Disqualifiers, Filters & Damning Confessions

Everybody wants every customer walking by their doors to step in and buy something. Those new to sales don’t appreciate just how low a purchase rate is considered ‘best in the world’.

If you’ve converted 5% of your customers, that means that one out of every twenty people that showed some interest in what you’re selling actually pulled money out of their wallet and gave it to you. Real Estate agents and Car retailers would kill for numbers like those. There are successful pay-per-click campaigns that get into a percentage of a percentage of viewers clicking on an ad.

And really, how many cars do you think pass by a billboard before one person leaps out of a window throwing cash down?

“Low” conversion rates is a relative term. In fact, for many businesses, having conversion rates that are too high is a negative thing.

Consider a service business - bodybuilding coach takes on a client that wants to train for a powerlifting meet. In either case. Or zoom out and look at a merchandise wholesaler that has ten main clients, two of which call in the most complaints and drag down the customer service reps time?

Most businesses with a history can point to clients that they didn’t want. When there’s a mis-match between the business and the customer, nobody really walks away happy. It could be a case of lack of options, or it could very well be that neither party properly vetted the other.

Copywriters talk about ‘qualifying’ or ‘disqualifying’ a lead. “Don’t call Mr. Bodybuilding coach if you’re not interested in packing on 20lbs of lean mass”. Clearly something to qualify the client. “Don’t call Mr. Bodybuilding coach if you whine, complain, skip workouts, and cheat on diets”. This statement disqualifies.

Another strategy is the ‘Damning Confession’. A negative about the business. “If you’re looking for a Bodybuilding coach that can transform anyone from a couch potato to a superstar, we’re not the right business. We only specialize in stay at home mothers in the east side of town.”

This flips the focus from the client to the business. This would make clients disqualify the business unless they are stay at home mothers living in the east side of town.

But if the east side of town has a baby boom - then this business can thrive. Maybe conversions will be 1% -- or 0.01%, but the match between business and customer will be so good that the business will pick up a customer for life.

The math can get more complex, but really it doesn’t need to be. The difficult part is convincing new business owners that filtering customers and clients is a good idea in the first place - particularly when you haven’t seen 20 people walk through the door yet. But there are clients and customers that are a bad fit, and many a business owner learns this the hard way.

Think about who you’re worst clients are, and think about what your business life would be like without them. Why don’t you stop picking them? Or better yet, why don’t you train them to stop picking you.