How to Get More Clients You LOVE

If you’ve ever looked at your calendar and thought, “I don’t want to deal with that client today…” this conversation is for you.

Not all growth feels the same.

Some customers energize your team, strengthen your culture, and make the work better. Others… just aren’t quite the right fit.

In this episode, Brandon and Caleb explore a simple but powerful idea: who you work with shapes everything.

If your business is growing but things feel heavier than they should…
If you’ve ever wondered how to create more consistency, clarity, and alignment…

This Maven Monday will challenge how you think about saying yes—and why the businesses that grow best aren’t the ones that take everything… but the ones that choose carefully.

#BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #ClientExperience #MarketingStrategy #SmallBusiness #Leadership #BusinessTips #CompanyCulture #EntrepreneurLife #MarketingPodcast

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Host: Brandon Welch
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy

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Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!

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Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Goal

Brandon Welch 0:06

Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I'm your host, Brian Welch, and I'm here with Caleb, is already on vacation. AG.

Caleb Agee 0:15

Get me out of here.

Why Loving Your Customers Matters

Brandon Welch 0:16

Hey, I'm ready to go. Hey, he's already got his shades on. See these? See these babies? Yeah. He's already going. So, hey, today uh we are going to talk about how to get more customers that you love. Everybody likes money, everybody likes revenue, but what about the customer? Would you like to have a little bit of a simplification happen to your business? Would you like to walk into work with a little more peace and a little more joy? And would you like to improve your culture? That's what we're going to talk about today.

Caleb Agee 0:44

Yeah, I actually talk about this uh when we're hiring. I tell people our culture is something we've fought hard to have and we fight hard to protect. And the two main ways we do that is with the people we work with in the building and the people we work with outside of the building. And so finding those customers that you want to work with, it's not just the ones you can work with in the early years. Be scrappy. You're gonna have to take what you can get. But as you mature, these kinds of things, these five things are gonna really help you.

Brandon Welch 1:13

Yeah. I don't even know that you have to do this in the early years, maybe. I mean, we're we're not talking about like not your spirit. Your spirit always has to be humble about these things. But uh, we're gonna talk about filtering and I think more importantly, how to walk away from the opportunities and and qualifying uh the opportunities that just aren't actually going to make you a lot, um, even if they even if the money looks good, the energy it costs you on the back end. Took us a lot of years to refine this for ourselves. Yeah. Um, this last uh week, there's like been five different conversations where I've this I'll come back to this, and I'm like, maybe this is something we should talk about.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Yeah.

Brandon Welch 1:50

Um, I didn't even realize how how chiseled we had gotten about this, but it is a really important thing.

Caleb Agee 1:57

So please learn from us because we had to learn it, learn it the hard way.

Brandon Welch 2:01

Yes. There's a few of these gray hairs that are uh that are behind this. Uh, we'll call it uh learned wisdom. Okay. So um this is the place where we eliminate waste in advertising so you can grow your business and achieve that big dream. Eliminating waste in advertising today is going to be eliminating the the clients before you say yes. Okay. So uh there are five uh main things that you need to do. Um, but if you can imagine, um, this is probably you if you've if you've got any sort of a business where you are the proprietor or or working uh directly with clients. There are some that when you look at your calendar and go, ooh, I get to talk to that person today. That's awesome. I miss them. And there's some you go, Ugh, I don't yeah, I don't want to talk to that person. We're trying to eliminate those moments from happening because that energy, uh, you know, if all other things are the same, that client is actually costing you money. It's costing you your joy and your creativity and your passion and probably your reputation to get other awesome great clients. So this is kind of a snowballing thing. So and I don't care if you are putting on roofs, I don't care if you are um, you know, dealing legal services for people, um, maybe you're doing marketing for folks.

Define Your Method And Differentiators

Caleb Agee 3:13

Maybe you're in the consulting field. These getting very, very careful about who you choose to work with and attracting those people that you would want to work with. Um, it's really, it's really helpful.

