How To Recognize & Attract Dream Clients That Respect Your Time (& Filter Out The Ones Who Drain You)

We might be in different industries, but what we know for sure is we've had the same clients. In this episode, we break down the common traits your best clients share, and the red flags your worst clients almost always wave, so you can not only spot your ideal client when they show up, but attract more of them. Knowing these red and green flags will help you make faster decisions, prevent headaches, and build a business that finally respects your time. What we're sharing with you is exactly what has helped us filter out energy drains without drama, and tune our offers and policies so the right people lean in and the wrong ones self-select out. No fluff, no therapy session, just the perspective shift that helps you raise your floor, protect your peace, and close bigger deals with less effort. 

Highlights

00:00 How predictable client patterns help you prevent problems before they happen.

05:12 How to spot red flags early so you can protect your time and energy.

08:40 Recognizing when a client doesn't trust you and what that means for your process.

11:55 Why your best clients actually appreciate strong boundaries and clear direction.

15:03 The kind of expectation setting that naturally attracts premium buyers.

18:27 Understanding the difference between "comma" and "decimal" decision-makers.

21:10 How raising your prices can instantly filter out problem clients.

24:36 Simple ways to stop scope creep before it starts.

27:58 Why people who respect your time will always respect your process.

31:22 Turning what you've learned from bad experiences into better systems and policies.

34:09 How to build your business for your best clients and letting the rest self-filter.

37:45 The one email that tells the right clients they're in the right place.

39:30 The power of designing your business around the clients you actually want.

Resources + Links

Apply for Luxury Clothier Collective Mastermind HERE

More resources for custom clothiers HERE

Watch on Youtube

Follow

Appointment Only in IG: @appointmentonlypod

Resources + Links
Apply for Luxury Clothier Collective Mastermind  HERE
More resources for custom clothiers HERE
Watch on Youtube

 Follow
Appointment Only in IG: @appointmentonlypod

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's been one of those days where everything feels like it's going wrong. So let's just be glad that all we're doing is a podcast and we're not trying to, you know, fly a plane or something. It has been one of those May days. It has been one of those Maydays. We're going down. Hang on. Technology is one of those things. It is absolutely a blessing. What is the deal with it, though? You know? I don't know. How come it's so inconsistent? And I know that I'm to blame for some things. I understand. I get it. I'm one of those people who, I mean, I I it's always oftentimes it's someone else's fault. Usually it's someone else's fault. Like, what what do you mean I hit the power button and it turned off? Huh? It just turned off just like that? I was having this issue with my my phone in my car charger. It was not working. I was on all the forums. I was on the I joined two different Facebook groups for my specific car. Did you try turning your phone on? And then I remembered that I hadn't turned my phone on. I was kidding. And it started working immediately. Well, there you go. I bought a new phone case, which buying a new phone case, that that hits different. That's a little little luxury that you just don't treat yourself to enough because it's not a luxury. It's so inexpensive, but it feels so like this phone case. I'm just loving this tiny little phone. You know what they say about a guy with a tiny phone. Yeah, everyone knows. Uh, but so does this thing oh that's cool. Yeah, that's to to prop it up and to wash it. I should get I should get one of those. Exactly. Well, I thought it was a phone, I thought it was a phone case problem. I thought it was a car problem. I was on the forums. I bought a new phone case, and then turning my phone off and on worked. I never changed my phone case. Talk about stupid and user error. Remember, I was so mad because I I got this phone and the the camera lens cracked. And I I just trying to order a new phone. They sent me, they said they were gonna send a new one. They sent a refurb. It was a whole thing. Let's just say you didn't want to be on the other end of that phone call. I didn't enjoy being in the room listening to you talk about it. I take it into the Apple because I realized, oh yeah, I have that Apple share. Here's a fun little fact about you, boy. About for all you regulars out there, just getting to know us, just giving this a try, figuring out if this is the podcast for you. Kenny has a tendency to get really worked up. And when he's in that mode, he has an alter ego. That alter ego's name is Susan. We call that gal Susan. Susan does not, Susan is insatiable. It's kind of like a Karen if you're curious. Like, what's that thing all about? It's exactly like a Karen. Only Susan. It's Susan. Yeah, that was uh we finally, my wife finally put a name to it. It's Susan's been alive and well forever. Susan has always existed. And she's never she's never had an actual name until I met my wife, and she I don't even remember how it came up, but she just said something about like chill out, Susan, and it stuck. And now, whenever I'm in a spiral mode, Susan travels with us every time. Susan always travels. I think she actually might live at the airport. Susan always makes the trip. Let's just say that. She's always there, whether you like her, like her there or not. And now we always say it when when I'm in the middle of it, we always say Susan's tits are flying. She's just slopping them out onto the today onto the table. Yeah. So uh that's Susan. And uh Susan has a lot of tech problems. Today, especially. It's one of those days. It's just one of those days where it's the memory cards are full and the this the connector thing is gone, and oh, it's just annoying. But what I was gonna say was when I took this to the Apple store, I thought my camera was cracked and blah, blah, blah. And then he he just pulled off the uh cover, and that's what was cracked. There wasn't all that. Susan was trying to get that phone figured out. I remember Susan being on the phone. Susan was very upset. If I wanted to, if I wanted a refurb, I would have just bought a refurb, but I wanted a new phone. So you're gonna send me a new phone. Yeah. That's what you're gonna do from Susan. Well, you know what? This is a perfect transition because Susan would be a terrible client. Susan would be a horrible You don't want to work with someone like Susan. And today's episode, we're talking about what your best and your worst clients have in common, not what they have necessarily in common with one another, but what our worst clients and your worst clients share, as well as what our best clients have in common with your best clients. And it's kind of just an it's just an interesting talking point because one thing we've noticed over the years is there are so many things that as business owners, you have in common with other business owners. It doesn't matter if you're in the same or a similar industry. In fact, it doesn't really matter what industry you're in. You're gonna have these things in common with other business owners. And it's just important to be aware of these things. It is. Dare I say this is a an episode about stereotyping.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

