There are some really crazy people in this world. And sometimes I think they all have my email address.
A crucial part of your business’s success is to be very clear about who you let into your playground.
‘Anybody with money’ is not your ideal client.
You need a freakfilter.
Port calls it a Red Velvet Rope policy. I forget what Andrea calls it but it comes down to one thing:
Trimming the freaks.
Wheat/chaff, creme/milk, foam/beer… you have to have an early warning detection system – canaries in the coalmine – that will tweet and twitter and announce that a current prospect or client might have slipped through the freakfilter.
My favorite freak email goes something like this:
HALP we are launching a blogster in 2 weeks and need help w/traffics. Thnx.
My usual response it:
Have you read the book? What have you tried?
Because usually the people that email me with this kind of nonsense are too cheap to drop $14 on a book (or go to their library) and just want to talk on the phone for just 15 minutes I’d really appreciate it and then don’t call on time or they want a special discount or they think that because they believe in God or are in a wheelchair that they should get a discount… drives me nuts.
Another early warning is people that don’t read directions. Even after I send them the same instructions three times. I have the patience of a saint and the years I did IT help desk was well known for spending an hour on the phone with a support call and then after the call was over whispering a torrent of obscenities in my cubicle.
Nobody has any money. Nobody has any time. Unless it is to drop $12K on some Victor Hansen Robbinsfield seminar starring Colin Powell or some late night daytrading program.
It’s enough to make ya bitter, bitte!
How do you trim the freaks?
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