Man oh man am I going to hit some nerves here and bring some serious bullshit to light.  You need to hear this and if you are a violator [COSTomer] you REALLY need to hear this.  Call it a reality check.

One of the most perplexing questions to ask salespeople is “Is it better to turn down good business in order to only conduct excellent business?”  

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.  Let’s say you’re a real estate agent.  You want to make more money. Your time is maxed out and the only way for you to earn more income is to sell homes with a higher value.  This means your average transaction needs to be $900k up from your average of $300k.  Do you turn down the $300k clients in order to focus on only selling to $900k clients?

Some of you might be sitting there wondering why you would turn anyone down at all. It’s not so much about turning down business as it is attracting the excellent business. We can agree that a 900k client talks, acts and thinks differently than the 300k client.  If you are going to attract more 900k clients you are going to need to market to them. This new marketing might and should abandon your average 300k client.  

There’s always a risk. We’ve been programed to believe we have to be busy to earn money.  We say shit like “I worked my ass off for this.” for notoriety.   When you are doing 3 times the volume with 1/3 of the clients there will be a slowdown.  Each client that shows up is now worth what 3 clients were in your past.  You will get less leads at first and it will take you time to brand into the new market.  This keeps most from taking the steps and abandoning what needs abandoning.  Many fail before they even start.

The reason I got into all of that is to show you that who you consider a customer might actually be COSTing you money.  The very type of person you see as income could potentially be an expense you didn’t know you had.  Like most surprise expenses, this can be a BIG BITCH.

You have to be 100% clear on WHO it is that your WHAT can be sold to, in the most profitable and efficient way possible.  Customers are people who pay you for what you do in a manner and amount you are happy with. Most Customers also send you referrals because they like you so much.  COSTomers are people who pay you money, yet wear you out and keep you distracted. 

Truth be told, not all COSTomers pay.  I remember when I first got into marketing I would spend money to create big lists of COSTomers.  All they wanted was free shit. They never bought and they demanded I continue to deliver free shit. They would share it on social media, but only their COSTomer friends would see it. After all, like attracts like. This cost me time and began to wear me the fuck out.

Once I freed myself from the COSTomers and focused 100% of my efforts on serving the existing customers I had, I began to attract more.  As I attracted more and more perfect customers, the COSTomers just seemed to go away.  My message no longer catered to them.  It was rough at first, I was basically starting from scratch.  once I went through the “cleanse” that’s when things really took off for me. 

I lost facebook friends.  I lost so called, real life friends.  I pissed business acquaintances off and so on.  The cool part though, was that I was 1000% ok with it. Matter of fact I wanted to run them ALL off.  The less of my time and energy them demanded, the more I had to give to those who reciprocated my energy.  

Now that we are in the 2nd quarter of 2014, I suggest you take inventory. Step one is awareness.  Go through your client base and identify who it is that’s COSTing you. Identify them and cut them loose.  One of the best feelings in the world is to refund and fire a client that sucks.  I encourage you to do it every time you get one that sucks.  

Once you identify and fire those COSTomers you have, the next step is to remove ALL marketing material you have that attracts COSTomers.  Now that you’ve identified the problem, it’s time to cut off the supply. 

Next step is to go through your list and identify Customers.  I’d personally call them up, thank them for being cool and ask them what attracted them to you.  What they like about you the most.  Take notes.  Do more of that shit.

The last step (that I’m sharing here at least) is to create new marketing material that will attract Customers and repel COSTomers.  It’s simple.  All you have to do is offer more of the shit your Customers like and none of the shit your COSTomers want. That’s the sweet spot Jimmy.

If you’d like my help increasing your customers without COSTomers getting in the way, it’s time we talked about this thing I got going on called Break Free Academy.  It’s you and 9 peers for 3 days in Dallas with Sean Matheis and me.  After that we personally mentor you and give you the game to reach your goals hardcore style for the next 90 days.  Fill out form if you’re interested.  We’ll talk and see if you got what it takes to BREAK FREE.