That's an interesting question.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

We're gonna be stereotyping people, and it's it has nothing to do with with their uh, you know, anything other than their other well, their behaviors. Well, and that's the thing is uh stereotypes generally they're not pulled out of thin air. The the reason they exist is because often they're true, often, which is why you know they can sometimes be problematic, is they're not always true, but a lot of times they are. Just like Susan, when Susan comes on the trip, you can guarantee it's not gonna be an enjoyable trip that you're gonna be like, hey Susan, your net popped out of your bra. Susan needs to, I think Susan just needs bigger bras. There's two ties that fit her better. She needs a fitting. Yeah, she does. She really needs a bra fitting, is what Susan needs. She doesn't know her size and it makes her angry. She is very upset about that. This is Appointment Only, the podcast for entrepreneurs building profitable high-end businesses. If you want control, profit, and freedom from the endless hustle, this is for you. We're Kenny and Danny, twin brothers from day one and business partners for 15 years. We're sharing insights from our own experiences running a high-end small business, the highs, the lows, and what we've learned along the way that will help you build businesses you enjoy running that aren't running you. We're here to help you continue creating businesses that support the life you actually want to live. Your appointment starts now. Let's start with a really basic one with your worst clients. They probably all spent a below average dollar amount. Let's just be totally transparent. Oftentimes, yeah. I mean, the we the people who spend the least oftentimes do require the most work. And isn't that just the the irony of of the century? Is that is just so often true. And I remember the first time hearing that that was someone else's experience and just feeling such a sigh of relief that it wasn't anything we were doing wrong, that oh, you experience that too. And the more conversations we've had with business owners over the years, the more I realize this is kind of a universal truth. And I know when you when you love your business and you really appreciate the people that work with you, I know you want to treat everyone really well. But I do think it's important with when you're dealing with people, when you're dealing with clients, to just understand your numbers and know what your average situation is. Whether you do what we do, we we operate with like an average swipe. So the average amount somebody spends when they work with us. Just have that in your mind. And when you're dealing with somebody, it's just an interesting tidbit to know when you're dealing with somebody and you're kind of factoring that into your average, oftentimes it ends up being quite a bit lower. We're identifying some commonalities here. And that's important to do because as you're looking at your own client list or your own database, it's just good intel to have. It's good to gather data or data. I've never really known what to call it. I think it's both are correct. I think it just depends on where you're from and where you grew up. But data or data, it's just important, it's important intel to have as you're running your business to just be aware of these things. We're not necessarily going to give you a ton of do this, don't do this, make sure to never do this. This is just as we're talking about behaviors, it's good to be aware because if it's predictable, it's preventable. And if you can predict things before they happen, you can often eliminate problems altogether. Because that's we talked in a previous episode about conflict resolution and and working through conflicts with clients and customers. A lot of those conflicts are predictable. Oh, yeah. You can see them coming in my own. Some of them are kind of a surprise. But when you're working with someone who you know maybe is starting to behave in a certain way and you have this information of things you've already identified, you can do something with it. Some other behaviors that the worst clients share. I think overall, a lack of trust would be one of those things. For whatever reason, you're working with this person and you're realizing in the moment, like this person, not only do they not trust me, but they don't want to trust me. And that can be something that manifests itself at many different stages of your relationship with them. Sometimes it's right away when they when they've reached out. You can just tell and sense in their reach out, whether it be on the phone or through an email, that this person's attitude is like a prove yourself to me attitude and like earn my business. And when we see that those types of emails come through, we used to try to earn business and now we just basically don't do that. And we'll just share, hey, here's how it's gonna go. And if if you don't trust the process or you're not looking to hire someone like us, then here's we actually do recommend somebody, somebody else that we we suggest they reach out to. But sometimes you can figure this out early, but sometimes you're in the process already working with them, and then it starts to make itself clear. The other thing that happens when you're