1 00:00:10,690 --> 00:00:13,750 Hey there and welcome back to another episode of On Your Terms. 2 00:00:13,750 --> 00:00:23,020 I'm your host, Sam Vander Wielen, an attorney turned entrepreneur who helps online coaches, course creators, and service providers legally protect and grow their online businesses using my DIY legal 3 00:00:23,020 --> 00:00:26,530 templates and my Ultimate Bundle Program. 4 00:00:26,530 --> 00:00:36,460 And man, oh man, have I been through my fair share of problem clients, problem customers, whether they actually became customers or I prevented it before it even 5 00:00:36,670 --> 00:00:43,490 started, which is more the situation now and more like I can keep these people away as much as humanly possible. 6 00:00:43,490 --> 00:00:52,180 But I feel like I have learned so much about dealing with problem clients that I just want to make sure I'm passing this on to you. 7 00:00:52,180 --> 00:00:56,320 Because problem clients are the clients who become legal problems. 8 00:00:56,320 --> 00:00:58,360 They become legal headaches. 9 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,230 It doesn't tend to be random people who, you know, bought your product and they loved it. 10 00:01:02,230 --> 00:01:05,270 They don't end up suing you or they don't end up asking for their money back. 11 00:01:05,290 --> 00:01:13,180 That's not the issue. It's always the client here like, "I knew this person was going to be a problem." That's the person who ends up being the legal headache. 12 00:01:13,180 --> 00:01:22,990 And so, as you are taking all of the steps that you need to learn how to legally protect your business, to register it properly, to get business insurance, to make sure 13 00:01:22,990 --> 00:01:24,730 your financial stuff is in order. 14 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:34,360 I want to make sure you're actually doing some of the more invisible work behind the scenes to make sure that we're not working with people in the first place who could prevent 15 00:01:34,630 --> 00:01:36,040 or who could cause a problem. 16 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,940 If we can prevent it, then that's always the best option. 17 00:01:40,030 --> 00:01:42,670 Now, of course, we can't prevent everything. 18 00:01:44,170 --> 00:01:46,030 We don't have a crystal ball, as far as I'm aware of. 19 00:01:46,030 --> 00:01:48,820 If anyone has one for online business, let me know. 20 00:01:48,820 --> 00:01:49,960 But I don't have one. 21 00:01:50,050 --> 00:01:52,540 And so, people have still slipped through the cracks. 22 00:01:52,540 --> 00:01:54,600 It happens. It's okay. 23 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:58,810 People are also people and we have quirks. 24 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,300 We have bad days. We go through rough times. 25 00:02:01,300 --> 00:02:08,320 You know, I know that when my dad first got sick, I would find myself like popping off on somebody and saying something and being like, "Sorry. 26 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:12,760 I'm in a really bad mood." And so, I am very understanding. 27 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,760 I'm empathetic to a fault. 28 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:21,700 And so, I don't say anything in this episode today with judgment or, like, these are bad people. 29 00:02:21,700 --> 00:02:24,030 It's just about business. 30 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,250 It's just about doing what's best for you as a business person. 31 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,650 It's about making your business as profitable as possible. 32 00:02:30,650 --> 00:02:33,220 And making this process as enjoyable as possible. 33 00:02:33,220 --> 00:02:35,290 I want you to love what you do. 34 00:02:35,290 --> 00:02:37,180 I want you to love who you work with. 35 00:02:37,180 --> 00:02:44,020 I want you to be excited to get inside of your Facebook community, or your membership, or to answer customer's questions. 36 00:02:44,020 --> 00:02:48,170 And I want you to, overall, enjoy what you're doing. 37 00:02:48,170 --> 00:02:55,210 I really feel like that's the point of being an entrepreneur, it's just getting to have some fun with this stuff. 38 00:02:55,210 --> 00:03:03,730 So, before I hop into this episode, you'll hear me in this episode at the end share about a brand new freebie that I've got for you, which I am so excited about. 39 00:03:04,570 --> 00:03:08,890 I pulled the audience and, overwhelmingly, people were super excited about this option. 40 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:13,390 And so, I have a brand new freebie for you, it's called Pre-Qualify Before They Buy. 41 00:03:14,230 --> 00:03:23,710 It gives you three email templates plus a walkthrough video training with me on how to legally pre-qualify and prep potential clients to stay within your scope of practice 42 00:03:23,710 --> 00:03:26,860 before getting on a sales or discovery call. 43 00:03:26,860 --> 00:03:36,730 So that, hopefully, we can avoid wasting any of your time with these clients who, either never intended on working with you in the first place or just intended on barging right on through all 44 00:03:36,730 --> 00:03:38,820 those boundaries you're working hard to set. 45 00:03:38,820 --> 00:03:39,950 So, you'll find the link below. 46 00:03:39,950 --> 00:03:49,660 You'll also hear me share more about this incredible three email template series, how I use it in my own business, how I used it, and how it actually skyrocketed sales and 47 00:03:49,660 --> 00:03:53,350 conversions for me back when I did host free calls. 48 00:03:53,350 --> 00:03:55,500 So, enjoy this episode. 49 00:03:55,510 --> 00:03:57,040 I can't wait to hear what you think. 50 00:03:57,040 --> 00:03:59,410 As always, your feedback is appreciated. 51 00:03:59,470 --> 00:04:03,310 With that, let's get into this week's episode on how to avoid difficult clients. 52 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:16,920 So, I've talked about this issue of working with difficult clients a little bit in the past on Episode 5 of On Your Terms. 53 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:25,890 But that episode was a little bit more focused on what to do when you're already working with somebody, and that client turns into a pain in the neck and how do you legally get out of it. 54 00:04:25,890 --> 00:04:33,460 Because there are a lot of important issues around already working with someone trying to cancel a contract, do you give them your money back, all of those kinds of things. 55 00:04:33,460 --> 00:04:38,980 So, if you're looking for that type of advice, I would definitely go back to Episode 5 or also listen to Episode 5. 56 00:04:39,010 --> 00:04:43,900 But today, in this episode, we're really focused on prevention. 57 00:04:43,930 --> 00:04:46,690 I'm all about prevention in general as much as we can. 58 00:04:46,810 --> 00:04:56,320 So, today, we're talking about five very concrete ways that you can try to prevent the wrong kinds of clients from signing up to work with you in the first place, 59 00:04:56,890 --> 00:05:02,110 from buying your products if they're automated, to even booking a call. 60 00:05:02,110 --> 00:05:11,900 Because for a lot of you, if you're an online coach, even a consultant, a service provider of some sort, free calls are some way of connecting with you. 61 00:05:11,900 --> 00:05:15,920 It might be a big part of your business and it can also be a huge time suck. 62 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:17,680 And time sucks are money sucks. 63 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:25,520 And so, it's really, really important that we talk over this issue and we're making sure that you're not wasting any of your time or as little as possible with this. 64 00:05:25,540 --> 00:05:28,020 Of course, this is not a foolproof method. 65 00:05:28,020 --> 00:05:30,180 People slip through the cracks, people change. 66 00:05:30,190 --> 00:05:33,100 Sometimes we just have to roll with it. 67 00:05:33,340 --> 00:05:40,360 But I think that a lot of the things that we're going to talk about today will help weed out the biggest issues in your business. 