I hope you watch Donald Trump’s “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Trump makes a bunch of celebrities do tasks to try and win money for the charities they are representing. Watching this provides many instructive lessons of which we will focus on one.
By the way, I am not here to fire you, although for many that might be just what you need to get a wake up call! The point is you need to be selective on who you are working with and getting referrals from.
Don’t Be Afraid To Fire Your Clients Or Referral Partners! I just heard many of you scream after reading that. Don’t worry I promise this will be the best exercise you have done in your business in a long time. Let me share with you a story.
Early on in my residential mortgage business I was fortunate (not really) to get a vast majority of real estate agents in an office to send me their home buyers to help them with their mortgages. I thought this was amazing! It wasn’t until 18 months later I sat down and analyzed this relationship. What I found was startling.
The prospects they were referring me were challenging to work with, many never bought homes, were high maintenance and had the lowest closing percentage of anyone I was working with. There was also a high volume of prospects coming my way that most mortgage professionals would give their left arm for. What I realized though, was the opportunity cost and stress level these prospects brought to my business was actually costing me money.
So, one day I went into the real estate office and fired them! That’s right, I went into the office and politely said thank you for the past business but we no longer are a fit. You know what happened? My stress level went down. I started to attract higher quality prospects. I worked less hours but made more money. This was one of the hardest things I ever did that turned out to be one of the best things I ever did!
Take time to weed out those clients that are costing you money. Take time to find the referral sources that are sending you prospects that eat up your valuable time and fire them! It will be one of the happiest days of your life. Make this a yearly habit. A little purging goes a long way!
