The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you byEsther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. Goodmorning, marketers. And welcome back to another episode of the Monday MorningMarketing Podcast. We are talking about something really scary this morning, how to say no to a client.
Well, it can be scary because it's, you know, am I going to put them offside? Are they going to consider me obstructive? Are they going to, you know, they're going to ever come back to me? They're going to talk about meto other people. It can be scary saying no, certainly at the beginning of a business, but I don't honestly think it gets any easier the longer you're in business either.
No. And I think too, at the minute, you know, with the wholeI hit this phrase of cost of living crisis, the recession, whatever it is that you're calling it where you are, you're thinking, well, it's money and we all need money. We all have bills to pay, we all have things to do. But is it worth your while working for something that's maybe not paying you enough? Or and I saw this the other day on Twitter. Somebody said that they were working on a project that didn't excite them and it was sort of soul destroying. So where is the line? Where do you say no?
Well, I think it very much depends on your personal circumstances at the time. I wouldn't have said no to anything in the first couple of years of my business, as much to learn about what my audience wanted, to what my capabilities were. But it really depends on where you are. I mean, what do you think?
Oh, definitely. Also, like you were saying, when you're first starting out, you do want to say yes to everything and everyone. And there is that age old expression of say yes and learn how to do it later, which can work, but it could also leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. It could leave your clients with a bad taste in their mouth if you don't perform well in their eyes. So should you just be saying yes because you feel like you have to?Are you just saying yes because it's a family member, a friend, a friend of the family? There's so many things that are going through your head whenever somebody phones you up and goes, oh, so and so recommended you to me, oh, we're going to let that person down as well. But if it automatically talks to your gut and says, red flag, red flag, red flag, you're not going to be happy doing it, no matter what amount of money they throw at you.
It's a lesson learned. I think we all do the same at thebeginning. Certainly if we want to try and make our business launch but trying to say it politely and trying to sort of keep the moral high ground I think isthe tough part. Let's say if somebody came to me and asked me to do Google Ads.It's something I'm not proficient at I can't do Google Ads. However,. One of us can but you know, by admitting to the customer in no uncertain terms that your current skill level cannot meet their needs or their requirements. You're immediately asserting the moral high ground. You're sort of saying look, it's not something I can do, I have no knowledge of it, I don't know well enough and just saying it's not an area I'm familiar with let me look into this for you and if I feel I can do it, I will. If not, I can even find you somebody who can. That way you're not saying no outright, but you're giving people options togo with somebody else who probably sounds a bit more confident or a bit more competent, or better still, you could actually think of somebody who can help them and in the past I have passed on Google Ads clients to yourself, haven'tI?
Yeah, you have, and thank you very much for that but it'salso something, the way you were saying it there, saying I'm not proficient inthis, would then leave the client or the potential client thinking well, atleast they're honest, I can come back to them at a later point and ask ifthey're able to help me with XYZ instead of ABC. So you're not closing a doorthere, you're not turning around and going not a chance, would you ever windyour neck in whichever wise up. Sorry, that was very Irish, a lot of phrases comingthrough if you don't understand them, I can do a summary at the bottom of theshow notes, but you don't have to shoot yourself in the foot. I just love myanalogies here, my phrases. Just say no. When you're saying no to somebody, youdon't have to be like you said, you don't have to be rude either. You can sayLet me get back to you, there is another way. I mean you could take on the workand then outsource it to somebody else.
Quite a few people do that, don't they? It's got to be costbeneficial though, isn't it?
Absolutely. It has to be beneficial to you plus if theythink they're dealing with you directly. You will still have to be theintermediary between yourself and whoever you're outsourcing it to so you haveto have a bit of a benefit from it as well so say you're coming in that let'sfor argument's sake. You're outsourcing something to somebody for twenty eurosdollars per hour you would want to be making money on top of that as well or ifyou're selling a physical product, you're selling jewellery or selling perfumesand a pharmacy approaches you and says. We'd love to stock them. You're goingto want to get a bit of money directly from that as well. You're not going towant to sell it at cost or the cost that you would normally sell to yourfriends and family at. You'd want to have a bit of a price buffer there so thatyou can make money on it. And if they need to reduce them in price, then you'restill making money on it.
Yeah. That just makes common practical business sense.
Yeah. But you do have to sit down and work out, how much ismy time worth? I don't like the whole selling your time for hours. Instead ofsaying, oh, I'll do 20 hours for you per month, I much prefer: the project willcost this amount if it takes me 20 hours, if it takes me ten, if it takes me50, this is the amount that it costs. But you have to work out, first of all,whether it's worth it, right, with your overheads, with your office building,with your electricity, with your gas, with all the costs that you have, allyour overheads. Add that all up and how much do you NEED to make the projectworthwhile or make the time worthwhile? Would you get really annoyed if you'resort of only barely scraping by for that money?
