Do we take the money?

My team and I occasionally find ourselves in a position where we have to make the difficult decision to turn away new business.

We find ourselves in discussions with potential clients who are ready to buy but, after spending a couple phone calls together, we feel pretty certain they will be unhappy with our product.

"Do we take the money and just try to make it work?"

We've usually gone through a demo or two and have a pretty good idea of their business needs. In the process we've discovered that their workflows or priorities differ from those of our ideal client in some significant way.

The question we have to ask ourselves in these cases is "Do we take the money and just try to make it work"?

What we've learned over time is that if it's really a bad fit - both the customer and our account management team are going to suffer.

Since our end goal really is to help solve our customer's pain, here are some of the questions we've begun asking ourselves before making a decision to accept an "iffy" client:

• Does this client really have the need our product is solving? Or is our product just a convenience for them?
• Are their workflows and use cases a close enough fit to our existing clients that we will be able to build new features to support them?
• Do we really feel like that client will be happy they spent money on our product and tell others about us?

On the few occasions where we do come to a decision that a client will not be the best fit, we then have to work to communicate that in the most professional and respectful way possible.

We haven't always done a great job at this but, if done right, it can be a rewarding experience that helps your business in other ways.

We recently sent the following in an email with one such company:

"Dear Prospect,

I’ve thought a lot about this, and based on our conversations I'm concerned that our product and team wouldn't be able to keep up with your team's needs and expectations.

Our product would require multiple work-arounds and temporary solutions to fit your team's needs and probably add a lot of complexity to your process. And since I’m not sure we're moving in the same direction feature wise - I can’t guarantee we’re going to add the features your team might request...."

We finished up the email by pointing the client to some other vendors who might be a better fit for their investor management needs.

Sometimes communicating these things can be tricky - but often times the prospect is feeling the same way, and by valuing their needs more than the bottom line, we can build trust that can leads to more opportunities and referrals in the long run.