Problem Clients Create Problems

Get ready for an unfair advantage over your competition. This is the Sales Edge Podcast, where globally recognized sales expert and trainer Joe Pici helps you sharpen your skills for booking more appointments and closing more deals. And now here's your host, Joe Pici. It is so exciting week after week to be able to share with you content about what's going on in business.

What do business people face every day, day in, day out? And today, through popular demand, I've been asked to discuss things about challenging clients. You know, problem clients create problems. And this is just a common thought that we know that we all get certain clients That can create anything from revision of a signed contract, missed deadlines, payment disputes, excessive demands outside of a contract, stress, time.

There's so many things. Today, we're going to discuss some of the things we need to be aware of and keep our eyes out for. Now, I'm not telling you to dump clients that could be challenging and could create problems, but I am saying there are certain signs, certain signals that we need to be aware of that when they crop up, this can escalate. Welcome to the Sales Ed Podcast.

I'm your host, Joe Pici, number 568. We are so excited about what's going on in business. Hey, we are 60% sold out of our sales boot camp. If you're thinking about it at all, give me a call at 407-947-2590.

Yes, ranked number one in the world many times, and it's October 19, 2021. Also, we're 50% sold out of our speaker boot camp, the business of speaking, training, coaching, consulting, October 22, 23, and 24. Once again, 407-947-2590. Give me a call.

We'll discuss it. might be something you're looking for so let me give you a list of some of the things we need to be aware of that could be problematic with your clients number one is financial problems late payments non or payment disputes constant requests for unpaid extra work excessive discount demands How many times have you been asked for a discount Budget changes after the work has started. How about this? Chargeback or refund disputes and increased costs due to repeated revisions.

Those are just seven of the things that could happen financially in problematic situations. The next section we're going to cover is project management problems. You know, the scope can change. So originally you had a scope of work and they could change it.

Unclear changing goals. Okay, last minute revisions and requests. Unrealistic deadlines. That's a big one.

Delayed approvals. How about this? Delayed delivery of required information on materials or services. Constant reprioritization of work.

and micromanagement on every task. So how many times have you faced some of these things that were problematic that could be signals for more issues? Now we're going to get into some type of communication problems. Slow responses to all staff progress.

excessive calls emails or messaging contradictory instructions in other words they change their mind poor communication amongst all the parties involved failure to document decisions ignoring agreed communication channels you said you're going to use the phone they send you email and vice versa withholding critical information that's a big one you know you lose clarity there now we're going to go into relationship problems how about this when there's a lack of trust how about disrespectful behavior slamming others for their own mistakes right leadership and self it never my fault how about emotional outbursts we talk about that a lot Public criticism instead of private feedback That a very important one That is a problematic area Creating conflict amongst a team.

And attempting to manipulate or guilt trip service providers. I believe we're now on number five. Quality and delivery problems. That's rejecting work that meets agreed specifications.

This happened just to a good friend and client, a great friend, actually family member now, you know, Landon Connor, who delivered above and beyond the call of duty of what they wanted. but they changed the agreed specifications endless revision cycles frequent changes after the approval okay refusal to make decisions they're not making a decision in the allotted time Okay, setting impossible quality expectations and comparing deliverables to work outside of the scope of work agreed on.

Now let's get into legal issues. Refusing to sign contracts on time. Ignoring contractual obligations. Demanding ownership rights not agreed upon.

Creating compliance and regulatory risks. Threatening legal action as a negotiation tactic. And there's a lot more of those. I've got a good friend going through some legal issues right now that were very problematic to him and his family.

Now let's talk about team and business problems. Employee burnout, lower team morale, loss of productivity, resource allocation issues, opportunity costs from serving better clients, staff turnover, damage to company culture, increased management overhead. Now we get into reputation problems, unfair negative reviews, misrepresenting conversations or agreements public complaints without seeking resolution damaging word referrals and associating your business with unrealistic expectations Let's talk about strategic problems.

Distracting the business from core priorities. Preventing growth by consuming disproportionate resources. Distorting pricing models. Encouraging unhealthy client interaction.

Making forecasting difficult. Reducing profitability. So I'm not telling you to dump clients. I'm saying all of these and more are signals of problematic clients.

You know, we in our sales boot camp and in our business of speaking training coaching boot camp, we talk about during the lead generation process, where have you been successful before, but where have you had problematic clients in the past? What do you do when you see problems arising? My advice is deal with it now or is only going to get worse. hopefully have given you some signs and signals of problematic situations and clients that could arise i'm telling you deal with it now because the one thing i was telling landon this morning when you have a problematic client okay you spend so much time time trying to appease them that you really don't get to clients that are a pleasure to work with so have a great day hopefully this has given you some great insights.

We'll see you next week. and growth. Make more money in sales. Speak with Joe in person by calling 407-947-2590 or visit www.

peachyandpeachy.com. Spell P-I-C-I-A-N-D-P-I-C-I.com.