“I’m slightly worried what C stands for,” said Nigel. “Is it clean?”
It was. We were recording episode 63 of my podcast, Your Best Year Starts Here, back in February 2020. I’d just been walking Nigel Risner through the three types of client I believe every business has, and I’d got to the last one.
“C you later,” I told him.
It’s a simple model, and it’s one of the most useful ways I know to decide who gets your time.
A is for avatar
Your A client is your ideal client. As I put it on the show, “avatar is your ideal client that’s fun to work with and spends money.” They’re profitable, and the people in your business enjoy working with them. You’d happily have a whole diary of them.
B is for beware
Your B client spends money or they’re fun to work with, but they don’t do both. And either way, they’re a drain on your business.
One kind is easy to spot. They spend a load of money, but every time someone in your team takes a call from them, they’re swearing when they put the phone down.
The other kind is easy to miss. They’re lovely. They pop in once a week for a cup of tea and a chat, and they do business with you about once every seven years. It doesn’t feel like a drain, because you like them. But it is one. It’s just draining you in a different way.
So with every B client, the question to ask is: are they coachable? Can they become an A client with the right conversation, or are they on their way to becoming a C?
C is for C you later
Sometimes you have to look at a client and say, “This is just the wrong client.” Then you let them go, kindly and properly.
Nigel does this on purpose. On that same episode he talked about two clients he’d worked with in 2019 that he wouldn’t be working with in 2020. His rule of thumb was that every business should “de-hire 2% or two clients every single year” to free up time and energy for the very best ones.
If that feels harsh, think about what happens to the space. In 2022, on episode 199, I put it like this: “whatever business you’re in, whatever it is you do, the space you’ve got fills.” If your diary is full of the wrong clients, there’s no room left for the right ones.
Spent, wasted or invested
Underneath the letters, this is really about where your time goes. There’s spent time, wasted time and invested time. It’s all the same time, and none of us gets it back. But invested time sometimes pays a dividend that makes it worthwhile in other ways.
Think about the hour you put into helping someone in your team get better at something. That hour comes back later, often many times over, when they handle it without you. The time you invest in a coachable B client can be exactly what turns them into the A client you really want to work with.
Like any investment, it needs to be a wise one. Know where the time is going, and be honest about whether it’s the right move for you as well as for them. If a client is never going to change, the kindest thing for both of you is a friendly goodbye, and maybe a pointer to someone who’s a better fit.
It works the same way for anyone who sells their time. The DJ booking that pays well but leaves you flat is a B. So is the gig that’s a joy and barely covers the petrol.
If you want more on getting the A clients in the first place, I wrote about why selling is serving.
And if you freed up every hour your C clients take, who would you give those hours to?