working with someone who universally is just going to be someone that's very difficult to work with is not only are they not trusting you, but they're not really respecting whatever process you're taking them through, whatever boundaries you do or don't have. So those are some things to just be aware of as you're working with people, pay attention to how they're behaving and what their responses are to you, to the process you're laying out before them, and to the different ways in which you're requiring they work, your boundaries. If you require that people contact you through email, but they just keep calling and you keep asking them to email you and they just won't, that's important to pay attention to. Yeah. For whatever reason, the the the worst clients. It's almost like every time we work with them, it's it's almost like why am I even here? You're hiring me, but you're not trusting me to do anything. Right. Like you could have hired anyone. It's it seems as though you have a process you want to be taken through, and you're trying to micromanage that the entire way. It just doesn't make sense. And when you clearly identify in your business who you're for and you happen to work with one of these people, it can be really frustrating. Like, like, like we said, we're not going to be giving necessarily all sorts of. So here's how to quit working. No, we're not venting. We're we're this is important, this is important stuff to talk through because it's really important to keep in mind. What you keep texting? What's what's going on? I'm I'm I'm re uh opening my phone. Okay. I thought you were texting someone. I was like, I was so sorry that so bored. Appointment only is boring you. So bored, lol. I hate this podcast, LOL. What another thing to just be it be aware of is generally speaking, again, stereotypes, but you got to do it sometimes. Generally speaking, the absolute worst people to work with are gonna have a bit of an inflated perspective on whatever it is that they're doing with you, whatever their purchases. These are the ones who will remind you of what they spent. And they will often use that reminder as a reason to ask for more. Like this client is not entering into a relationship feeling as though I'm gonna pay for this thing and I'm gonna receive this thing that I paid for. For whatever reason, this is the type of person that they are maybe willing to pay the price, but they expect all sorts of additional things on top of what they're actually paying to receive. Have you ever worked with someone like that where they they buy something from you and then for some reason you're sensing that the thing they bought from you is they expect more, they're asking for more, or they actually want to, you know, be your friend or something. I spent good money, so I expect fill in the blank. That type of sentence is a worst type of customer sentence. Every year we look back on our business and we identify the easiest people that came to mind as it relates to the worst type of clients. We just identify what those situations were and we try to find commonalities with those people. And we try to then work ourselves out of that. For some years, it's been price point. Like I remember maybe it was 2022. For whatever reason, there were two people that we worked with towards the end of the year, and they both were really hung up and they were not going to go above this certain price point. So the path was really easy in that scenario, where the next year we raised our prices above where their top threshold was, and that was our new starting point. We were just thinking, well, let's see. You know, if the if they would have seen that our intro prices started above where they were maxed out, they probably wouldn't have even reached out. So that's what we'll do. Yeah. It was one of the really simple and it was, I believe this is maybe TMI for those of you who don't really care about what we do, but our prices were at $13.95 was our starting point. These people were not going to go above $1,795. So we raised our prices to $19.95. Yeah. We're talking in thousands here, not right, $1,395. Yeah. $1,795, $1,900. So in that scenario, it was, it was really, really easy to sort of make that move and to identify. That's one of the things that we often will do is we're we're constantly evaluating not only what's working and how can we double down on that and make it better, but what's not working and is the reason why it's not working anything that we're in control of. If it is, we're all about we're like a dog on the bone. We are just all about making those changes. So in that scenario, it was easy. Do you give your dog bones? Not really. No. No, just cuddles. Our dogs don't get bones either. Yeah. It's we've we've done like the the healthy like teething sure. Or like the keep your teeth healthy bones. Yes. Yeah. But those get all over the place. Those things crumble. Yeah. Yeah. They're really messy. We used to give our dogs those rawhides, like chicken rawhides or whatever. And uh we had to time them though. It was quite the quite the ordeal because you don't want them to eat them too long, otherwise, it affects their stomachs. The smaller the dog, the more sensitive they are. What's the dog trainer's name? Caesar. Caesar Milan. I'm getting Caesar Milan vibes from you right now. Thank