68 00:05:40,420 --> 00:05:49,510 So, I know that it can be tempting to want to work with everyone, or anyone, or just be like, "If anybody bought my thing, I would be 69 00:05:49,510 --> 00:05:50,650 happy." 70 00:05:50,650 --> 00:05:53,190 I remember feeling like that, like, five years ago. 71 00:05:53,190 --> 00:06:02,800 And just feeling like I was in no place or I had no business, you know, trying to limit who could purchase my products because not that many people had purchased them five years 72 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:04,780 ago. So, it's just getting started. 73 00:06:04,780 --> 00:06:14,030 And I also understand, too, that there's a lot of messaging to you about all this just getting started messaging about you just need something, you just have to get started. 74 00:06:14,050 --> 00:06:15,400 That's not always true. 75 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:18,300 And I think after today's episode, you'll realize why. 76 00:06:18,300 --> 00:06:23,260 But it really isn't worth it because it will actually end up hurting your business. 77 00:06:24,670 --> 00:06:31,810 This attitude of I just need to work with anyone, I'm in no position to be turning anything away, can actually hurt you. 78 00:06:31,810 --> 00:06:34,510 It can actually cost you more money. 79 00:06:34,510 --> 00:06:36,200 Here are a couple of ways. 80 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:41,470 So, difficult clients, more than anything, any other people, become lawsuit clients. 81 00:06:42,790 --> 00:06:46,330 So, people come to me all the time asking me, "How do I prevent lawsuits? 82 00:06:46,330 --> 00:06:48,070 How do I do this? I want to make sure I don't get sued. 83 00:06:48,070 --> 00:06:57,900 I'm so nervous, blah blah blah." And everybody thinks it's about having more concrete legal pieces in place, like having the right contract, having the right website policy, having all these things. 84 00:06:57,910 --> 00:07:02,950 That is true, and you need that in case the difficult client goes haywire. 85 00:07:02,950 --> 00:07:05,530 But the issue is the client in the first place. 86 00:07:05,530 --> 00:07:07,820 It tends to be the client in the first place. 87 00:07:07,820 --> 00:07:12,850 And a lot of times those things could have been prevented from just not having worked with that person. 88 00:07:12,850 --> 00:07:22,570 And I assure you, it is not worth the money or anything like that, not only because the literal time you're going to put into it into working with this person 89 00:07:22,870 --> 00:07:26,410 and then having to clean up afterwards when it turns into a disaster. 90 00:07:26,470 --> 00:07:36,310 But it is not going to be worth it because that energy could have been spent elsewhere in your business and you would have made much more in the long run. 91 00:07:36,310 --> 00:07:40,000 So, those difficult clients become lawsuit clients, that's really important to understand. 92 00:07:41,620 --> 00:07:47,360 I think more on an energetic level, those clients also become energy vampires. 93 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:51,180 They're going to suck the life out of you even if they don't sue you. 94 00:07:51,180 --> 00:08:00,400 They're going to be the people who are constantly making you jump through hoops, people who are never happy, people who are making you run around to accommodate them in different ways. 95 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:03,340 And you really do have to see this in your business. 96 00:08:03,340 --> 00:08:13,150 It's hard to see it when you're in it, you know, if you're behind the scenes and you're changing admin staff, you're changing the way that someone can pay for something, and you're changing the onboarding, and you're changing the 97 00:08:13,150 --> 00:08:17,590 packaging and the contract, and all the things just because of them. 98 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:24,670 You might not think it at the time, but if you step back, you really do have to realize that that is money. 99 00:08:24,860 --> 00:08:28,720 That time that you're spending is throwing money into the fire. 100 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:34,390 So, it is not profitable for you to deal with people in this way. 101 00:08:34,390 --> 00:08:38,560 It's a profit drain because you're wasting time and resources. 102 00:08:38,560 --> 00:08:46,220 And when you're an online coach or you're course creator or you're service provider of some sort, your time is everything. 103 00:08:46,220 --> 00:08:49,810 So, it's super important that you take this seriously. 104 00:08:49,810 --> 00:08:52,230 I also just think it can throw you off your game. 105 00:08:52,230 --> 00:08:58,270 I mean, this is how I used to feel about, like, reading nasty comments or something usually on the Facebook ads. 106 00:08:58,270 --> 00:09:03,100 I don't know why, but the keyboard warriors are always much braver through Facebook ads than anything else. 107 00:09:03,100 --> 00:09:11,380 But, you know, I think just protecting your energy as much as possible and not allowing this kind of stuff to throw you off your game. 108 00:09:11,380 --> 00:09:16,780 Because then, what I ended up seeing happen was that, like in my case, I would see a bad comment. 109 00:09:16,780 --> 00:09:23,680 But in your case, you might have a nasty client or somebody get on a discovery call with you and they're a jerk or something like this. 110 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:31,640 It then, first of all, puts you in a bad mood, but it also makes you approach good clients in a more skeptical and hesitant way. 111 00:09:31,680 --> 00:09:32,700 And we don't want that. 112 00:09:32,710 --> 00:09:38,380 We don't want you to start, you know, not trusting everybody just because we got this one jerk in the door. 113 00:09:38,380 --> 00:09:48,190 I think the other thing is that it doesn't exactly, like, pump you up and motivate you to get out there and create content, and to have energy, and to have some sort of magnetism about you to 114 00:09:48,190 --> 00:09:52,900 draw people in to want to work with you if you're constantly in a bad mood. 115 00:09:52,900 --> 00:10:02,740 You know, I've been thinking about this a lot lately when I see people, and it actually is now influenced my behavior, but I would see people on Instagram sharing about some client 116 00:10:02,740 --> 00:10:08,250 experience being like this person's a jerk, this person does this, this person does that, they ask for this. 117 00:10:08,250 --> 00:10:15,370 And I thought to myself, first of all, I don't want to talk about clients or people that way on social media, even when it's anonymous. 118 00:10:15,820 --> 00:10:22,270 Second of all, just the energy that you expand on that, think about where else that could go. 119 00:10:22,270 --> 00:10:24,160 Not just in your business, but your life, right? 120 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:34,000 But if we're talking business stuff, the amount of time it took you to film an Instagram Story about how this client was a pain in the ass could have been spent on a educational piece of 121 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,320 content that would have brought in five new leads. 122 00:10:36,420 --> 00:10:46,360 So, we're talking about one pain in the ass who you're going to end up refunding anyway when we could have been talking to all these people who are there and excited to hear 123 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,340 from you. So, I think it can be a drag. 124 00:10:48,340 --> 00:10:53,620 I think it can, like, shift the energy of your content, of your account, you know, all kinds of things. 125 00:10:53,620 --> 00:10:56,350 So, it's something just to be aware of. 126 00:10:56,350 --> 00:11:06,250 But we have to be responsible for ourselves and say, "Well, I'm giving this person all this time and attention," or, "I have certain holes in my business where I'm allowing these people to come in." So, 127 00:11:06,250 --> 00:11:16,000 that's really what I'm focusing on today is helping you to close those holes, close those gaps, not allowing these people to seep through the cracks and get into your business so that we're not 128 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:17,590 getting thrown off our game. 129 00:11:18,490 --> 00:11:22,460 So, I want business to be as fun as possible. 