Brandon Welch 3:25

So Seth Godin says everyone is not your customer, and that's where we're gonna where we're gonna start. Uh the first thing, uh, which is kind of a reason behind this podcast, you need to define your method. I like that word method. I love method. Yeah. Um EOS, uh, traction. Uh one of the main tenets of that is um, what is your proprietary way of doing things? Yes. What are your three differentiators, right? Um, and if you are in if you are new in entrepreneurism or if you are long in entrepreneurism, I promise you there's one thing that's true. There's a way that you can do it that nobody else can do it quite like that.

Caleb Agee 4:04

Yeah. And I think inside the Maven method, um, writing out your vision, values, and vows would be one of the best ways to figure out what you stand for and stand against. But that those things that you stand for and stand against become what drives you to do your things the way you do them. Yeah. And so if you can, if you acknowledge those, write those out. Uh, you can get it in the book, by the way. Uh you can find them in there. But um if you write those things out, then you'll quickly see, okay, well, I was frustrated with the way I saw other people doing this thing. So I'm never gonna do that, and I'm always gonna do this. And that becomes your method, that becomes your way of doing things.

Brandon Welch 4:44

Yes. So a lot of business advice is based on like, how do we do more with less? And how do we um, you know, maybe there's something we're not so good at, but the customers are asking us for? It's like, how do we rush and put all our energy to getting better at that? Really start with your vision, man. Like, what is the world you're actually trying to create? Why did you get mad enough to go out and do this thing on your own? Why aren't you working for somebody else? Um, if you don't serve this customer, who else is going to serve them and how is that going to lead the customer to a bad spot? Like, what is the problem that you solve with inside? Like most people can who put on roofs, they all buy shingles and they all climb up a ladder and put the shingles on. But there is a lot that goes into how they agree to do that process, the products they recommend, um, how they work with your insurance company. There's a lot of things that in between that you, as the business owner, may be like passionate about. And let's make sure we're defining that. So define, you know, hey, I I know uh for us this looks like I know you've probably worked with a lot of other agencies. I know you've probably done a lot with marketing, but I just want you to know that um there's a very specific way that we do things here. We call that the Maven method, and we can't wait to share that with you. And we have a lot of really cool companies that this has grown in a you know, some really, really productive ways. And we want to share that with you and teach that with you. You're almost giving it to them and then kind of taking it away. But yeah, we we have a proprietary method. Yeah, and I think here's how we do what we do.

Caleb Agee 6:11

The customers that are willing to put up with the way you do what you do, those are the ones you want. Yeah. So uh it's not like you're gonna make it needlessly complicated on purpose, but you'll quickly be able to scare off the ones that aren't aren't really interested in doing it the long way, the right way, as you would see it. Um, and you'll attract the ones that see value in that.

Values That Filter The Wrong Fit

Brandon Welch 6:34

McKinsey and Company uh says that companies that focus on core strengths outperform peers and long-term growth. Focus on your core strengths. So let's take that to more than just what you're capable of, your your aptitude. Let's take it to your values. Uh Caleb talked about vision, values, and vows. Vision is the world you're trying to create, uh, which is uh which is also a good thing to do here, but values is what you stand for and what you stand against. Hey, um we uh we tend to work uh well. This is what we believe. That's a really good way to say that. We believe um that if we're not growing you, we're using you and we'll fire ourselves. That's a core value at Frank and Maven. Um, we believe that um marketers who can't teach you why are just a fancy lie. So one of the things with us, the things we talk about right out of the gate, is hey, um, you may just be looking for somebody to do this for you and not ask really important questions. That's fine. There's probably some agencies that'll just, you know, start turning knobs, but we really need to know your business. We we need to be able to explain to you why. And it's crucial you understand why we're doing what we're doing so that when we have a uh a conversation about decisions that uh we make that together. So that's a value we say, uh we state up front. Uh we also believe in filling one glass at a time. That's a Franken Maven value, uh, which means we're gonna do a couple of things really well to steward your money the best way possible. Yeah, I love that. So define your values. That should be really a universal thing that you do as a company. Um, Gallup says that uh people who define their values have 23% higher profitability and 18% higher productivity uh with strong alignment uh with your customers.