you. Yeah, you, you know, that's if anyone has any dog training questions, uh, Kenny's your guy. There was another year where for whatever reason, the people who were coming to mind as our worst clients were for some reason millennial attorneys. I don't know what the cons what the what the factor was there, why that was the case, but for whatever reason, it was millennial attorneys. Yeah, we were we had a number of issues with millennial attorneys and we're millennials. So we could say that. We could say that. We actually, I think we are gonna do an episode. I have I have millennial attorney friends. Well, I remember we we texted our cousin who's a millennial attorney. She went to Harvard, and we're like, hey, any insight here? What what are we doing wrong? And she couldn't help. It's a cutthroat industry, so maybe they came in feeling like it was a me versus you, or maybe just based on the industry, there's a tendency to feel a little bit more combative, or like a distrust, yeah. Because that was the vibe. But there's there was this one attorney we were working with, and he was just the everything we've said is him to a team. Absolutely. Where there was one email where everything went perfectly. We hit his deadline, which was tight. The suit fit perfectly. Everything was perfect. He got exactly what he paid for. And he sent us an email about 24 hours after he had received everything, giving us this long list of why he felt marginalized through the process. One of the things that he said was, you know, as somebody who doesn't buy custom suits every day, I just expected X, Y, Z. And we sent him an email back and we said, listen, we understand that you don't buy custom suits every day. That's why we have a process to take people through. But the reality is we sell custom suits every day. So this is our job. This is our job. This is something that we do. So for whatever reason, if the expectations weren't in line, we're sorry you feel that way. But we did exactly what we said we were going to do when we first met for the very first time. Yeah. I mean, he uh apparently wanted to feel so, so special. And he was just another person we happened to work with that day. And he and his expectations were way out of whack. And back then in our business, his spend was, I think it was low, 0.33% of 1% of 1% of our our significantly low. It he was a significantly below average client, expecting the world, expecting to receive new best friends out of the package deal. Well, whatever he was expecting, yeah. We obviously we did not deliver, even though we did deliver exactly what he paid us to do. And that's the issue is when you're working with people who are just gonna be really difficult, the worst types of people to work with, their expectations are impossible to meet. Yeah, we always say in our business with realistic expectations, we're gonna blow your mind. With unrealistic expectations, you won't even be satisfied. Now, the thing that was ironic about working with that guy in particular, that one we just talked about, was we were actually working with him at the exact same time as we were working with someone who would have been considered one of our very best clients at that point. He would have our very best client that year. And we were in the process of learning a lot about what the other side looks like. Yeah, that's a that's a great little set. What what watch are you wearing right now? Oh nice. My GMT. It's never heard of it? We're definitely watch guys, but we're but we're not watch nerds. And we're not watch collectors. Right. We have a few watches that we wear a lot. I primarily actually wear this one. This is my million-dollar watch. It did not cost a million dollars. This watch cost me a million. This is a million-dollar watch. No, it did not cost a million dollars, but this was the reward that we got. We got ourselves watches the first year our revenue exceeded a million dollars. And then we got ourselves watches the second year it happened, too. And we and we thought we were gonna do it every year. But then we just stopped. We wised up a little bit on that. But then we decided that we were gonna get out of the tax debt that our former tax preparer put us in when he was in the process of embezzling from us, which is a story for a different day. But this watch here is actually, I think all things considered, it's my favorite one. It's because it's first of all, it's extremely meaningful to me. But also, this is the watch that I left at the hotel. Oh. So I have I have I had a newfound appreciation for this watch because I left it in a hotel in New York. Fortunately, it's the hotel we always stay in. And I realized it before we'd even left the city. We were in the cab going to the airport. I called and I was like, hey, I think I left my watch in the room. They located it. I was coming back, you know, a week or two later. So I was able to pick it up in person. But that sinking feeling of when you know you forgot something. And then when that thing you forgot isn't like, oh shoot, I left my belt at home. It's like, oh, I left my Rolex in a hotel. Super meaningful thing that that was not a good feeling. So as soon as I got this thing back, I was like, I'm never gonna leave you again, baby. That you're safe with me, honey. The the client we were leading into