130 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:23,990 Of course, there are ugly parts of business. 131 00:11:24,010 --> 00:11:25,720 Of course, there are more stressful things. 132 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,840 There are stressful days and months and weeks and all those kinds of things. 133 00:11:28,900 --> 00:11:38,590 But I think that the point of starting your own business was probably so that you can enjoy or at least better enjoy what you do, have flexibility, have freedom, all those 134 00:11:38,590 --> 00:11:41,860 things. But, also, so that you could have some fun. 135 00:11:41,860 --> 00:11:50,350 You know, my friend, Sammy, always says, like, "If we wanted things to be miserable, we could just go back to being lawyers because her and I were both lawyers." So, you know, we have to remember like, "That's why we're here. 136 00:11:50,350 --> 00:11:58,450 We're here to have fun and to make this fun." And again, not to say that that means it's fun all the time, but overall, right? 137 00:11:58,450 --> 00:12:08,410 So, one of my customers was telling me the other day - she had the Ultimate Bundle - that she could see this person who turned out to be a problem client coming from a mile 138 00:12:08,410 --> 00:12:18,190 away. And I just wanted to use this as an example as we go through the five tips today that I'm going to share with you as to how you can see how this could have been prevented and saved her headache 139 00:12:18,190 --> 00:12:20,290 and time and money. 140 00:12:20,290 --> 00:12:23,980 So, she really felt in her gut that this person was a pain. 141 00:12:24,030 --> 00:12:30,670 The person, before they started working with her, had already asked for special payment arrangements. 142 00:12:30,670 --> 00:12:40,600 I don't mean a discount, which is a whole another issue, but more like, "Well, I know you take credit card and PayPal, but I want to pay this way." Or, "I know you 143 00:12:40,750 --> 00:12:45,790 have eight payments of 289, but I want nine payments of 263." I don't know. 144 00:12:45,790 --> 00:12:46,950 I'm just making up numbers. 145 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:52,420 So, it was this really highly customized requests. 146 00:12:52,420 --> 00:12:57,910 And then, she asked to also accommodate and to change the package that was being offered. 147 00:12:58,510 --> 00:13:00,580 She couldn't take it as is. 148 00:13:00,580 --> 00:13:05,830 Everybody else who signs up to work with this person takes the package that this person offers. 149 00:13:05,830 --> 00:13:15,310 And then, this person that we were talking about, she was like, "Well, that's great that you offered this package, but I want it this way." And she had a number of other different requests that were just a little 150 00:13:15,310 --> 00:13:16,360 frustrating. 151 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:21,150 But my customer was just feeling like, "Who am I to say no to this? 152 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:22,920 I need to build my business. 153 00:13:22,930 --> 00:13:27,640 I don't deserve to protect my energy or my business. 154 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:30,460 I need the money," which is understandable. 155 00:13:30,460 --> 00:13:32,830 But she didn't want to say no. 156 00:13:32,830 --> 00:13:34,930 So, she went through all of the hoops. 157 00:13:34,930 --> 00:13:42,990 She ignored her intuition only for this person, this pain in the butt client, to stop working with her early anyway. 158 00:13:42,990 --> 00:13:49,210 Like, she asked for this special package, this special number of calls, a special period of time for her package. 159 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:54,670 She stopped it early and stopped paying, even though she had signed the contract saying that she would. 160 00:13:54,670 --> 00:14:04,570 So, it's really frustrating because you see how you can go through all this stuff anyway, thinking that you're helping, thinking this person just has a couple of requests and I'm just helping, and who am 161 00:14:04,570 --> 00:14:07,730 I to turn this down or turn this away? 162 00:14:07,750 --> 00:14:11,140 And you go through all that, only for it to not work anyway. 163 00:14:11,140 --> 00:14:17,910 I've also heard the same story from different people where it ended up that the person actually asked for all of their money back. 164 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,910 So, you just went through that same scenario only to not get anything out of it. 165 00:14:22,210 --> 00:14:28,780 It's huge. So, we really want to take this part of our businesses seriously. 166 00:14:28,780 --> 00:14:34,000 So, let's go over the five ways that you can avoid difficult clients in your business. 167 00:14:34,690 --> 00:14:43,100 And I am so excited because I've got something for you, a link in the description below that will give you one of these for free so you can just implement it right away. 168 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:48,690 I wanted to create this resource for you so that you don't have to waste any time in your business putting this together. 169 00:14:48,690 --> 00:14:50,180 It will take you a couple of minutes. 170 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:51,970 It's free download for you. 171 00:14:52,180 --> 00:14:56,230 I'll explain in a little bit, but I'm very excited for you. 172 00:14:56,350 --> 00:15:02,550 So, tip number one of how you want to avoid difficult clients is to gatekeep. 173 00:15:02,550 --> 00:15:10,960 So, when we gatekeep, we want to make it that it's not so easy for people to talk to us or work with us. 174 00:15:11,140 --> 00:15:12,670 So, there's kind of two phases to this. 175 00:15:12,670 --> 00:15:22,660 So, if you offer free calls, then I want you to think about gatekeeping as it applies to getting on those calls with you, because that is a huge 176 00:15:22,660 --> 00:15:26,340 amount of time that's dedicated in your business. 177 00:15:26,350 --> 00:15:33,610 And it should be that it's pretty high level access to you, even if you think your business is pretty small. 178 00:15:33,610 --> 00:15:41,830 So, we want you to not be super available and we want there to be a couple checkpoints before people get there. 179 00:15:42,070 --> 00:15:48,940 So, this could look like, first of all, not just having a straight up link to book a free call with you on your site. 180 00:15:48,940 --> 00:15:50,760 I think that's a great starting point. 181 00:15:50,770 --> 00:15:55,010 That was something I changed back in the day when I offered free calls. 182 00:15:55,010 --> 00:15:58,450 And I used to just have this approach that it was like, "Gosh. 183 00:15:58,450 --> 00:16:01,300 If anybody wants to get on the phone with me, that'd be great." 184 00:16:01,300 --> 00:16:04,390 And it was cool for, like, marketing purposes and all that kind of stuff. 185 00:16:04,390 --> 00:16:10,240 But it was bad in terms of time and profitability, and a lot of those calls were wasted. 186 00:16:10,420 --> 00:16:15,350 Some people don't even show up, which is also a waste of time because you're holding the time and the space for them. 187 00:16:15,370 --> 00:16:22,840 So, we want to make it not super easy for these people to book the call in terms of just having a direct link. 188 00:16:22,840 --> 00:16:26,560 It doesn't tend to work super well in terms of conversion anyway. 189 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,520 But you want to have it be that, first of all, you have copy on this page. 190 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:38,730 So, if there's a work with me page or learn more about working with me page, we want to have a specific copy, like who this is for, who it's not for. 191 00:16:38,730 --> 00:16:42,940 Do some pre-qualifying there, have some language. 192 00:16:42,940 --> 00:16:45,640 And then, I would have it be more like an application process. 