Caleb Agee 8:12

Yeah. And uh so you want to step into those values and then you'll quickly find who you work best with. Yeah. Uh makes me think at Harvard. We don't end our sentences with prepositions. Uh with honors.

Brandon Welch 8:26

That's a great movie. Yeah.

Caleb Agee 8:27

Chil Pesci. But uh there's a stat from the Harvard Harvard Business Review that says um 89% of failures in business come from poor cultural fit. Think about that. 89%.

Brandon Welch 8:39

You are if you're not doing this work and saying here's who we work well with, the you have the biggest chance of failure uh by not doing that versus messing something up versus I actually looked into this stat because I was like, is that true? And there's there's um there's a Harvard Business Review article from a few years back, and it's like, yeah. If you put in the work to do um to just do better alignment with all the people involved, it turns out when people are aligned um and they share the same values and they are working with people who they like, all of the other things, all of the other bumps on the road just really become part of the process instead of ammunition for you know animosity and just bad energy, and then stopping and trying to look for different partners and and starting and stopping the plan.

Say Who You Work Best With

Caleb Agee 9:26

Yeah. And I think this this affects you not just in the marketing side of things, but it definitely affects how you talk to people in the sales side of things. And once you've defined who you work best with, it's actually okay, I believe, in certain circumstances. It depends on what you're selling and when and why. I think it's a great thing to tell people we make the most sense when and lay out those bullet points that you've already defined long ago and tell them exactly, probably early in the conversation before they've told you they're not these things. Yeah. Say it right up front and say, we work best in with these people, with these clients, with these customers, and let them identify mentally whether or not that's them.

Brandon Welch 10:08

So if you're a home improvement contractor, this you you don't you don't want it to project any elitism, but you might want to say, hey, we tend to work best with homeowners that are trying to improve their property, not just put a band-aid on it.

Caleb Agee 10:20

Yeah.

Brandon Welch 10:20

Um, we're trying to work with homeowners that value efficiency or that um want to invest in the value of their home long term, and they uh are are really choosy about the quality of products they choose because that's who we are. That's why we choose the products that we bring to your front door, right? Yeah. Uh maybe you're an attorney and you say, um, we work best with families who understand that this is a process and that um we are partnering together to always find the next best step, not that so I can guarantee you something that may or may not be true.

Caleb Agee 10:51

Yeah, and just as much as defining who you work best with is uh subtly defining who you don't want to work with.

Brandon Welch 10:57

Yeah.

Caleb Agee 10:57

And be okay with, we're gonna talk about this in a minute, but be okay with uh ex examining. I don't really, if I'm an attorney, I'm not looking for somebody who's wanting like an AI lawyer, like a rocket lawyer kind of like self-serve kind of thing. I want somebody who cares about an actual attorney in my state, certified, who's gonna do this, you know? Uh and they're gonna care and listen to what I have going on.

Brandon Welch 11:23

Yeah, that's a beautiful thing to say. If, man, if you're looking for this, I'm probably not a good fit. It's not if you're looking for this, you're an idiot. It's yeah, if you're looking for this, I'm probably not a good fit. And we laid the order of this out intention intentionally. This is of course after you've kind of listened to the baseline concerns and needs for the customer and when you're in front of them, but you you kind of give them all these great things, like the values. Almost nobody's gonna like look at your values and go, that's not me, because your values are gonna be aspirational things. Yeah, your method, they're gonna go, wow, nobody's ever told me they had a method before. Uh, maybe you're like us, and maybe you put your method in a book and you work really hard to define it. So you say, actually, this is our playbook, this is how we get these awesome results. And most people in our case are referred to us. Um, so they already kind of know that there's something on the water, right? Yeah. And they would go, yeah, we we have a method we believe in so much. We wrote a book about it. And then so you're doing that, and then I'm not a big fan of like um slimy sales psychology, but something magic happens when you give somebody that and they're like with you, and then you go, I'm gonna take that away for a second, because just because that's who we are and that's really cool and special to us and maybe to you, doesn't mean we should work together. Here's who we work together well with, here's who we don't. And you will find um that unless you just said a buzzword or sent them off totally offbeat, that's gonna make people lean in and they're gonna go, hmm, yeah, I want I want to work with you. You've taken yourself out of the category of another vendor based on price and all the concessions, and you've put yourself in a category of a partner that has your own concessions. Yes. And uh, I'm not a big fan of power games, no, but um, there is a there is an authority that you earn by doing that.