now, talking about our best clients, he was actually the reason why we bought our first watches ever. I remember Rolex. Our first Rolexes. We had we had set this goal years before that if we ever hit a sale that hit a certain threshold dollar-wise, we would go and we would buy ourselves Rolexes. Seemed like a pretty straightforward, super attainable goal. And yeah, at the time we're like, how much could a Rolex possible? How much we had no concept of what I don't think we've done any research. We just assumed, yeah. We just assumed this dollar amount translates into we deserve a treat, and those treats are gonna be Rolex. Isn't that that's like my toxic trait? I always deserve a treat. If it was a bad day, I get a treat. If it was a good day, I deserve a treat. We this morning we went to the the coffee shop we always go to, and we always have the same thing. Rice, eggs, and beef. And Kenny's like, you know what we deserve today? We deserve to have one of those donuts. Uh huh. And I I obviously was all about it. You know why I deserved it? It was because I was gonna have a big old bowl of peanut butter checks last night, and I decided not to. Oh, wow. So instead of that, I'm gonna I may as well have a donut. Treat yourself. You deserve a treat. I I deserved it. But we deserved a treat after we made that sale. It was it was a goal. This dollar amount that we had hit was on our goals list for years. So it was something that we wanted for many years. This dollar amount was more than double any dollar amount we'd ever swiped at the time. So it was like a out there goal. It's not like we were saying, oh, the first person who buys one additional suit we get to buy ourselves. It was a it felt like a lofty goal. And we didn't know if or when we were ever gonna hit it. No, we didn't. We had no idea. So anyway, we start working with this guy. He spends above that dollar amount the first time we work with him, which was total shock. We we absolutely weren't ready for that. I've never even seen that amount of money ever. No. It was a it was a great sale, super unexpected, felt awesome. So we got back to town and we went to the jewelry store. It was long enough ago where you could go to the jewelry store and pick up a Rolex and leave with it. Right. And and not only could you pick up a Rolex, there with all of the models were available. The the gray market wasn't even a thing really back then. So it was one of these things where you walk and you have all sorts of choices. So we were trying on different watches. Ooh, what one's your favorite? We were thinking all of these were attainable for us. Which one's your favorite one? Oh, yeah, which one's your favorite one? And so I we see these little price tags on these watches. Oh, and they are little. They are so small. You got to get your magnifying glass off to see those. First of all, they're small because they're physically small. Second, the numbers are even smaller because there are so many numbers. There's an awful lot of zeros they have to put on the phone. There's a lot of zeros on the price tags. So I'm like, I'm what I think is debating between two different watches. I like them both a lot. I just don't know which one I like most. So I think it's going to come down to what one's my absolute favorite. So I'm there's one that I'm really leaning towards. This is the one for me. And I I think I'm reading the prices right as 5,700 bucks. I've got one that that is 5,700 bucks. The other that I also think is 5,700 bucks. Seems like a tie. Seems like a top tag. It's a dead tie. It really depends on what one I like the most. Yeah. So the one that I decide on is like, I think it's this one. I take, I bring the price tag even closer and I realize I had forgotten to read a zero. So I'm actually dealing with a $57,000 watch or a $5,700 watch. Boy. Which one is it? Boy, did that help me break the tie? You know what one I love the most? Actually, actually, this entry-level cheap one. The more I think about it, I'm really interested in this one here. We're really good with water sticks. No, we don't need any appetizers today. This one doesn't have any bells and whistles, or I okay. That's exactly what I want. No, no, no. I don't want the date on it. Oh, that's the date. I don't like that. No, I want the one that doesn't have anything else. Yeah. The cheapest thing with a crown will take two. So that's really what's basically what we did. That's really what we had to do. But but I looking back, I am so glad that we did that. Me too. I also wear mine now. Oh, I wear mine. I went years. I went years because we did we did the Rolexes uh and then we we did Panerize next. Right. And then since then we've done a couple more Rolexes each, which is great. And I'm I still love my watches. Like we said, we're we we love watches, but I we're not collectors, you know. And we're not like nerds about the movie. I don't have any, yeah. Sometimes people who know a lot about watches will come through and they'll see ours and they'll just assume that maybe we have a little more knowledge than we do. Those aren't really conversations I can have. No. I my favorite Rolex is the black one. I like the black one with the with the blue on it, too. Mine has green too. That's the extent of my knowledge. Although I do know this is a GMT Master 2, my favorite