193 00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:47,410 This doesn't have to be really long. 194 00:16:47,410 --> 00:16:53,830 I feel like when you say application, it sounds really intense, but it could be more like a form, something like that, where they have to answer a couple of questions. 195 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:58,470 They have to say what they're looking for, what they're hoping to even get out of the call. 196 00:16:58,470 --> 00:17:00,790 You might ask about budget at this point. 197 00:17:00,790 --> 00:17:04,440 Ask them if they have a budget to spend on a certain project. 198 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:07,990 Or letting them know, "Hey, my packages range between X and Z. 199 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,710 Is that within your budget," something like that. 200 00:17:11,710 --> 00:17:21,670 Some people will ask, "Is there anyone else who needs to be present in order to make this decision?" So, now, I tend to send people from my team to calls instead of me 201 00:17:21,910 --> 00:17:22,930 attending the first call. 202 00:17:22,930 --> 00:17:28,810 I'll only get on after we've already had a first call with somebody if we're hiring a contractor or an agency or something. 203 00:17:28,810 --> 00:17:33,640 So, they will typically ask, like, "Is there somebody else who we need permission from?" That would be me. 204 00:17:33,730 --> 00:17:37,870 So, that would be really helpful to have on your application. 205 00:17:37,870 --> 00:17:41,770 As well as just some, I think, pre-qualifying questions as it relates to your work. 206 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:50,190 So, making sure that this person is actually looking for what you offer and that you're the right person for them based on what they're looking for. 207 00:17:50,190 --> 00:17:58,870 And you'll know best, obviously, what some of those questions are, but there might be some questions you can use that would knock out something because of scope of practice. 208 00:17:58,870 --> 00:18:04,510 There might be something that would knock you out because of kind of work that you like to do. 209 00:18:04,510 --> 00:18:08,830 Or maybe somebody is looking for a diet help and you're an anti-diet person. 210 00:18:08,830 --> 00:18:11,650 So, it depends what you do, obviously. 211 00:18:11,650 --> 00:18:21,550 But I think you can think of probably a few questions that would further whittle down whether or not somebody is a good fit to work with you based on what they're looking for and what you 212 00:18:21,550 --> 00:18:23,380 offer. 213 00:18:23,380 --> 00:18:26,920 I also think that in this application, you could ask them to review some things. 214 00:18:27,190 --> 00:18:36,160 So, like, if you had some sort of PDF - I know some of my friends have a PDF that describes a bit more about their services in their package - you could let people 215 00:18:36,670 --> 00:18:38,650 review that ahead of time. 216 00:18:38,890 --> 00:18:48,520 You could share some client feedback to say like, "Does this sound like what you're looking for?" I think any of these little micro-hoops that you can have somebody go through, 217 00:18:48,550 --> 00:18:57,460 when we're talking about free calls, you're going to end up speaking with somebody who is more on target and actually looking for your 218 00:18:57,460 --> 00:18:58,810 services. 219 00:18:58,810 --> 00:19:08,750 In other words, we're really in this first step looking to speak to people who are actually wanting to get on the phone with you because they're interested in working with you and not because they're interested in (A) 220 00:19:08,750 --> 00:19:12,740 picking your brain or (B) just having like a free call. 221 00:19:12,740 --> 00:19:14,980 It's not like a sample call, right? 222 00:19:15,430 --> 00:19:22,390 I think a lot of people misunderstand or mischaracterize discovery call, sales calls, whatever you want to call it, as a sample call. 223 00:19:22,390 --> 00:19:26,170 Like, "I get in this call and I get to see what it's like to be coached by her ." 224 00:19:28,540 --> 00:19:38,470 I remember when I had 20 minute legal checkup calls and when people would get on these calls with me, they would literally start off the call - which is what prompted me 225 00:19:38,470 --> 00:19:48,340 to create the system that I'm talking with you about today - and be like, "I'm just so excited that I get free 20 minutes to ask a lawyer all my questions." And so, I would barely 226 00:19:48,340 --> 00:19:50,500 even get started at the beginning of the call. 227 00:19:50,500 --> 00:19:55,570 As I went on, I had a little routine where I would introduce myself, and then I had a series of questions. 228 00:19:55,570 --> 00:20:01,870 I would set kind of the boundaries, the terms of the call, and then I would have a lead off question. 229 00:20:01,870 --> 00:20:05,530 And sometimes I would get on these calls and the person who would be like, "I'm just so excited. 230 00:20:05,530 --> 00:20:08,900 I get this 20 minutes to pick a lawyer's brain." I would be like, "Okay. 231 00:20:08,900 --> 00:20:15,760 I have 100 questions for you so let me get started." And then, they would just - boom - launch off into all of their questions. 232 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:24,940 And it was just funny for me that's what caused me to create the system that I'm teaching today because it was a really reflective moment for me to realize, "Wow. 233 00:20:25,310 --> 00:20:35,230 I really haven't done the work to help them to understand what this call is really for, what this call is really about, what we're going to cover, what I'm not going to cover, because I'm not there to give them free 20 minutes of 234 00:20:35,230 --> 00:20:38,660 legal advice." First of all, I don't give legal advice, so that would be outside my scope. 235 00:20:38,660 --> 00:20:48,430 Which would be a good example of what you might do, hopefully, you're not giving nutrition advice or career advice, therapy advice, or whatever on these calls or just in general, 236 00:20:48,430 --> 00:20:50,110 because you might not be able to do that. 237 00:20:50,260 --> 00:20:54,490 So, it's like, "That's a problem." But then, the other thing is like, "That's not the point of the call. 238 00:20:54,490 --> 00:20:58,410 The point of the call is to decide whether or not my product or my program was right for you. 239 00:20:58,420 --> 00:21:06,520 And if you needed any sort of clarifying questions as to which one do I need, why do I need this one, I don't understand, " that kind of stuff. 240 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:16,510 So, it's really good for you to start taking note of what some of the people might be saying in their call or in their emails to you, and that will help you to decide which parts 241 00:21:16,510 --> 00:21:18,600 of this process that you really need to tighten up. 242 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:24,310 And I'm going to have something for you, number five, that's going to do this for you for free so I'm excited to share that with you. 243 00:21:29,970 --> 00:21:39,480 Have you ever gotten on a sales call with a potential client and walked away from it disappointed that they weren't respecting your boundaries, weren't honoring your scope of practice, or that they had the wrong 244 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,280 idea about what it is that you actually do in your business? 245 00:21:43,290 --> 00:21:53,250 You know, the ones like it tend to get real cozy in the Zoom meeting, and then start to challenge your scope of practice, ask for coaching advice on the discovery call - which is a legal 246 00:21:53,330 --> 00:21:55,470 no-no, that could land you in legal hot water. 247 00:21:55,920 --> 00:22:01,470 Or they just booked the call so they can just pick your brain without ever picking up their wallet. 248 00:22:01,470 --> 00:22:05,400 I call them scope pushers because they like to push the boundaries of what you'll do for them. 249 00:22:05,550 --> 00:22:15,450 And these people usually win awards for a client least likely to pay you on time, or client most likely to sue you should they ever encounter a problem with you, or the 250 00:22:15,450 --> 00:22:19,770 client most likely to sign up for a three month package only one month in to say, "Thanks. 