Self Employed Success

When reinventing your business, take a fresh look at your customers, both who you’re serving now, and who you want to serve in the future.

Have a mobile device? Watch the YouTube version here: http://youtu.be/nj8qt2UqrIk

Worksheet:

• Ideation: Customer Segments (PDF)

Audio MP3 of this tutorial:

• Audio 3 – Re/vision: A Fresh Way to Look at Your Customers (MP3)

Previous Videos in this Series:

• Video 1 – Re/vision: A Fresh Way to Transform Your Business
• Video 2 – Re/vision: A Fresh Way to Look at Your Goals for Business Reinvention

Dealing with difficult clients?

I hear horrific stories all the time from my colleagues and clients about their own customers who constantly step outside the boundaries of what’s considered good social behavior.

Sure, we all make mistakes from time-to-time, but these folks make a nasty habit of it.

Your overall health and your quality of business life matters. Identifying and dealing with crazymakers will give you a helping hand in creating the business you want.

Are your clients making you crazy? Your health and the health of your business matters. Tweet This!

I’m sure you’ll recognize some of these types of customers:

1. The Non-payer: They promise to pay, they may even have a contract, but over and over again the check doesn’t arrive. They pretend they didn’t get your invoice, or your emails, or your phone calls.
2. The Verbal Twister: They “remember” everything you say, and will tell you that you said (and meant) something completely different than your actual words. They take all your words and interpret them in their own way, especially when it’s not possible for you to remember everything you’ve ever said.
3. The Complainer: Everything in their life sucks, and they tell you about it ad nauseam, every chance they get; also known as The Squeaky Wheel because they feel if they make enough noise, they’ll get more attention. Also akin to The Energy Vampire — every time you come in contact with them, you walk away feeling drained, exhausted and debilitated.
4. I Love You, But: This crazymaker starts off praising you. They say things like, “I love your work,” or “You really understand me.” In the next sentence they rip you apart, accusing you of double-dealing, sub-standard work, or unethical behavior on your part, completely out of the blue. This “give then take” approach keeps you off balance, which is the whole point.
5. The Rusher: Always in a hurry to get something done and doesn’t care if you’re busy with other projects or other customers. They say things like, “I want it yesterday,” or “I know you said you have no open appointments, but can you sneak me in first thing tomorrow morning?”

That’s just a starter list; there are many more crazymaker types out there. I know you’ve run into customers whose repeated bad behavior has you scratching your head in bewilderment. I’d love to hear your stories…share them in the Comments below, okay? We all benefit by reading about other people’s experiences with crazymaker clients.

Remember, unless you are a psychotherapist or psychiatrist, you are not trained to identify crazymakers upon first meeting them, so don’t beat yourself up if one of these people sneaks into your business life. Even trained mental health practioners cannot always instantly spot a crazymaker.

In Part 2 of this blog post, I’ll give you some tips on how to deal with the crazymaker clients in your business life.

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In this video, I talk about setting new business goals and how they affect your business reinvention plans.

I also give you some ideas for NEW business goals you might not have thought about, and discuss how personal goals need to parallel business goals to create success.

Have a mobile device? Watch the YouTube version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnMcyyj9Ivo

Worksheet:

• Goal Setting and Parallel Testing (PDF)

Audio MP3 of this tutorial:

• Audio 2 – Re/vision: A Fresh Way to Look at Your Goals for Business Reinvention (MP3)

Previous Videos in this Series:

• Video 1 – Re/vision: A Fresh Way to Transform Your Business