one. But I'm so glad we did that. I'm so glad we bought it. And I'm finding that now I'm I'm wearing my first Rolex all the time. I basically wear it every day. Uh when I get home from work, I wear it uh on weekends. So it's back in the rotation. It's back in the rotation. That little, that little cheap Rolex is getting a lot of action. She's still ticking. She is. She is still ticking. She's great. But anyway, very small. Uh all that to say, we kind of went off a little bit there, but let's get back on track. So we were at the same time as we were working with this horrible guy. We were working with our best client we'd ever had. This guy really helped us put our entire business really into perspective and helped us understand that there is a different type of client out there, yeah, who not only is going to spend multiples on what the majority of the people we're working with are spending, but they're gonna require nothing additional of us. Right. They are going to purchase what they want, and all they want to do is have us get the job done for them. Yep. It was so refreshing to deal with this guy because we delivered him suits that fit, and then he placed another order. It was an another really nice size order that that we had never really seen. And it's like, is this really all this guy expects from us? It felt like it was too good to be true, but it wasn't. And he was our very top best client for a full calendar year. And it was it was that point that our eyes were really opened, not only to, oh, this type of we, I mean, at the time we we definitely thought it was a fluke. We thought that we'd stumbled into it and he was like a once-in-a-lifetime type type client. And it took us a little while before we found someone, anyone else who was doing that sort of thing or had that sort of behavior. But we've learned that this is actually a type of client that's out there. And because our business was was catered differently to a different caliber of person, we were just, it was so infrequent that we ever found these people or that they found us. But having worked with now, you know, dozens of these types of people, their behaviors are all in line with one another. So what we were talking about with worst clients, you know, it's basically kind of the antithesis of the worst client behavior is how a best client behaves. But let's just run through it. Our best clients probably do these things similarly to your best clients. They respect their own time, which means they respect yours. And they expect you to take your time seriously. And they're happy when you do because they take their time seriously. Like attracts like. They want to be around people who value their time just like they value theirs. One thing we've noticed about when we're working with someone who we would identify as in our top category, like the target demographic for our business, we have a series of emails that get auto-generated before anybody comes and works with us. And basically it's expectation setting. We we spell out how the process is going to work. We also are very clear, this is not a free consultation. You are expected to pay. You will pay in full up front. You know, we're we're very, very clear and direct. The email itself is not a mean or rude email, but it is very direct. And one thing we've noticed, which is kind of funny, is all of our best clients or a lot of them, they compliment that email because they're happy that they're working with someone who takes their own time as seriously as they take theirs. We were working with one guy this past year and he walks in and he told us explicitly, he said, I loved the email you you sent to me that sort of sets the stage. And what I knew from that email is I was gonna work with a business that took their time as seriously as I take mine. Music to my ears. And he was he sat down, he's like, Let's do this thing. Yeah. So they respect their time, they respect your process. That's another thing, is they want to hire, they hire experts in their lives. Okay. This type of person, they're used to hiring somebody to get the job done. Let's just say this type of person is uh doing their landscaping a little differently than I'm doing mine, where they're not loading up their car three times full of mulch bags. They don't know what it means to have to go to Home Depot five different times for one project. They're just gonna hire a landscaper to do the backyard. Let's just say they don't make multiple trips to Home Depot in one weekend to get one thing done. Maybe they do. Maybe they do. I actually, you know, I thought it was kind of fun. But these types of people, they outsource. They hire experts, and then because they're outsourcing and they know these people are experts, they actually trust them, they trust the process and they go with it. And because they value their time, they don't have the time to micromanage you. They are not hiring you so that they can boss you around, like a worst customer is. They're hiring you so that you can take it and run with it and get it done for them. That's the difference. One of them. They also want to hear your thoughts and recommendations because they're, like we said, they're they're working with experts in their lives. They're hiring people to do things. They know that what they're really successful at and what