251 00:22:19,770 --> 00:22:23,100 I got what I need. Please cancel those remaining payments." 252 00:22:23,100 --> 00:22:32,970 Here's the deal, I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs, coaches, and service providers just like you to avoid the wrong clients and only attract the amazing ones who pay on time, refer you to their friends, 253 00:22:32,970 --> 00:22:36,780 and respect your scope of practice, not to mention your office hours. 254 00:22:37,170 --> 00:22:47,160 I want to help you do the same thing, and that's why I created a totally free email template pack and video walkthrough called Pre-Qualify Before They Buy, which includes three attorney written email 255 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:51,300 templates, plus a video training to pre-qualify your discovery calls for better customers. 256 00:22:52,530 --> 00:22:57,490 One, to copy and paste the pre-qualify before they buy email templates and fire them off to potential clients. 257 00:22:57,510 --> 00:23:07,410 You'll get those scope pushing Freebie Hunter's vanishing from your Calendly links before ever meeting with them virtually - phew - which means that you get to see it to future legal 258 00:23:07,410 --> 00:23:09,870 problems before they ever even happen. 259 00:23:09,870 --> 00:23:14,090 So, if that sounds like a slice of heaven that you need, then head straight to the link in the description. 260 00:23:14,100 --> 00:23:23,030 That's samvanderwielen.com/prequalify-oyt to get your free copy of the email templates and video walkthrough right now. 261 00:23:23,030 --> 00:23:32,670 That's samvanderwielen.com/prequalify-oyt to get your free copy right now so you can start enjoying stress-free discovery calls with ideal clients 262 00:23:32,670 --> 00:23:38,980 right away. 263 00:23:38,980 --> 00:23:48,980 Number two, the second way to help avoid difficult clients is to trust your intuition, and I know that that sounds very simple, very basic advice. 264 00:23:48,980 --> 00:23:58,450 But I do think that so often when I hear stories, I get so many emails and DMs and things from people in the throes of, like, a bad client 265 00:23:58,450 --> 00:24:07,510 situation, I don't know the last time that someone hasn't mentioned something like, "I knew this was going to happen." And then, I'll typically ask a few questions 266 00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:11,530 about why, like, "Why were you feeling that way?" 267 00:24:11,530 --> 00:24:15,330 And it's typically around what I was talking about earlier in this episode. 268 00:24:15,330 --> 00:24:17,050 They were asking me to jump through hoops. 269 00:24:17,050 --> 00:24:18,610 They were not being respectful. 270 00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:19,750 They were doing all these things. 271 00:24:19,750 --> 00:24:22,580 So, they knew that this was going to be a bad fit. 272 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:23,950 They got a vibe from them. 273 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:25,420 Maybe they even got on the call. 274 00:24:25,420 --> 00:24:27,370 They did all the pre-qualifying that I was talking about. 275 00:24:27,370 --> 00:24:31,660 But then, they get on the call and they got a bad feeling from the person on the call. 276 00:24:31,690 --> 00:24:35,040 They got a feeling like this person wasn't really looking for what they offer. 277 00:24:35,050 --> 00:24:42,940 They got a feeling like this person wanted to start a business of their own, and that's why they were kind of just trying to sample of how somebody else was doing this. 278 00:24:42,940 --> 00:24:44,100 I've heard that one a lot. 279 00:24:44,110 --> 00:24:49,770 So, you want to pay attention to these gut checks that you're getting. 280 00:24:49,770 --> 00:24:51,570 I think you're getting them for a reason. 281 00:24:51,580 --> 00:24:58,510 And more often than not, you will be safer by going with that intuitive feeling that you are getting. 282 00:24:58,510 --> 00:25:07,420 The third way that you can avoid difficult clients is by paying attention to the special requests that you're getting from these people. 283 00:25:07,420 --> 00:25:13,180 So, when we're talking about how to spot these people or how to prevent them, we have to learn how to spot them. 284 00:25:13,180 --> 00:25:17,830 So, we have to know how to spot these potentially bad clients. 285 00:25:17,830 --> 00:25:23,770 And I always give the disclaimer when I talk about this, first of all, everyone is entitled to their moments. 286 00:25:23,770 --> 00:25:25,890 Maybe the person have a bad day. 287 00:25:25,900 --> 00:25:28,070 They snipped off an email. 288 00:25:28,070 --> 00:25:37,960 I'm not suggesting that you go around cutting everybody off, firing all these clients, or not letting anyone work with you unless they're the perfect or unicorn client. 289 00:25:37,990 --> 00:25:39,460 That's not what I'm talking about. 290 00:25:39,460 --> 00:25:45,040 But paired with this intuitive feeling, some of the things I'm about to talk about might hit home for you. 291 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:54,630 So, when people ask you to twist yourself into a pretzel, that's when I see it being a problem, in general. 292 00:25:54,630 --> 00:26:00,310 So, usually, this looks like having a lot of requests to overly accommodate this person. 293 00:26:01,210 --> 00:26:05,760 That might mean offering something unique to them that you don't offer. 294 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:12,360 It's kind of like asking somebody, "Do you want chocolate or vanilla ice cream?" And they're like, "I want you to go make me strawberry. 295 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:19,640 I want you to go outside, grow some strawberries, milk a cow, and then make me some strawberry ice cream." You're like, "That wasn't even part of the deal. 296 00:26:19,660 --> 00:26:22,960 Like, how did we get to strawberry ice cream?" That's kind of how I feel about this. 297 00:26:23,500 --> 00:26:26,860 Sometimes I feel like you have these products, it's like product line or product two. 298 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,190 And they're like, "I'll take seven." It just doesn't make any sense. 299 00:26:30,190 --> 00:26:35,580 And sometimes that can be because people need something different. 300 00:26:35,580 --> 00:26:43,650 And sometimes it can be because people are a pain in the butt and they just need to be difficult and they need to have something different. 301 00:26:43,650 --> 00:26:46,210 They need to like, "I need to control this situation. 302 00:26:46,210 --> 00:26:49,900 I need to control which product I'm getting," essentially. 303 00:26:49,900 --> 00:26:59,540 I see it all the time with people contacting me to say, "Thanks for offering the Ultimate Bundle, but here are the ten that I want you to package for me instead." And it's just like, "Sure. 304 00:26:59,540 --> 00:27:01,010 You can go buy all ten a la carte. 305 00:27:01,030 --> 00:27:03,010 The whole point is that I have this product. 306 00:27:03,010 --> 00:27:12,580 Now, of course, it's smart of you as a business person that if enough people are requesting this or something like that, you take a step back, and maybe this is an idea for a new 307 00:27:12,580 --> 00:27:14,070 product or a different product. 308 00:27:14,070 --> 00:27:21,520 Or if people are consistently saying something or consistently requesting something, that's a different story. 309 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,510 I'm just talking about you kind of already have a system that works. 310 00:27:24,510 --> 00:27:26,300 These packages have been tried. 311 00:27:26,300 --> 00:27:27,790 The products have been tried. 312 00:27:27,790 --> 00:27:29,830 Things are working. People are happy. 313 00:27:29,830 --> 00:27:32,450 And then, this person is asking for the strawberry ice cream. 314 00:27:32,450 --> 00:27:33,820 That's all I'm talking about. 315 00:27:33,820 --> 00:27:39,610 And now I really want strawberry ice cream just as a side note, maybe later. 