Caleb Agee 13:06

Yeah. And you have to, you know, define this, you have to do it really, really well and um and earn that authority. But no, if as long as you have that humble heart through it all, yeah, and you acknowledge, like, hey, I should not work with everybody. Yeah. I know that's not good for me, and in the end, it's not good for the customer, the client that's sitting across the table from me. So I'm not going to try to hard sell the wrong person, put a square peg in a round hole. I'm going to unsell that person, let them, let them go, and I'm gonna do twice the work for the right customer.

Your Process Turns Vendors Into Partners

Brandon Welch 13:44

Yes. And that kind of leads us to the the fourth step here, which is like, here's how I get the results I get. Would can I teach you that? Can I share with you how I get the results that I get? Can I share you how can I share with you after X amount of years of experience every time it comes back to this is the best way to do it? And um they're going to of course say yes. They're going, yeah. So, like, can I tell you how I get the maximum amount of home improvement value for the least amount of money? Or can I tell you about my customers who are the happiest? Can I tell you what they do?

Caleb Agee 14:16

Yeah.

unknown 14:17

Yeah.

Brandon Welch 14:18

Or that that is you're using really good language. Now make sure it's true. This will never work if it's not if it's not represented and backed up by your reviews and your social proof. But we don't we're not talking to knuckleheads. People people who listen to the Maven Marketing podcast are artisans, they're craftsmen, they're the best at their at their trade. So um here's what you do. You say, um, like for us, it's like we work best uh when we build a marketing plan for three different types of customers tomorrow, today, and yesterday. Today customers, tomorrow customers, yesterday customers. And our clients that grow the fastest put about 60% of their effort into tomorrow customers building a name for themselves. And so what that looks like, and we go into like you know, how we build media plans. Yeah.

Caleb Agee 15:06

Um for us practically it's we meet with every client every month. Yeah, that's it. Are you are you willing to invest that time into this relationship, into this partnership? And I think having a having clarity of how you do what you do, the process that you follow will all obviously set you apart. It's it goes hand in hand with your method, but it's also it's you get down to the practicality of it. It's like, well, what we'll need from you is this, and what you'll need, what you'll see from me is this. And that looks like you have your stuff together, honestly, at the end of the day.

Brandon Welch 15:40

And because most um most vendors, people who are stuck in vendor mode, it's because they've behaved like vendors. They've said, yes, Mr. Client, I'll do that for you. Yes, I'll make that concession. And and again, I I I want to steer clear of any ego pumping here, but it's like, what are we all trying to do? We're trying to do the work that we're called to do, we're trying to do the work we're supposed to do, not the work somebody else is supposed to do. There is somebody else that is a better fit for you know, a different way of doing it. There's another company out there that wants to do it the way that you don't want to do it, and that's fine. Amen to that, right? Yeah. So um Peter Drucker uh says, culture eat strategy for breakfast. Your business growing strategy will never match a good client culture. Yeah. And what we've learned over the years is when you have really good clients that want to do it the way that you want to do it, man, your team is so much happier um to work with them and their their joy is overflowing and they're not they're not having bad days.

Caleb Agee 16:40

Yeah, well, and then you get to manage each of your clients the same way, and you see, so it's just even from a practicality standpoint, you see efficiency because you're able to do it your way. You're not bending every which way for every single client. You are able to just focus and do it your way.

