22 Overlooked Warning Signs from Prospects, Clients and Customers

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

In their efforts to produce higher sales, many business development folks (marketing, sales and client service people) overlook typical warning signs from prospects and clients and focus on making money.
While making money is a pretty good idea in any business, it is important to consider how effortlessly you make that money. All right, the word effortless may **** you off, saying that you are supposed to work hard to earn your money, but are you really.
You can tell a craftsman from a labourer by the sweat on his brow.

The craftsman is a master achieving something, the labourer, on the other hand, is just working hard, sweating like a pig and swearing like a trooper in the process.

And here is where very often the problem lies. Some prospects, clients and customers expect you to work very very hard (They may not insist on the sweating and swearing parts) to actually earn your payment. But that is retarded.

If you are any good at your profession, then you can create great results with very little effort. So, your prospects, clients and customers should consider the end result not the effort you put into creating results.

Some of these points are more applicable to product sales, and some others are more applicable to selling services.

So, Here Are Some Warning Signs

1. They want to keep you under their thumbs
2. They keep moving the project’s goalposts
3. They put you down for every little mistake
4. They are prone to scope creep - try to push you into doing things outside the project's scope
5. They advise you how to conduct your business
6. They regard you as their subordinates - Some clients expect you to dedicate your whole life to them and demand your full attention 24/7. They fail to realise that you have several clients but only 24 hours a day. Besides, who the cricket wants to work 24 hours a day. Especially men need lots of micromanaging. For example. Many women have heard this from their spouses, "Honey where are my socks?", "Which shirt shall I put on today?" Interestingly, most women know where their knickers and bras are without asking their spouses and they know which blouse to put on. Just a thought on micromanaging.
7. They treat the project as a "backburner issue" in their lives. It is not regarded as top priority
8. They treat you as a commodity and have little respect for your unique expertise
9. They put too much emphasis on references and testimonials - They don’t care what they can achieve with you but blindly focus on what you have achieved with others. They fail to realise or simply deny the fact that in each equation you are the constant and the client is the variable. Using basic mathematics, the outcome of the equation is the function of the variable, not the constant. A relationship with an advisor not only intellectual but also highly emotional. Just like a marriage. Let me ask you this: Did you marry or start dating your spouse because references and testimonials from previous boyfriends and girlfriends said “She is amazing in bed” or “He is brilliant at fixing cars, TVs and lawnmowers”. 80% of a relationship with a professional is visceral, thus cannot be put into a testimonial. And the other 20% (the intellectual stuff) is just a small contributor. However, this only applies to truly collaborative relationships. For a moment parenting comes to mind. You don’t have to be a child psychologist (the 20% intellectual stuff) to bring up great kids. As long as you offer the visceral stuff, like love, care, challenge, guidance, protection, high expectation, openness, etc. (just like in a consulting gig), you are on the right track.
10. They repeatedly violate your time by calling you at socially unacceptable hour - My clients have unlimited access to me, but when a client repeatedly calls me at 11PM and gets outraged because I didn’t pick up the phone (because I am asleep), that is a bit of a problem. I believe in giving clients unlimited access to you, provided your fees are high enough to justify this level of access, but I don’t believe in being on call for clients. When it suits me, and happen to be awake, I answer that 11PM call, but also tell clients not to expect me to sit by the phone at 11PM. There must be some ground rules here. For a few years now I don't even have a phone of any kind. I am still pretty responsive but through email only.
11. They keep reminding you that they could get greater value for lower fees - They keep telling you they are with you just as a favour and expect you to lower your fees if you want to keep them.
12. They consider you as a bank and expect you to offer favourable payment terms.
13. They expect you to chase them for payments
14. They keep threatening you with legal action unless you dance to the beat of their drums.
15. They frequently miss, cancel or reschedule your meetings
16. They expect you to pick up their slack - Some clients take vacations in the middle of projects, resulting in a similar email or phone message: “I am on vacation in the next two weeks, and this is what I want you to do by the time I return”. The funny thing is that when you indicate that you go on vacation for two weeks, these same people get outraged and demand their money back. I believe that consulting is not about doing things for people but helping them to do it for themselves. All in all, they have to do the work under your care, protection and guidance. A nutritionist can give you advice on weightloss, can help you to create a weightloss plan and can coach you to execute the plan, but clients can’t expect the nutritionist to go on a diet and then pass the back weightloss to clients. Clients must implement their plans with the care, protection and guidance of their advisors.
17. They expect you to go the "extra mile", but they are not willing to offer the “extra dollar” for it. They cite rubbish like "the customer is always right", "you should bend over backwards to serve your clients", "The customer is number one", etc.
18. They expect you to be available even while you are on vacation.
19. They are picking your brain for free information, and then threaten you to either lower your prices or they go to a cheaper provider.
20. They are always hyper-buys and in constant rush. Well, it is not the lack of time but a lack of direction. You can't do business with losers. Ditch them.
21. They are too agreeable. Don't believe this. They become some of the nastiest clients, even taking you to court to get their money back. Initially they agree to everything you say and then they deny it all.
22. They are emotionally involved with you. That is, they are your friends and relatives. Unless you are extra careful, this can be very messy. Friends and relatives are the worst at recognising your value. They just expect you to do everything for free.

So, now sit down and create a "Difficult Client" profile, just as you have created and "Ideal Client" profile.

You must be 100% clear about whom you want to absolutely and positively reject without even thinking about it.

Go for better clients and make sure you don't clog up the shop with seekers of the lowest bidder.


If you can automate the whole discovery / disqualification process, several great things happen. You consistently get clients with the attributes. Hey, the form they have to fill in is objective to everyone. You also drastically reduce the time you spend with people before they make a commitment to hiring you.

The attribution: "By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan of SMS Consulting Group, a firm specialising in helping companies to develop smart and easy-to-use systems and processes, instead of the traditional ugly, smelly, sweaty pavement-pounding, door-knocking and cold calling sales slavery, to find and keep clients and customers in a more consistent and predictable manner. For a broad range of tools and articles visit www.sales-marketing-system.com."