Got this little ray of sunshine from a prospect yesterday,
“The charge for not rescheduling is ridiculous, this is obviously how you really make money. F%&^ your guys!!!”
I love emails like this.
So much.
Here’s why:
One of the ways I get clients is to have prospects watch a pre-sales video, submit an application, and schedule a call to speak with one of my team members to determine fit. It requires some advanced skill to build something like that for your business, but once you have it up and running… it’s simply amazing.
Because the demand for our services is so high – we get 10+ applications per day of people wanting to work with us – it means that the time of my team members is incredibly valuable.
One of the strategies I’ve implemented for reducing time wasters and freeloaders from taking up my team’s time is charging people $50 if they book a call and then don’t show up.
Here’s the crazy thing about that strategy:
I haven’t had to charge anyone the $50 fee… EVER. Not once!
(I didn’t even charge this person the fee… that was just her reaction upon seeing there was a fee at all if she missed her appointment.)
Why have I never had to charge the no-show fee?
Because the people who were gonna end up ghosting us – booking a call and not showing up – as soon as they see the $50 no-show fee like this person did…
… they cancel their call immediately because they know they weren’t serious enough to actually show up when they booked the time slot.
Sometimes, they send us uplifting messages like the one you’ve just read when they do.
And I love it.
It means that the only people who are getting on calls with my crew are serious prospects. People who are sincere in finding out if we have a solution for them.
The psychology behind this is very simple:
Lots of people talk a big talk, but when you put them to the test and ask them to prove their sincerity, they shirk.
Lots of people are willing to get on a free call with our team, but the second we say, “Are you gonna value this call enough to spend $50 if you don’t show” they scatter. They weren’t really that serious.
Just window shopping.
Time wasting.
Ya’ll know my thoughts on time wasters:
Fine for them to do it to themselves. Their life, their choice.
But don’t waste mine.
Time is THE. MOST. PRECIOUS. RESOURCE. ON. PLANET. EARTH.
You don’t get more of it. What you’ve already spent is gone. Non-renewable.
Some of you might read this email and say, “Wow. Harsh. This guy is kinda an a-hole.”
Maybe I am…
… to people who don’t value time.
On the other hand, I’ve simply seen too much in life to ignore the ticking clock in the background.
You’d be wise to not ignore it yourself.
If you’ll allow me to nerd out for a second, here’s another way to think about it:
Ok, so it’s the final season of Game of Thrones, right? Super big deal, mega success in every measurable way etc. etc.
Lots of people are focusing on certain character story lines, making predictions about who is gonna get it in the end and all that.
But…
… for those who own a business, there’s one character whose story in this series is the most compelling and worth studying.
That character is:
The Wall.
Yes, the 300 mile long, 700 foot high, magical foundation behemoth that separates humankind from The Others and the dead.
If you missed the object lesson for entrepreneurs, this is it:
The Wall was first constructed after The Long Night, a time of mass famine and violence for humankind.
After The Wall was built, and the protections were in place, only then did the people flourish in safety and relative peace.
It was not easy to build The Wall, and it needed to be constantly watched after and rebuilt, but it worked to keep the people safe.
It also didn’t sit idle. It was under attack often, and required measured strategy to leverage properly. It proved its worth regularly.
The lesson therefore is this:
You cannot expect to flourish in your business until you build your own Wall – a prospect vetting system – that keeps your most precious resource (time) protected from people who would abuse or steal it.
It will take work to create a process like that. It will need to be looked after, but it will protect you for as long as you care for it (unless you are attacked by figurative ice-dragons, in which case I recommend lawyering up).
While it may seem a harsh thing – purposefully creating systems that prevent people from accessing your time – consider this:
The person who sent the happy “F%&^ your guys!” email, what would have happened if she had showed up to the call expecting me to work for her for free?
What if she had chatted with my team for 90 minutes about her problems, about things she needs help with, about what next steps she could take…
… only to find out it cost money to work with me?
Or worse, what if she’d hired me and only later I found out she was the kind of person to send random “f$%^ your guys!!!” messages to strangers on the interwebs?
Now, who is wasting whose time?
Aren’t we both wasting each others?
So, you tell me which is more ethical:
A system that prevents the wrong people from talking to you…
OR
A non-system which lets people waste each others’ most precious resource?
I’ll let you make that decision for yourself, for me, the answer is pretty clear.
Anyways, if you’re still reading this email, it might be time for you to consider getting your own prospect vetting system set up in your business like I have. It’ll make your life so much easier to remove all the drama and only work with people who value you and what you’re trying to do.
If you’d like to have a chat with my team to see what options are available to you, I’ve got a little video for you to watch that goes over in more detail the 3 elements you need in place to make a system like this work.
You can watch the video here: TheNoPantsProject.com/case-
Afterwards, you can book a call with my team.
Fair warning though: $50 charge if you’re prone to time wasting.
Mike “Time Is More Precious Than All The Gold In Westeros” Shreeve
