Wouldn't it be great if you could stop lousy leads at the front door before they become a problem?
Back in 2001, I started my online business, and like many new business owners, I had the ideology of pile it high and sell it cheap.
Make it available to everyone, they said!
Who wouldn’t want what I’ve got?
Now at this point, one of two things are going to happen:
1 – Crickets chirping in the background
2 – Booming sales
I was fortunate enough to hit the ground running at the start with number 2.
It also turns out both of these choices are problems.
Making what you have available to everyone, despite how good what you do is, will attract a lot of degenerates once word gets out.
Weird, right?
It’s what I call a “high-grade” problem.
Lots of people want your product or service…
Yet, because of the low prices, lots of “IMPERFECT” people want your product or service.
They do not value what you do and will always push the boundaries.
The scope of what you offer goes further and further past the line of your original offer because of this pressure.
At first, you do it because you're a nice person and you genuinely want to help everyone.
Then you notice that most of those same people are taking more time and more resources.
Which is leaving you with less energy and less motivation every time it happens.
It's a vicious cycle combined with a catch 22 with a side order of inevitability.
The good news is that you can stop lousy leads like this dead in their tracks with a few simple steps.
Inserting a red velvet rope policy is one way I’ve seen this principle described.
It’s likely you will have seen this or experienced this yourself.
Exclusive restaurants and nightclubs tend to have lines to get in. Why is this, do you think?
They must be good or even great places to go if there is a line of people outside, right?
There have been many studies proving how and why this works to make you look exclusive – Trust me, this works.
It also means that people start to self-select themselves in or out of the line. [I’ll explain more in a moment.]
Can you see the power of this simple red velvet rope policy?
You can set this up for your own business with a few simple steps.
All that needs to happen is to make access to you, your product or service a little less readily available.
All the while this allows you to let in your perfect client. This filtering process treats these ideal prospects like VIP celebrities.
Thus, stopping lousy leads at the front door before they become a problem.
Sound good?
Let's dig a little deeper into how you can do this.
(Note – I’m going to assume that you are fantastic at what you do and can actually deliver a world-class result for your client.)
1 – Increase your prices – A lot!
This will stop most of the price shoppers. You will always have them at every price point.
The quality of your client will always increase. Some people will still want the best and associate higher prices with quality.
2 – By appointment only.
I love this myself, and we use this a lot, as our time is precious to us.
I like to limit access to myself only to people who have taken the time to make an appointment. By doing this, they will often let you know how serious they are about taking action and talking to you.
Generally speaking, that is all you need to do.
There are many ways to achieve these two steps. It allows you to to create the perception of exclusivity and high value.
It’s these two simple steps that have made myself and my clients a lot of money over the years.
I’ve increased my prices many times.
I've also increased the number of steps that people need to take before they are able to make an appointment with me.
The occasional lousy lead will still wriggle through, although it’s not a common occurrence these days.
Now it’s up to you to stop your lousy leads from slipping through the cracks and creating a velvet rope policy that acts as a filter for your Perfect Leads.
