Prospects Send Signals…Believe Them

John Ray: [00:00:00] Hello. I’m John Ray on the Price and Value Journey. Recently, I was chatting with an attorney friend of mine about clients, the signals that they send, and how they tell us who they are if we’ll just pay attention. It reminded me of a client I’d been referred to quite a few years ago now, early on in my journey. I was able to get an appointment with her, but that took an abnormal amount of time to do despite her acknowledgment that she desperately needed to get her house in order.

When I got there several minutes early, I had to wait quite a while for her. Once the meeting finally started, it took only about 10 minutes to realize that her practice was a complete mess. Her books looked like the work product you’d see if Charlie Brown’s friend, Pigpen, was the bookkeeper. Any talk about KPIs or how we could use the numbers to improve her business was meaningless. She seemed to thrive on all the chaos. Every few minutes we were interrupted by her assistant with questions which were not urgent, but which she insisted on taking and answering.

And as I sit there, letting the debris of all this situation wash over me, I fell victim to the thought this can’t be as bad as it looks. Yep, I did it. I waited in where I shouldn’t have. Just like the well-meaning person who thinks they’ll reform their spouse after they get married. I quoted her a retainer to get started, and she wrote me a check. On the way back to my office, I drove by my bank and deposited the check. And that’s when the fun really started.

The next day, I got an email from my bank that the check had bounced. Almost immediately after getting that email, as if the clouds parted with a sign from above, my phone pinged with a text message. “Can you believe that guy went and deposited my check already?”, the text said. And then after a minute or two later, another text followed, “Sorry, meant that for my husband. Lol.” Yeah. Lots of laughs. There wasn’t any reason to be upset with her actually. That bounced check was the apex of a host of signals I should have paid attention to, but I ignored them or explain them away.

The message was there, but I was too hardheaded, determined or blind, take your pick, to pay attention. Clients will tell you with their actions that they’re not a fit for you and your practice. Believe them.

I’m John Ray on the Price and Value Journey. Past episodes of the series can be found on your favorite podcast app where you can subscribe if you’re not already. And if you are, thank you. You can also go to pricevaluejourney.com. Feel free to email me John@johnray.co. And hey, big news. I’ve got a book coming out in 2023. If you’d like more details, just let me know. Thank you for joining me.