. So your price isn't just math. It really comes down to marketing. And, and as a career marketing person, I can tell you that marketing is everything.
Marketing is everything.
You have no business if you don't have the product, the right pricing.
You're promoting it in the right place. So there's the four P's of marketing.
And, and I just, I just said that your marketing should repel the wrong customers as much as it attracts the right customers. And if you're building a brand that commands respect, you need to invest in your brand image, Your website, your logo, your uniforms, your truck wrap, everything that you're doing. It all signals the value of your company and that pride and the dignity in your company. And your marketing should also speak to results that you've been able to drive, not just the features that you have to offer, but it really needs to speak to the promise that you're giving the customer.
Speak to those results that you've been able to drive for others and to the benefits that the customer is going to receive and how you're making their life better.
So that's really where the magic happens in marketing.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Without the right price, all of the rest of it just doesn't make any difference.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: And marketing, the right pricing can create a perception in marketing as well. So, so things that are more expensive tend to carry more weight and value. Whether I can afford it or not, it signals to me that that's a quality product, that's a quality service.
So lots of different ways to position your, your products.
There are price leaders out there.
Sometimes, sometimes pricing a little bit lower than your competitors is the best way to start to grow your business. But it's, it's generally not sustainable. But there's, there's definitely strategies around that that we can help you with.
And then, and then moving into just, yeah, building different, different positionings. Marketing positionings around pricing or around quality or around ease of use or convenience or the way I'm making your life better.
Just all of the different ways that, that you can position different things and there needs to be strategy behind it.
So, yeah, a lot of shifts that can happen in marketing. So how do you shift some of that marketing without losing your leads? That's critical, too.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: This is going to sound odd, but say no faster and more often.
This will protect your calendar. You know, it's, you know, you jump to, hey, it's slowing down. We need to Take this work as a filler versus, hey, we're slowing down. Let's look for the profitable work that we can keep this, this profit ship sailing.
You're not going to burn your people out. It's going to be satisfying to them. It isn't going to be piecemealed jobs together just to, to fill their time. So.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Right. And I think it's important to start small too. Like, we're not going to do a major overhaul of your brand. We're going to start by upgrading your messaging and then we'll move over to your visuals and then the tone of voice that you're using and so on. But over time, we, we want, we want the transition to be from cheap and busy over to more high trust, high value, and definitely profitable.
And we support.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: One other thing we touched on is, is the knowing what your costs are.
So, you know, cheap and busy. If you're, if your cost are out of the line, it's just a faster way to lose money.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: It's a faster way to lose money. A faster way to lose money. And it's a faster way, it's a faster path to burnout as well.
So performance margin helps support that shift in a lot of ways. The software that we use, it shows the real part, you know, the real margin per job and also per customer type.
So you have different types of customers. We understand that and we define that with you and show you your margin by customer type as well. And we help you identify which clients are profitable and which clients are draining your resources. And you will see that very definitively. And so at the end of the day, it'll make it a lot easier to say no because you have the data.
You have the data right in front of you and you can say, unless I charge at this rate or whatever. You just. There are some, some customers that you, that you might need to part ways with. And that's okay.
So your challenge for the week is to pull your last 10 clients and then figure out which ones made you money and which ones might have been a little bit more waste of your time.
So build a profile. Okay, step two, Build a profile of your top three.
And aim everything, everything that you post online that you pitch or that you promote toward those top three.
So pull your last 10 clients, decide which ones have made you money and which ones have wasted your time, and then build a profile of your top, most ideal client. Then start to shift some of your marketing and your messaging.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: No, that sounds like a great challenge. I look forward to hearing all about these opportunities.
You know, we've all been there. So we're here for you.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Yep. Yep. 100%. And it's, it's, it's easy to, it's easy to put this stuff on a shelf sometimes and not and to, to deem that it's not as important or it's not as urgent as some of the other things on your, on your desk.
But it does take some intentional, mindful time to make these shifts and these changes. And they need to happen.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Absolutely. They do.
The sooner you figure this out, the easier will be and you'll get back on path and attract the right clients.
Oh, great segment.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: Great segment.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
Again, we've all been there. And always remember, take her cool.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Take her cool. Don't get too excited. It's all under control and it's going to be fine.