they're really good at has made them really successful. And you know it's one thing that you'll hear from them, they'll say, What do you think? And they're actually listening. That is something you will never hear a worst customer say. They never care what you think because they have an idea and they want to do what they want to do. They've already thought about it. They don't really trust you anyway, oftentimes. So they don't want to hear your thoughts. They don't want your recommendations because your recommendations are not going to steer their decisions. The best clients out there, what they're really good at has made them really successful. And they understand that what they're really good at is unique to them. And they're also, because they understand what they're good at, they understand that there are certain things that other people have expertise in. And that leads them to want to trust you, want to follow your process and hear your recommendations. They're hiring you for a reason. There's not necessarily a dollar amount where it where it's if they spend above this, then they're the best. Or if they spend under this, then they're the worst. You know, we're very aware of what our average tickets are. So we can very confidently but between the two of us say, okay, this is our average. And oftentimes, if someone's gonna spend below the average, we we need to be aware of that because we want to make sure that we're checked in. So if we start to see these worst customer quote unquote behaviors, we know what to do. And generally speaking, your best customers are gonna be above average dollar amount. But one thing we've identified in our business is a behavior that we we refer to as comma and decimal point decision makers. The best clients we work with are comma decision makers, in that they are able to in the snap of a finger, spend an additional thousand dollars on something. If we're adding in a piece of a custom, that's what we do, custom suits. So if we're gonna add in, you know, an extra pair of pants or an extra sport coat or an extra few shirts or what have you, or attack on a tuxedo at the end, yeah, then they'll just say, Yep, that sounds great. They're not saying, oh, well, what I mean, sometimes they're a little curious. Oh, what well, what'll that what'll that cost? But it once they hear the number, they're like, oh, okay, that's it, great. It's comma decision makers. Whereas decimal point decision makers, the entire process is very much driven by each financial implication. Would you like to do this? Well, is that gonna cost more? What kind of buttons do you want? Well, which of these are gonna cost a little bit more? You know, seriously. I mean, that's something that comma decision makers ask us all the time. We're just talking about styling when we're doing decimal point decision makers. Or decimal. Yeah, I'm sorry, I totally misspoke there. Decimal point decision makers. Which lapel style do you like? Do you like the peak lapel? Do you like the notch lapel? Does that cost more? And another general, just sort of generalization is there's two types of people that exist. There's people who want to spend their I was trying to just do it at the same time as you. I don't, I was gonna do the other thing though. There's there's people who are willing to spend their money to save themselves some time. And there's people who are willing to spend their own time to try to save money. And often the worst clients are the ones who are willing to spend their own time to try to save some money here or there. And the best clients are the ones who are willing to spend their money as long as it saves them some time. And those are just important distinctions to make. And by and large, most people fall in one of those two camps as well. And here's the thing about best and worst customers and behaviors it's really all about priorities. Everyone's priorities are different. For some people in my world, in my orbit, I'm their very best customer. And for other people, I'm one of their worst. Yeah, you're a nobody. Yeah. And they're like, oh great, here comes Susan. Here she comes. Here she comes again. Here she comes with that ill-fitted bra. But it's true, it's all about priorities and it's about what this person prioritizes. And if they prioritize you, you'll know. And if they don't prioritize you, you'll also know. Sometimes we'll work with people and they'll leave and we'll look at each other and we'll say, I don't know why they came here. Yeah. We feel we felt like we were watching them do it. Yeah, I feel like if they if they could have got what they wanted, click of a button on Amazon, they would have, but because that's not an option, they had to come here and they didn't utilize our expertise. They didn't listen. They weren't interested in in what you know we were wanting to share. And they've, you know, this is going to be the one thing they ever buy, and they're out of here. And if they could have spent half as much and used someone else, they would have, but they couldn't. So they came here. And it is what it is. It's not, it's not a huge priority. And then we'll work with some people and they'll leave. And it doesn't even have anything to do really with the amount of money they spend, but they'll leave and we'll say, wow, yeah, that was good. And