Rocsteady wrote:Green Gecko wrote:Of course, I do it because I think it will help me develop a rapport with the customer, or just get them to like me and pay for stuff, which is very basically how sales works. I've never in my life just shut down a conversation with anyone. Sure I'm more mutually beneficial than that and I make constant concessions however when I look at the time spent on jobs that equate to under £100 on revenue and it's literally 5, 10, 20 hours. Or whole accounts, sub £500 nevermind £1000, and it's hundreds of hours. That there is a problem.
Can you not:
- Charge more
- Use billable hours for any out of scope calls that arise
- Send reminders and clarify if people aren't turning up for in-person meetings. That isn't normal so I assume if it's repeatedly happening it's miscommunication on your part
Yes
I have a personal weakness where I tend to humour people far too much, and forget this is my job, or it isn't part of my job. I time track the extra time spent on emails and calls etc, but I don't bill them, because I have no framework through which they are chargeable, which is dumb. So all I can do, is try to communicate less, which sometimes creates its own problems. So my costing can be an issue too. What I really need to be doing, is targeting much better clients who value my time and expertise more. After all, I've had a customer in the past for example who complained about the cost of a T-shirt increasing by 1 pound after the course of a year, comparing my quote to her previous bank statements. Wtf. She then wrote "I can see how you spend so much time writing emails LOL" in her email. I fired her.
After working with a client that costs a lot of time once or twice though, I usually know if I need to reassess things like the rates they're on, but it's of course still frustrating in the first instance. If they can't accept a reasonable change for what I'm doing for them then it's "thanks, but no deal". It's really difficult to predict what kind of person you're working with and how much support they need, and sometimes indeed, how little support they actually want.
I'm complaining about things that absolutely have some pretty obvious solutions, but they're still annoying when not going to plan or I pull the rug out from under myself!
That meeting I'm referring too, was literally a "can you meet me tomorrow at X time?" "Yes, I will see you at your premises at that time tomorrow morning and bring the T-shirts. See you soon." I show up. "Hey we have this guy here with some T-shirts for a meeting [handover]. ... Oh sorry, Andy had no idea about that meeting".
And this was someone who told me about 4 times he was just down the road and when could I pop in for a quick chat, instead of reading all the requisite information in my emails
To put things in the present though, I only arrange phone calls now. I book them just like meetings at a mutually agreed time. I also try to cap this to 30 minutes, 1 hour maximum, just like a meeting, because really, what is the difference? I also do this because of my disability, it's an incredibly draining experience for me which introduces a big inefficiency to my business because sometimes then I'm unable to work effectively for subsequent hour or so, sometimes more. That's a big deal.
I also reply to phone calls I miss with a text from a "text only number" asking to email and/or arrange an appropriate time for a call back. If I don't get a reply, well strawberry float them, they're not willing to put any effort into the process. It's not worth it.
Vetting can be a brutal and painful thing to do when you just want to help everyone, but sometimes it's crucial.
Obviously I might need some assistance with sales and conversions in the future but I'm much happier just doing things like Instagram DMs and emails for people who have any patience whatsoever than worrying about 1 or 2 guys who insist on phone calls and hardly spend any more. From a business perspective, what's the point in that? I don't think I've ever, even once, had a "phone" customer who spent more than 75 quid.