How to repel cheapskates online.

Cheapskates.
Tire kickers.
People who don’t make great clients.

There comes a time in every business where you realize that there are people who show up to consults or initial sessions… who are NON-ideal clients.

They have a dysfunctional relationship with money.

They wish you didn’t charge so much.

They trash talk people they have hired before. (It’s all someone else’s fault).

You have a little voice inside you, however faint, that says, “you know? I don’t think it would be that fun to work this person.”

Or maybe: you have great clients, and great boundaries. You know who “your people” are – and who they aren’t.

But they come to you through word-of-mouth or referral.

Not online.

Your website doesn’t get much action. Or it gets a fair amount of traffic, but the caliber of leads that your website brings you is decidedly lower quality than the people who come to you organically. You may ask yourself:

“What the heck is going on?! “

Here are some tips to help you attract a more sophisticated sort of client, through your website:

1. Watch your language. The way you describe the problem your target market signals the sorts of people you want to work with. For example, if you talk about struggle or overwhelm, you will tend to attract people who are – wait for it — struggling and overwhelmed.Instead, practice using the “language of challenge.” Don’t assume helplessness or victimhood in your leads – assume they are capable people who don’t need to be convinced. They just need to work with you to get the results that have eluded them so far.

2. Accept that you must nurture relationships. There’s a crazy belief that online is different than Real Life – that it’s more about conversion and Magic Power Words than connecting and offering real value.I wish everyone who believed this would wake the heck up – the more human you are online, warts and all, the more likable you are. The more people like you and feel like they know you, the more receptive they are to buying from you. Your website is just the start of that relationship.

3. Hustle. Everyone – myself included – who is doing well in online business is hustling her buns offline. Even if they are posting pictures of their exotic vacations by the ocean.Don’t expect that a great website will do all the work for you. It takes hustle. It takes leaving the laptop and talking to people. It takes learning new things. It takes experimentation. These things happen over time. Not all at once.

4. Let yourself be seen. So many business owners I talk to think their website has to be a certain way, or it won’t work. While there are some things that every money-making website has (see this article), there is way more room for your personality and point of view than you may think. In fact, that’s your secret weapon…

The biggest challenge so many business owners have is striking a balance between coming across as “professional” … and revealing more of who they really are and what they really think.

This balance doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it’s more of a living, moving thing. Which is why I suspect so many professionals, coaches and practitioners try instead to appear as something more polished, put together, or in control than they actually are.

But here’s the thing – those more sophisticated clients you love? They actually aren’t looking for perfection. They are looking for real. They are looking for someone they respect. They are looking for someone who is passionate about the topic they could use a helping hand with… to show them the way.

Cheapskates are looking for something else – easy answers and quick fixes. So the more you talk about fast, easy and convenient… the more likely you are to call in people who aren’t interested in paying you more for you expertise.

Mighty thanks to Jay Roeder flickr photostream for “The Hustle” image.

Like this article – but want some hand holding and community as you get your website good, done, and set up to list build and win clients? Please join us for the February session of the Write Your Website production lab.