316 00:27:39,610 --> 00:27:49,480 I think another thing that you have to be aware of when we're learning how to spot potentially difficult clients is when people ask you to go outside your scope of practice 317 00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:54,580 or are not respecting your scope of practice, even from the get-go. 318 00:27:54,580 --> 00:28:04,330 So, I distinctly remember getting very pissed in a free call that I had a million years ago, like four or five years ago, and it was with two women who were 319 00:28:04,450 --> 00:28:10,780 starting a business. You know, I did my whole little spiel at the beginning about how I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. 320 00:28:10,810 --> 00:28:18,850 Even if you buy things from me and I sell digital products and templates, I don't offer legal advice, I don't do any legal services. 321 00:28:18,850 --> 00:28:19,870 They were like, "That's great. 322 00:28:19,900 --> 00:28:21,220 We have some questions for you. 323 00:28:21,220 --> 00:28:23,770 So, this is what we were doing, blah blah blah, blah blah. 324 00:28:23,770 --> 00:28:28,060 And so, like, should we do X or Z?" And it was like, "Wait. 325 00:28:28,060 --> 00:28:29,940 I just told you." So, I was like, "Okay. 326 00:28:29,940 --> 00:28:38,270 So, that's a good example of where I can't offer you advice because especially when it comes to scope of practice, whether it's legal advice, financial, medical advice." 327 00:28:38,270 --> 00:28:43,310 One of the biggest no-no's is making a game time decision for someone. 328 00:28:43,310 --> 00:28:53,210 Like, calling a shot saying, "You should do A or B." That is an example of being outside of scope of practice, because that's something where you really have to take in a 329 00:28:53,210 --> 00:28:54,810 lot of information. 330 00:28:54,810 --> 00:28:59,200 And as the expert, the person is looking to you to tell them what to do. 331 00:28:59,210 --> 00:29:05,960 And that's kind of a little red flag in your mind when you know you're outside of scope. 332 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:10,730 And so, I reminded them like, "Hey, this is an example, I can't do that, blah blah blah." They were like, "That's great. 333 00:29:10,730 --> 00:29:14,370 But if you could just tell us is it A or B?" And I'm like, "Yeah. 334 00:29:14,370 --> 00:29:20,960 Exactly. I can't tell you whether or not to do that." And it just kept going on and on and on like that. 335 00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:22,790 It was really frustrating. 336 00:29:22,790 --> 00:29:24,440 I was definitely losing my patience. 337 00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,380 No matter how many times I set the boundary, they were being very disrespectful. 338 00:29:28,490 --> 00:29:30,020 And so, I ended the call. 339 00:29:30,020 --> 00:29:33,260 I said, "Please don't purchase my product. 340 00:29:33,530 --> 00:29:36,180 We're not a good fit. You're not understanding what I do. 341 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:37,760 It sounds like you need a lawyer. 342 00:29:37,790 --> 00:29:40,070 Good luck with your business. 343 00:29:40,070 --> 00:29:43,100 Have a nice day." And I ended the call. 344 00:29:43,100 --> 00:29:52,940 So, I think it's really important that when people are showing me that upfront, I was just imagining, I was playing the tape in my mind six months down the line thinking, "Oh, my goodness. 345 00:29:52,940 --> 00:29:55,630 Could you imagine if that person was in my product? 346 00:29:55,630 --> 00:30:00,230 And every time something kept coming up for them, they would be like, 'I need advice on this. 347 00:30:00,230 --> 00:30:08,930 I need advice on this.'" If they're not respecting my boundaries now, it's not going to get any better, typically speaking. 348 00:30:08,930 --> 00:30:13,790 I do see that sometimes clients need to be trained a little bit. 349 00:30:13,790 --> 00:30:14,920 That people mean well. 350 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,860 Sometimes they don't even understand that what they're asking is outside of your scope of practice. 351 00:30:18,870 --> 00:30:27,110 So, it really is very nuance and it takes, I think, a lot of just practice and exposure on your end as the business owner. 352 00:30:27,110 --> 00:30:30,700 Because when I started out, I thought everybody was doing it on purpose. 353 00:30:30,700 --> 00:30:37,450 They were purposefully being disrespectful or purposefully trying to go outside my boundaries and not listening to me. 354 00:30:37,460 --> 00:30:41,340 But the further I've gone on in business, I've realized sometimes people just don't know. 355 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:43,720 Sometimes they don't know what your scope is. 356 00:30:43,730 --> 00:30:46,150 They don't understand maybe even what their question is. 357 00:30:46,150 --> 00:30:53,320 Or they don't understand that the answer that would be required to properly answer their question would be outside of my scope of practice. 358 00:30:53,330 --> 00:30:55,070 So, sometimes they just don't get it. 359 00:30:55,070 --> 00:31:04,640 And I think then in those cases, it is about you just saying friendly and politely like, "Hey, this is an example of how I can't 360 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:08,150 unfortunately answer that for you, because that would be outside of my scope of practice. 361 00:31:08,930 --> 00:31:13,750 I'd be happy to offer you some more information or this resource," or give them a link. 362 00:31:13,750 --> 00:31:23,680 Or say, "This would be a great question for your doctor, lawyer, accountant, therapist, whatever it is." So, I think you have to learn how to handle these. 363 00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:31,130 And I know it's probably annoying to hear that answer of like, "It's not always so cut and dry, but I think it is how it goes in online business." 364 00:31:31,430 --> 00:31:39,690 So, in general, though, I think we want to avoid those client situations where maybe a few of these elements are stacking up. 365 00:31:39,710 --> 00:31:43,100 You're also having your spidey senses up about this. 366 00:31:43,100 --> 00:31:45,470 Like, this is already not feeling good. 367 00:31:45,500 --> 00:31:47,600 There's already something a little wrong. 368 00:31:47,810 --> 00:31:57,560 Maybe you just got a bad vibe on the call combined with asking things outside your scope or combined with asking you to twist yourself into a pretzel, that might be a good 369 00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,230 time to pull the plug. 370 00:32:00,740 --> 00:32:06,330 Now, I just thought of something because often people will say to me, "What do you tell somebody on the phone? 371 00:32:06,330 --> 00:32:10,040 Like, if you're on the phone or if they send you an email, how do you say it? 372 00:32:10,070 --> 00:32:14,720 How do you tell them we're not a good fit?" So, I think it depends on what happens. 373 00:32:15,270 --> 00:32:19,580 But you could say something along the lines like, "I'm so glad that we got to chat today. 374 00:32:19,580 --> 00:32:20,810 It was really nice meeting you. 375 00:32:20,810 --> 00:32:30,470 After hearing a little bit more about what you're looking for, I don't actually think my program would be that helpful to you." So, I typically would pitch it as it being, like, 376 00:32:30,470 --> 00:32:33,740 not that helpful or beneficial to them. 377 00:32:33,740 --> 00:32:37,050 Versus, you obviously don't want to say, "Thanks for contacting me. 378 00:32:37,050 --> 00:32:42,560 I don't want to work with you." That might be the subtext that you have in the back of your mind. 379 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,140 But, personally, that's just not what I put in an email. 380 00:32:45,140 --> 00:32:54,890 So, it would be more like, "Thanks for contacting me but it's not the right fit." Or, "It sounds like what you're really looking for is financial advice. 381 00:32:54,890 --> 00:33:01,520 I think you should contact a certified financial planner." If you have some references or resources, you could give that to them. 382 00:33:01,910 --> 00:33:03,270 That's always a good thing. 