Bad clients out there, duck and cover!

No flames please, these come from experience and are only a reflection on "bad clients"!

The problems lie in the 4Ps and, well you decide!

Price.

· They have a great product that everyone should have and price it as a service so everyone can buy it. To cover costs and make a profit, everyone must buy it!

· Their price simply will not cover costs, they place an ad or do a mailing and don't reckon on how many orders they need in to pay for it.

· The price is too high, maybe because their supplier is greedy, the prospect is sold, until he/she gets to the price - oh oh!

Positioning.

· They have a great utility product which saves money in heaps, yet they want to be a luxury product.

· They want to be a luxury product for the sake of their ego, but the product is tat.

· More profit can be made selling at a lower price in more volume, they are "quality" and feel they have to charge the premium regardless.

Product.

· They have a high tech, computerised, gee whizz item, there is an alternative which costs a couple of pounds.

Promotion.

· They don't understand the need to make an offer for customers to respond to.

· They consider "What we want to say is ...." of utmost importance and ignore the wants and needs of the customer.

· Their creative people are talking one on one to their prospect, their ego dictates that they have to butt in, interrupt, and make changes just to "get their oar in". Fine psychology is at work and they blow it.

· They want the contents of the British Library and the Library of Congress on a postage stamp.

· They have an amazing benefit which would clinch lots of sales but won't tell anyone.

Other stuff.

· They ask for a telephone response, say in a national newspaper, then don't answer the phone or even have an answering machine.

· They invite people to send off for more information. They don't have more information.

· They do have more information but leave it up to three months to send it to their prospect.

· They want large orders, get a response from someone who wants one unit, albeit an expensive one, then are so unpleasant the prospect never comes back and tells others.

· They ask for business they cannot handle.

· They wait so long to make a move they are brought down by costs.

· They confuse sales and profit.

· They believe every prospect has their lifestyle, educational level, views and outlook on life.

· They think risk reduction equals cost reduction and skimp on silly things like having a reply paid envelope.

· They demand low fees from suppliers to reduce risk, then do not come back when they have more money as they want low fees again. There is no coherent message or image or identity for the business.

· They like length of communication without the content.

· Their product has a minor feature no one gives a damn about, they have fallen in love with this feature and ignore the main function of their product.

· They communicate with a job title not the person who holds that job. A Managing Director gets a letter to the Managing Director style letter, overly formal and lick spittle.

· Ask them their mathematics and costs or average order value so that you can help them and do your job, they think you are being nosey.

· They think they are buying pieces of promotion or advertising when what they are buying is results and lower costs per order. The time and money they spend reflect this.

· They buy mailing lists of people who already have their product in another form, so are no longer in the market.

· They refuse to change the status quo. Tell them how to save sixty pence on packaging and mailing each order or the number of a media buyer who halves their advertising cost, they are not interested.

· They believe because they have paid for a mailing or ad, people will be obliged to read it.

· They won't hire a good copywriter!