The 5 Techniques to Avoid Taking on Non-Ideal Clients in Your Consulting Business

In today's edition of THE INDEPENDENT, let's talk about non-ideal consulting clients.

Have you ever taken on a consulting client, only to quickly regret that decision?

• Knowing they'd be difficult... 
• Knowing they were underpaying you...
• Knowing you took them on primarily for the money...
• Knowing they would expect you to work more hours for them than you wanted to...

But you did it anyway...for reasons that felt logical in the moment.

And then you paid the price each and every day (sometimes for months on end) because you took them on.

This non-ideal client scenario happens more often than you might imagine.

I can tell you this from personal experience. I took on non-ideal consulting clients many times, especially when I was first starting out as a consultant.

• I agreed to rates that were well below the value I was delivering.
• I agreed to be on call 24x7 to respond at a moment's notice.
• I agreed to drop everything when the client had an "emergency" (and they had many).
• I agreed to work where it was questionable if they'd have the funds to pay me.

The truth is that I made all these mistakes because I was afraid I wouldn't have other opportunities and wasn't thinking of my work as a business.

The good news is that it's been years since I've engaged with a client I regretted taking on.

It's because I've implemented the 5 strategies I'll share with you, and as a result, I have a very dialed-in process for attracting and vetting clients.

And, I want to help you have one too, so you can avoid the financial and emotional cost of taking on non-ideal clients.

There are five strategies to avoid taking on non-ideal consulting clients.

And, you can avoid these non-ideal clients without missing your revenue goals. You don't have to choose. You can have ideal clients AND hit your revenue goals as a consultant.

Here's how:

1. Be crystal clear about all aspects of your floor

2. Use your emotions to your advantage, as a business tool

3. Generate intrinsic confidence

4. Leverage flexible offerings (especially if you're on the fence about the ideal-ness of a potential client)

5. Develop a value-driven exit strategy

I share specifics for each of these strategies in this week's podcast episode.

Listen to Episode 187 here.

Implementing the five strategies I share in the episode can save you from months of regret and opportunity cost.