Learn To Say No And Walk Away

Brandon Welch 16:57

Deloitte did another study that said that purpose-driven companies see up to a 40% higher retention. So, what have we done this whole time? We've set a purpose. This is who we are, this is our mission, um, and this is our method, this is how we do what we do. Uh, we've talked about our values. This is what we believe, this is what we stand against. Um, then we have said, uh, here's who we work best with, here's who we deliver the very best results for. Uh that could either be a niche or that could be uh uh a mindset or a mentality of the customer, people who blank, people who want blank, here's who we're not. And then fourth, we say, and then this is our process. First, like ours is like we have an initial just a conversation with one person here. If we think that there's a path to us opening, you know, a partnership up with them, we say come in for a strategy session. And then we don't even know if we're gonna work or think we're gonna work with them then. Yep. We have an idea, but and then we develop a marketing plan and we and we we're telling them this all from the front part, like because most people call here and go, Yeah, I need a website, or uh, you know, when can we get started? You know, and it's like, uh, well, let's back that up, let's put some friction on it. Um, and that's why we have so many uh well, actually not so many, su such a core core group of people we love to work with. We don't have we don't take a lot, uh, but we have found that when we pour into and define and protect and guard the people and the clients to to be in alignment, it's a beautiful thing. So number five is be willing to walk away. Yeah.

Caleb Agee 18:32

You gotta be able to say no. And uh you've heard us talking about essentialism. We actually read this as a group. I know we've talked about this a few times. Uh, you should grab that grab a copy of that or grab 20 copies for your whole office, something like that. Um Steve Jobs said, Focusing is about saying no.

Brandon Welch 18:50

In Warren Buffett, one of my favorite quotes the difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything. And no doesn't have to mean no, I'm too good. No doesn't have to mean um never and you're an idiot. No means I don't think I'm supposed to be the one to do that for you. I think I think there's somebody that's a better fit for you. Yep. Uh it's not you, it's me, right? Yeah. Um cue the George Costanza quotes, right?

Caleb Agee 19:21

So um, once you once you do view that as not a loss, no is not me missing out on revenue or clients or opportunities or potential, but as a win and investment I can make into the next thing that I'll get twice the output for the same input, that's when you unlock a different part of your perspective on this whole thing, on choosing the right clients, attracting the right clients. All of this gets so much better when you can unlock that piece in your mind where you're like, oh, I could take this, it seems like easy money. It seems like an easy client.

Brandon Welch 20:00

Yeah. It might be that way, but you're gonna wake up and find that your randomness is stealing from your greatness.

Caleb Agee 20:06

That's it.

Five Step Recap And Closing

Brandon Welch 20:07

And that's don't don't let people do that to you. Don't let shiny objects do that to you. Um, so we're we're going from let's see what you have to offer to are we a good fit together? Should we work together? And consider lastly, maybe this is your calling. Maybe this is deeper than just profit, retention, and and all of the KPIs we could get excited about for business. Maybe this is about dude, you have you have but uh thirty core working years of your time on Earth. You're gonna work a little bit before and a little bit after that, but your career is basically 30 years. And think about all the hours and minutes that get wasted on things that weren't exactly in the sweet spot um of your calling, of who you were created to do. There's something you are better at and uniquely positioned. And how much higher would your head be in the room, and how much um lighter would your would your load be if you were doing things of purpose that you were called to do? And that's that's that's what this is all about. Because it turns out when you find customers that love you, it's because they're the ones that you also love, right? So uh take that into your I think I think that's relevant for every business. Yeah, that's somehow relevant to even retail and and display um, you know, and how you position your products and your brand voice. But um one quick, one quick recap. Define your method, how you how you do what you do, define your values, what you stand for and what you stand against. Define who you work best with and talk about it early. Define how you work best, your process for working together, and then be willing to walk away. Say, you know what? I don't think this is a fit. Um and maybe maybe even go the extra mile and find people that would be a good fit for the things you're not good for.

Caleb Agee 21:56

Um hand out their hand out your competitor's phone number. At the end there, if you need to.

Brandon Welch 22:02

If it's a good fit for the nothing else, they walk away going, man, those are the least full of crap guys I've ever talked to. Yep. Um, that's a beautiful thing. So it will be back here every Monday answering real life marketing questions because marketers who cannot teach you why are just a what? Core value number two.

Caleb Agee 22:21

Oh, that's right. Are just a fancy lie.

Brandon Welch 22:23

Have a great week.