383 00:33:03,290 --> 00:33:06,320 I mean, you could also just say like, "Thanks for contacting me. 384 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:07,940 I'm actually booked at this time. 385 00:33:07,940 --> 00:33:16,100 I'm unable to take on any additional clients." I mean, there are all kinds of things that kind of depends on the situation and what you want to say, but that's personally how I'd handle it. 386 00:33:16,100 --> 00:33:20,660 I just remembered somebody asked me that the other day in another training. 387 00:33:20,660 --> 00:33:30,470 So, if you want to learn more about the scope of practice issues, like what somebody might be asking you to do that's outside of your scope, what even is your scope of practice, how do you figure that out, I just wanted 388 00:33:30,470 --> 00:33:39,130 to encourage you to go back and listen to Episode 2 of On Your Terms, because that's where I did a deep dive all about scope of practice for online coaches and service providers. 389 00:33:39,130 --> 00:33:41,410 So, that's where you go for that. 390 00:33:41,410 --> 00:33:51,130 Now, the fourth way that we prevent or try to avoid difficult clients from working with us, buying our products, or signing up for our calls, is to "interview" 391 00:33:52,240 --> 00:34:00,770 them. So, in our pre-qualifying process, we are asking them questions that might comb through some of the common issues in our field. 392 00:34:00,770 --> 00:34:06,040 So, you could even do this in your free call itself when you're talking with them. 393 00:34:06,820 --> 00:34:16,630 That free call is just as much about you getting to figure out if this is a good fit for you as the coach or the service provider, as it is for them to learn more 394 00:34:16,780 --> 00:34:21,520 about you and decide if they want to hire you or pay you money. 395 00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:29,440 So, I just want you to get in the habit of protecting yourself and understanding that this is just as much for you, and to make sure that this is a good fit for you. 396 00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:39,430 And I can remember distinctly when you're still in that mode of "I would just be happy for somebody to sign up to work with me or to buy my 397 00:34:39,430 --> 00:34:42,190 product." That we can forget that. 398 00:34:42,190 --> 00:34:50,380 We can kind of forget that we are also there to figure out if this whole situation is good for us. 399 00:34:50,380 --> 00:34:59,620 So, I want you to work on interviewing them just as much, whether that means that you ask them questions about budget, about time, like their 400 00:34:59,620 --> 00:35:01,330 availability and time. 401 00:35:03,910 --> 00:35:13,270 Typically, my clients have to spend two hours a week doing this or we have calls once a week and then it's about an hour of implementation time on your own 402 00:35:14,020 --> 00:35:17,820 . With everything you've got going on, is that something that works for you right now? 403 00:35:17,830 --> 00:35:27,550 Because sometimes that can be a problem down the line where people cancel their card because they say, "Oh, it ended up being I didn't have time to do all this stuff." So, 404 00:35:27,550 --> 00:35:31,120 that's something where you can ask them ahead of time. 405 00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:37,200 You can also, I think, get to the root of whether people are, like, self-starters, self implementers, go getters. 406 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:42,000 People who, if they don't know the answer, they go out looking for it instead of just coming to you for everything. 407 00:35:42,010 --> 00:35:43,420 I mean, it kind of depends on what you do. 408 00:35:43,420 --> 00:35:49,750 And if you have courses, if you teach something about business, I could see this being really, really helpful. 409 00:35:49,750 --> 00:35:58,310 I know a lot of my friends who are more in the business space have implemented more questions around the kind of person that you are. 410 00:35:58,310 --> 00:36:08,290 Especially as a business owner of like, "Are you the person who gets knocked off the horse a million times and is rolling around in the mud, but can keep getting back 411 00:36:08,530 --> 00:36:13,480 up?" "Cool. Then, you're my person." Because that's what entrepreneurship can be like. 412 00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:22,900 But if you're the kind of person who needs a lot of hand-holding or is really looking for a course or some instruction on how to do 413 00:36:22,900 --> 00:36:28,240 everything and not learning how to take this information and implement it yourself, it's just not the right fit. 414 00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:32,200 So, I think there are a lot of questions that you could ask in that interview process. 415 00:36:33,550 --> 00:36:34,970 All right. Drum roll, please. 416 00:36:34,990 --> 00:36:38,840 Last but not least, and this is the one I'm so excited to gift you something. 417 00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:43,590 This is something I asked about, I asked my audience a while back. 418 00:36:43,590 --> 00:36:46,570 I gave you three options, actually, and this was one of them. 419 00:36:46,570 --> 00:36:53,710 And, overwhelmingly, this was the number one option of something that you said would be really helpful for you in your business. 420 00:36:53,710 --> 00:36:57,190 So, number five is all about warming them up and weaving them out. 421 00:36:57,190 --> 00:37:06,970 So, the way that I always did this and I created this on my own and then I would ask other people, like, "Do you guys do this?" And no one else was doing this. 422 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:11,680 So, I'm really excited because I'm going to gift my little system to you. 423 00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:21,580 But the way that I think was the most impactful in preventing difficult clients and especially avoiding a waste of free discovery calls with people who 424 00:37:21,580 --> 00:37:31,060 either didn't show up, didn't respect my boundaries, never plan to sign up to work with me anyway, or even had that as a possibility in their mind, was to have 425 00:37:31,420 --> 00:37:40,450 this little pre-qualifying process go on and be automated through a series of emails that the person would receive once they signed up for a free call with me. 426 00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:48,160 So, it doesn't have to be this amount, but I think three emails is a kind of a nice amount of emails that somebody should get. 427 00:37:48,190 --> 00:37:54,820 So, essentially, once somebody actually books a call with you, you set up a little email automation sequence. 428 00:37:54,820 --> 00:37:58,480 Meaning, they automatically get these emails and you're not manually having to send them. 429 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:03,310 And you can do that through things like ConvertKit, which I have a link for below even for the free plan. 430 00:38:03,310 --> 00:38:07,060 Now, they have a free plan or a free trial, I have that too. 431 00:38:07,060 --> 00:38:08,350 But you could set that up in there. 432 00:38:08,350 --> 00:38:09,990 You can set this up in Calendly. 433 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:14,840 You can set this up probably through like MailChimp and every other major email service provider. 434 00:38:14,840 --> 00:38:24,700 But, essentially, the idea behind this email automation sequence - which I am literally giving you the email templates to in the link below - is 435 00:38:24,700 --> 00:38:31,270 to warm them up and show them the door if the door is the right place for them to go. 436 00:38:31,270 --> 00:38:41,040 So, the idea behind these three emails that somebody would automatically receive after they sign up for a call with you is, first, to confirm the call and establish yourself. 437 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:42,880 Kind of get to know this person. 438 00:38:42,900 --> 00:38:44,350 Say, "This is who I am. 439 00:38:44,350 --> 00:38:49,530 Here's a little bit about me." Maybe you send them to your main content driver. 