Sometimes I straight up ignore clients. And you should too.
Why?
Well, let me tell you a story:
One of my newer clients is—how do I say this politely?—kinda disruptive. She means well and all. But she emails me too much, which I prefer to setting up calls and wasting even more time.
In the past couple of weeks, she’s emailed me more than 12 times and we also had an hour-long meeting.
And this is a little too much for my liking.
Why?
Well, I can’t be productive when I’m sitting in my email inbox, responding to each email I get immediately. Checking my email causes me to procrastinate (and not in a good way either… I’ll share more about how to procrastinate in a good way tomorrow).
In other words, she’s trying her damndest to micromanage me, and micromanaging me is something I don’t allow my clients to do.
And so, I decided to ignore her.
It’s not in a malicious way, it’s because I care about her.
Here’s what I mean:
Besides not being able to be productive when I get suckered into my email, it’s important to “train” your clients. Which means, not responding immediately to them. And by ignoring her, I’m “training” her to stop micromanaging me, so I can do the important work of helping her grow her business through email.
I’m sure if I asked her if she’d rather me respond to all her emails immediately or, you know, do the work that will actually drive the needle forward, she’d agree. (And I plan to do such if she doesn’t get the lesson from being ignored.)
Anywho:
Ignoring your clients also proves you're not needy or reliant on them to pay the bills. Something worth its weight in gold, if’n you ask me.
But you know what?
By teaching her this lesson, we’ll make even more money working together. It’s the classic “what you need to hear, not what you want to hear” tactic.
I do this with all my clients when they act up. And I encourage you to do it with your clients and customers too when the situation calls for it. Obviously, I’m not suggesting ignoring your clients for willy-nilly reasons.
Which brings me to business:
If you want my help growing your revenue with email, and promise not to micromanage me, book a call here.
Meetcha back here tomorrow.
John
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