And I tell you what, you tend not to provide your best workwhen you're confronted with that on a daily basis. There was many, many yearsago I ended up saying yes to stuff that I really wasn't happy about doing. Itwas okay for a short term, but then it turned out that the client was lookingto stick around and that was really hard going. And in the end, I think we wereboth relieved when we finished.
You can end up with a bad taste in your mouth.
It's just normal, isn't it? Nobody likes doing anything theydon't like doing.
No.
Now, there is another reason where you might say no tosomebody. It could be very practical reasons like you don't have the time tomanage the work. So again, by being polite and being nice, you can sort of say,look, thank you so much for your inquiry, I would love to work with you.However, my schedule is full. Could we arrange to do this in a few days orweeks when I can give you the attention you deserve and you're sort of puttingthe decision back on the client and if they really want to work with you,hopefully they'll be willing to wait.
Yeah. And that also puts in a little bit of psychology of, Imean, it's probably true that you don't have time at that precise moment.
You would say it otherwise, would you?
You wouldn't, unless you really don't want to. But then inthat case, you really should just come out and say, it's not something that Iwork in anymore.
No, I've got something for that coming up next.
Yeah, but if you have your full schedule, then you'reproviding that sense of, she must be really good because she doesn't have time.So I'm willing to wait because she's all booked up. You know yourself, ifyou're going to go to hairdressers, I'm assuming this is universal for men aswell. If you know that your hairdresser isn't going to be there or she's bookedup for the next three, four weeks, you'll still wait for that one specifichairdresser because you like her really better than the others. The others arefine, nothing wrong with them. They all do a great job and everybody else has agreat word to say about them. But you just have this one particular one thatyou just really like going to. So you will wait, you let your roots grow outthat little bit more and you will wait or schedule in advance so you don't haveto wait.
So the last one is when you don't want to work for someone.Now, There could be many reasons for not working with someone. It could beyou've heard that they're particularly difficult to work with, or they don'trespond to emails or phone calls, or maybe they're very slow to pay for thework.
Or they send you emails and phone calls and it's 11:00 atnight and you're getting a message from them.
It could be a personality clash, because that happens aswell. We all know it happens, and maybe you just don't want to be a monkey intheir drama. One of the ways to handle it, okay, is instead of suggesting afuture date, because that can actually make people come back, because just say,look, can I recommend somebody else who has the time and the skill set you'relooking for? And you've kind of put the brakes on it straight away. I've heardof other people sort of using virtual assistants: due to an increase in theworkloads, I'm not in a position where I can really help you right now, butmaybe you could look at going down the virtual assistant route or using paidfor tools. You might even say that I'm happy to take on the work, but I'll haveto outsource it through me, so you can still speak to me, but the work will bedone like you said earlier on. So there's so many different ways you can sortof explain that you're happy to work with them but not for them, or you'll justput the brakes on it straight away and say, I'm really sorry, but I can't workwith you at this time.
Yeah, like you said, it's important to be honest andupfront, but also polite. Yes. So there's no reason to be rude. There's no needto be rude. Even if they're being rude back going, "this isunacceptable". It is scary. I mean, Melanie and I collectively have beenin business over 15 years now, so there's no easy way to say no to work,because that little bug in your head is still going. "But we need themoney". "But if I say no right now, where's the income going to comefrom?" And if you have a chance to work, say, for a set amount of moneythat you know will be coming in a constant amount, it could be tempting. Butjust pros and cons, guys. Work out the pros and cons. List them down, writethem down, sleep on it, but you're definitely needing to go with your gut.
And guys, everybody that's listening to this podcast are inthe marketing field, one way or another. They're either marketers by trade oryou're marketing for your company. This industry is actually pretty small,especially the successful ones. And so there's a good chance, you'll know, yourcompetitors, they'll know you. So there really is no point lying. Okay. If youcan try and keep to the truth throughout when you're dealing with your clients,you get better referrals, you get better relationships on an ongoing basis. AndI think, truthfully, you feel better living with yourself as well.
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Well, we hope this has touchedhome for you. If you're going through this at the minute, we'd love to hearfrom you. If you have recently said no to a client or a job, please let usknow. We would love to hear your feedback on this because we know it's scary,but there are bigger and better things out there waiting for you. That's it fortoday, guys. We're back next week with more Monday Morning Marketing. Untilthen, bye bye.