440 00:38:49,530 --> 00:38:57,510 I might send somebody to the podcast and say you should go over and listen to my podcast episodes, or go watch my YouTube channel, or something like that, or follow me on Instagram. 441 00:38:57,540 --> 00:38:59,400 And so, you might send somebody there. 442 00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:03,450 And then, we start talking about the call. 443 00:39:03,450 --> 00:39:04,650 So, we start talking about the call. 444 00:39:04,650 --> 00:39:08,680 We teach them what the call is about and what it is not about. 445 00:39:08,700 --> 00:39:18,180 And then, by setting that boundary now, we can get them to use the door if it turns out that it wasn't what they were looking for. 446 00:39:18,180 --> 00:39:26,460 So, I was terrified to implement this strategy because I thought, I'm going to set this whole thing up, and then I'm literally encouraging people to leave if it's not the right fit for them. 447 00:39:26,460 --> 00:39:28,760 And so, isn't everybody just going to drop out? 448 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:32,370 And it was incredible what ended up happening instead. 449 00:39:32,370 --> 00:39:42,170 So, I stopped having all of these annoying phone calls of people saying, "I'm just so excited to be able to talk to a lawyer for free for 20 minutes." Those went out the door. 450 00:39:42,170 --> 00:39:48,310 And, in fact, sales and conversions from those calls skyrocketed, skyrocketed. 451 00:39:48,310 --> 00:39:54,320 Because what happened was that by the time people got to the call with me, they were prepped. 452 00:39:54,330 --> 00:39:56,310 They were warmed up. They were ready to go. 453 00:39:56,340 --> 00:39:58,680 They understood what the call was about. 454 00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:08,550 I even included information about the product, which I'm going to teach you in my freebie below how to even warm them up and get them familiarized with whatever products you have or the 455 00:40:08,550 --> 00:40:11,670 product, maybe, specifically that they signed up to talk to you about. 456 00:40:11,700 --> 00:40:20,580 I'm going to teach you in this freebie below exactly how to do this with somebody so that the people that you get on the call with or at least potentially 457 00:40:21,390 --> 00:40:23,400 interested in working with you. 458 00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:25,200 Of course, not everybody. It wasn't a requirement. 459 00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:28,050 Like, it's not like if you sign up for a call with me, you must buy. 460 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:35,090 It's just that I wanted to get on the phone with people who were at least open to that idea and not the opposite. 461 00:40:35,100 --> 00:40:38,580 Not like, "I'm just doing this and I would never buy from her." 462 00:40:38,580 --> 00:40:40,810 You guys, I'm not kidding. 463 00:40:40,830 --> 00:40:50,220 I had people sign up for my free call, like many, not just one, who would literally get on the phone with me and tell me that they bought legal templates from a 464 00:40:50,220 --> 00:40:56,030 "competitor." But that person didn't provide any customer service, and they had a couple of questions for me about the template. 465 00:40:56,030 --> 00:40:58,230 And I was like, "Are you serious?" 466 00:40:58,230 --> 00:41:00,390 Sometimes I used to be so caught off guard with these things. 467 00:41:00,390 --> 00:41:01,650 I didn't even know what to say. 468 00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:02,950 I was like, "Yeah. 469 00:41:02,950 --> 00:41:05,160 So, you should try contacting that person. 470 00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:07,890 I'm sorry that you purchased from someone that has no customer service. 471 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:12,350 I have a lot of customer service, which would have been the reason why you should have come here. 472 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:14,230 But I can't help you. 473 00:41:14,230 --> 00:41:23,250 I'm not the customer service representative." I had people set up calls asking me questions about LegalZoom saying they had purchased something from LegalZoom and wanted my help understanding how to implement it. 474 00:41:23,250 --> 00:41:24,690 I was like, "Call LegalZoom. 475 00:41:24,690 --> 00:41:26,100 That's crazy." 476 00:41:26,100 --> 00:41:27,200 So, that was my fault, though. 477 00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:30,270 That wasn't their fault. Why didn't I have something set up? 478 00:41:30,780 --> 00:41:33,180 Why was it so easy to book this call with me? 479 00:41:33,180 --> 00:41:40,860 So, I implemented all the things that we're talking about today as well as this three part email sequence, which I am now gifting to you for free. 480 00:41:40,860 --> 00:41:47,310 And it completely revolutionized my free calls to being really more like sales calls. 481 00:41:48,210 --> 00:41:57,570 Really being more like, "Did you have a couple of questions about the product, about how it works, whether it's right for you, to some of the logistics?" Like, just wanted to meet me, get a good feel, no problem. 482 00:41:57,570 --> 00:41:58,830 I'm happy to do that. 483 00:41:58,830 --> 00:42:00,440 But I'm not here to pick my brain. 484 00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:06,480 And I'm definitely not here to answer questions about competitor's products because they don't offer customer service. 485 00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:08,210 So, I hope that that's been helpful. 486 00:42:08,220 --> 00:42:12,140 I'm really excited for you to download my brand new freebie. 487 00:42:12,150 --> 00:42:14,520 It's called Pre-Qualify Before They Buy. 488 00:42:14,550 --> 00:42:24,060 It's three email templates plus video trainings on those templates teaching you how to legally pre-qualify and prep potential clients to stay within your scope of practice before a 489 00:42:24,060 --> 00:42:33,210 discovery or sales call so you don't waste any of your time with a not so great potentially problem client, who tries to barge right through your business boundaries. 490 00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:38,240 So, I dropped the link below to buy Pre-Qualify Before They Buy, a new freebie. 491 00:42:38,250 --> 00:42:40,080 I am so excited to share it with you. 492 00:42:40,110 --> 00:42:42,630 Of course, let me know if you have any questions. 493 00:42:42,630 --> 00:42:46,320 I can't wait to hear what you thought about this episode. 494 00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:50,730 Send me a DM on Instagram @samvanderwielen on Instagram. 495 00:42:50,730 --> 00:42:54,810 And, of course, I would love it if you followed and subscribe to my podcast, On Your Terms. 496 00:42:54,810 --> 00:42:59,880 Let your friends know about it who are in online business if they need to hear this kind of stuff, too. 497 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:04,370 But I still appreciate you listening to this week's episode of On Your Terms. 498 00:43:04,380 --> 00:43:05,520 I'll see you next week. 499 00:43:08,970 --> 00:43:11,740 Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms podcast. 500 00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:16,410 Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. 501 00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:23,430 You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. 502 00:43:23,460 --> 00:43:30,420 You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps to Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business at samvanderwielen.com. 503 00:43:32,310 --> 00:43:37,600 And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram @samvanderwielen and send me a DM to say hi. © 504 00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:37,840 2022 Sam Vander Wielen LLC | All Rights Reserved | Any use of this intellectual property owned by Sam Vander Wielen LLC may not be used in connection with the sale or distribution of any content (free or paid, written or verbal), product, 505 00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:37,980 and/or service by you without prior written consent from Sam Vander Wielen LLC.