sometimes a below average sale just feels good when it goes well and you're working with someone who you know you're building a relationship with. It doesn't always come down to the people who spend the most are the best and the most fun. Because we've also worked with people who've spent plenty of money with us and they leave and and we're saying, I don't know. I don't know about that. I'm not sure about that. I think this kind of wraps it up perfectly. Is a couple of weeks ago we were dealing with a worst client of the year. And we were, we had, we had gotten this really long but and did you notice he said a worst client. He didn't say the worst client because it's one of those years. Yeah, we've we've had, you know, we always every year you have worst clients. Plural. Yeah, we I think when we were talking about conflict in a previous episode, we mentioned it's been, you know, kind of goes in waves. And sometimes you're dealing with more than one at a time. Sometimes a few months will go by and you're saying, Oh, it's been a while since I've heard anything bad. It's been zero days without, or you know, one day without an accident. One day without a shart. But anyway, we were we were reading this email, long email. This is a below average spend, worst client behavior. Looking back, you know, we're in the process of rebranding with our own website, redoing some things. This is absolutely somebody we have factored in and how we're gonna move forward and and work out of this person as we move our business ahead. Reading this super, super long email is you know, I spent this. They're they're reminding us of how much they spent. Yeah. So I expected this, and this is how I wanted this to go, and this is yada, yada, yada, yada. While we're reading this email, we get another one from a client who just wired us. Now remember, the client whose long email, this worst client, they spent a below average dollar amount. The client who emailed us while we're reading this email wired us over five times what our average sale is. And the the email was, thanks guys. That's it. If that doesn't put it all into perspective, if that doesn't just reinforce who we're after as a business and who we really should be gearing our business for, then nothing hammers that point home. If that doesn't speak volumes, nothing will. And it's so increasingly obvious as we continue to work with both worst customers, normal customers, enjoyable customers, and best customers that we really need to be gearing our business towards the best of the best. And if our processes and our system and our business speak to them, it'll also work for other people too. Maybe these are all things you've think you've thought about and you already know. Maybe this is your first time really thinking about it in these terms, as far as the behaviors and what those behaviors can tell you and inform you about, as far as the caliber of customer and the type of business you're in and what that means for your long-term success, growth, but also ability to have a good night's sleep. Just something to be aware of as we're continuing to run our businesses. If you have anything specific you want us to answer on the podcast, please shoot us a DM. We would love to answer your questions. Yeah. And just one thing as as we're wrapping here, I do think it's important to bring up that you're you're gearing your business for somebody. And it doesn't matter what business you're running, it is geared for somebody, some type of client. It is speaking some type of client's language. It doesn't matter if you are intentional or if you even can identify that person or not. Your business is speaking specifically to a specific type of person. And I'm so glad that we accidentally got this great client that we started working with at the same time that we're dealing with this nightmare. I mean, it doesn't matter that we we spent all the money we made on him on the watches that we probably financially shouldn't have bought, but I'm really glad we did. Right. But it helped us see that there is a clientele out there that we really should be gearing our business towards because they're a lot less work, they spend a lot more money, and they have realistic expectations for us. And so that's just a reality of business, is your business is geared for a clientele. Just make sure in your business that it's the clientele you really want. Thank you for coming to your appointment. Thanks for being on time. You are the best customer. You are the best customer. You're the best client. You're not a customer, you're a client and you're a favorite client. Thank you so much, regulars. And uh, for those of you first timers, we hope you'll be back for more. Your appointment's over. We'll see you for the next one. And that's that. Today's appointment is over. This has been appointment only. Your time is valuable, and we're very appreciative of you spending some of it with us. Thanks for showing up. Thanks for being on time. Thanks for being receptive to what we have to say. And if you have a question you'd like us to answer here on appointment only, please shoot us a DM. We would love to hear from you. We would also appreciate a five star review. We'd love if you'd follow along. Follow us here however you're hearing this, and follow us on Instagram at appointment only pod.