Think back (maybe way, way back for some of you) to when you were in school. Remember report card day? Did you mostly get A’s and B’s, or did you get a mix of A’s, B’s, C’s and D’s? What was your parents’ reaction? Most likely your parents would give you a high-five for the good grades, and have a serious discussion about the bad grades and how to help you improve them.

Back in school, we would have our parents and teachers create a plan that would help increase our grades. Let’s drop the classes we aren’t doing so well in and join some we know we can excel in. I propose we apply the same plan to your electrical business and drop the grade C and D clients to make room more for A’s and B’s. It’s time to better our grades— our business!

Would you hold up your list of current clients and be proud to show a list of A’s and B’s or would you find a large number of C and D clients? Now that Spring is here, and things are about to get very busy for us, it’s time to put this plan in action.

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“Kick your Grade D clients to the curb because they don’t deserve you.” Tweet This

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Here are the different grades of clients:

A (Awesome) grade clients pay their bills on time, are pleasant to deal with, are happy to pay you what you quoted and sometimes more, are repeat clients, provide amazing referrals, and are great communicators; giving you all the details to do your job right the first time.

B (Basic) grade clients pay their bills eventually but sometimes need to be chased, they are sensitive to your pricing and are only somewhat loyal; long-term relationships are not at the top of their priority list, but at least doing jobs for them tend to run pretty smoothly.

C (Can’t deal with) grade clients tend to have an undiagnosed case of schizophrenia as they’re constantly changing their minds and not expecting to have to pay for it. Even if you sold the job below your cost and they knew it, they’d still want a better price! They generally don’t pay on time and when they do it’s less than what you invoiced them for.

D (Dead) grade clients are like leeches; draining the blood out of our business right in front of you and your team. They treat your crew like dirt, which sometimes results in top employees quitting. They are never satisfied and you’re lucky if you ever get paid because they see you as a bank, not an Electrical Contractor.

Don’t feel discouraged if you were reading through these descriptions and actual clients were popping into your head. It’s a good sign that you’re ready to start saying goodbye to your grade D clients.

I’ve created a really effective tool that can accelerate grading your clients.

Grading your clients will make you realize how much time you’ve been wasting on C’s and D’s. Some clients that you thought were A’s and B’s are actually C’s and D’s typically because of a lack of profit and poor timing when it comes to paying bills. Once you kick the grade C’s and D’s to the curb, you’ll allow your company more opportunity for higher profits and cash flow, save hundreds of hours from dealing with unhappy clients that can never be pleased, and promote a better company atmosphere because employees will be a lot more proud of their ‘grades.’ Utilizing this tool will get you really clear on what types of clients you need to start marketing to.

How to kick them to the curb:

Pick the top few D’s and send them a letter informing them that you’re no longer going to be working with them. Phone them to make sure they received it.
Let the team know who’s been informed and tell them the new rules of the game (putting the list of clients up on a whiteboard will help everyone know who not to deal with any longer.)
Create a script so admin and anyone answering the phone knows how to keep the door shut on them.
Let the team know who the A’s and B’s are and how they need to be treated differently.
Create a marketing plan as if you were going fishing; to determine where the A’s are, create the right lures with strategies on how to get more of them.

Create strategies to improve the B’s to A’s.

Getting rid of the C’s and D’s will allow you to give so much more attention to the grade A’s. It allows you to actually work less for more profits. Treat your grade A’s like gold, and they’ll give you repeated business time and time again— soon you won’t ever have to deal with another grade D client again, simply because you won’t have to!

If you have any questions concerning this topic, feel free to contact Profit for Contractors at 613-604-4531 or support@profitforcontractors.com