I want you to understand and appreciate the value that you have as an ad manager, as someone who’s running campaigns, for people that you are a Rainmaker, that you are a revenue generator for their business, and it’s not a matter of them interviewing you and asking you for testimonials and asking you for these case studies and proof of your examples and such that may be part of it.

You certainly want to be showing them results. If you have them to be able to say, yep, this is what we’ve been able to do for other clients. That’s fine. However, most importantly, I want you to come from it from a mindset that you’re interviewing this client, this potential client, to make sure that they may be a good fit for you and your business.

Right? So three red flags to look for that would be indicators that they may not be a good idea for you and your business. They may not be the best fit and to say, no, it’s okay to say no. When you do say no, something else will come along. And you’ll likely be very thankful that you did. There is nothing worse than taking a client on board.

We kind of had a bit of a gut check. You had that feeling of like, maybe I shouldn’t take this one on board, but you do anyway. It’s more often than not just fraught with issues after that. Okay. And you’re going, I should’ve listened to my gut instincts. So the first red flag is on the discovery call. Are they at home on their computer at a place that is, you know, set aside because this time was allocated.

Like typically when I would send out an email saying, Hey, thanks for booking a call. This is what’s going to happen. So please make sure your computer, because chances are, we’re going to look at your ad account and share your screen. So I want them at home. I want them to be focused and just be talking to me at that time, not be multitasking and doing other things.
Now I’ve had calls with clients who have been out driving around, walking around on their way to somewhere else. And those calls I terminate pretty quickly, like I’ll say, Oh, okay. So are you home now? Is it still convenient? Is it a good time to call?

Well, actually, I’m just going to pick up my son from school and it’s like, why did you even book this time? If this is what you typically have to do at this time of day? Um, or how did you book this time? So if it’s not convenient, if they are out multitasking on the road, walking around or something else is going on, like for example, you know, the plumber was you know, therefore one person that I was talking to and it was a mess, it kept going, Oh, I’ve just got to go in and say, Oh, he’s asking this duh duh, it was just terrible. What you need to do? Is that okay? Okay. So this may not be a good time for you.

Well, how about we reschedule to a time that would be more convenient that is showing that you’re taking leadership that it’s not acceptable to really be, you know, multitasking while we’re supposed to be having a serious conversation about the possibility of us running your ads for you. And you know, if you are really invested in serious and learning, and if we are going to be a good fit, then you would be focused on this because it’s not a quick fix.

You’re looking for a long term partnership, so to speak with this potential client. So it’s not something that you want to be, they want to be multitasking. We’ll be walking around. So do yourself a favor, right? And say, look, it’s. Yeah, it’s probably not a good time now. So let’s circle back. Let’s find another time.

I’ll send you another calendar link so let’s cancel, today’s call find another time that suits you and let’s go from there. Okay. Now you may even discover it in that short timeframe. If you do actually want to work with this person or not, if they are going, Oh, no, no, it’s fine. It’s fine. Stand up for yourself.

Say, well, actually, no, it’s not fine. It’s not the best use of my time. We really need to get in and have a look at your ads manager or, you know, be focused. I’ve got some questions for you to really see if we’re going to be a good fit. So really need to have your undivided attention for this call.

Okay. So I’ll send you the calendar link. So if they’re multitasking, if they’re not at home, but they’re not focused or in their vehicle that’s one red flag to me that saying that they’re not respecting my time enough to be able to commit and just put this time aside and focus on just talking to me. That’s red flag number one!

Number two is if, if you’re on the call, everything’s going well, they’ve got their time set aside. They’re at home, they’re on their computer. And they’re telling you then about, they’ve had three ad managers in the last four months and the last ones didn’t do any good. And I could see that things weren’t performing even before, you know, in week three, the things were going downhill. I would have red flags with all of that.

They’ve got a consistent history of going from ad manager, ad manager to ad manager, and then blaming all these ad managers. I would be asking, why is it the ad managers or is it actually the offer?

Is it actually what’s going on with the client themselves? Are they not getting things through to the ad manager in time? Maybe they’ve got so many other businesses on the go, perhaps. And they just threw things at the end manager and expected them to wave their magic ROI wand and get everything to work.

So that would be red flag, number two, numerous ad managers complaining about ad managers, not working out and not knowing what they’re doing. That would be a red flag. That would certainly be a client that would be one that I might do an audit for to check out their ad account and see if there are some major issues going on there too.
But to probably with that kind of attitude it’s probably not something that I want to be welcoming into my world.

Red flag Number three, how soon do we get results? When can I expect my first sale? How fast are we going to be getting my money back? Again, that’s a red flag. I would be concerned that this person maybe doesn’t have the budget needed to be playing the long game and to be doing some testing with Facebook ads testing and investing their money to find out what works and what doesn’t work so that you can then scale up and have a sustainable business.

Chances are, they may have a new Amex and they want to just put the billing all on the Amex so that the ad spend will go on there. Your management fee will all go up on there as well. But there’s that pressure that we need sales and we need sales fast. That’s not ideal. That’s not the kind of pressure that you want to have.

And that’s where a lot of other ad agencies may not have that because they’ve got networks of people who have plenty of budget and they’ve been spending money on other marketing efforts, and then they go, yeah, let’s put some money into Facebook ads. Here you go, go do this.

That’s a lot less stressful rather than working with someone who is just starting out, may not even have an offer validated. They’ve just gone and done some course that’s teaching them how to be a coach to coach coaches. And they’re just starting out with their ads, starting out this whole new business. They know they need to do ads. They’re overwhelmed. They want someone else to do it, but they don’t really have the budget for it.

One because I got to be paying for their ad spend as well as your management fee. Which adds up, especially if you’re charging $2000, $3,000 a month for your management fee. Plus they want to be spending at least a hundred dollars a day on their ads. So that’s $6,000 a month!

That’s a fair chunk for someone who is just starting out. So rather than have that pressure of taking them on board, other things that you could do for them could be to possibly provide some sort of consulting service, where you can meet for an hour a week, check their ads, point them in the right direction. You could also have a bit of a next level also provide a box service. So on voxer, you have your one hour a week, and then there can be some other meetings during the week, or just by sending messages on voxer where they can ask you questions and you’ll say, yes, that CPMs too high try a new audience. So some consulting is some way that you could help them out. In the meantime, to help them get some results with their Facebook ads.

Otherwise what it comes down to is that they might just have to roll their sleeves up, learn what they can to get started so that they don’t have to pay the agency fee or your retainer.
They can put that money all into their ad spend so that they can get some results quicker and with a bit less pressure as well.

So they’re the three red flags that I’m looking for as I’m talking to people, one, have they put aside the time of day for me, if not, then it’s see you later. Let’s reschedule if you like. And if you’re lucky, okay, I’ll accept you back. Number two is, have they gone through numerous ad managers and saying there’s issues? And then number three if they’re just starting out and they need to make or turnover a buck quickly, it’s probably not ideal for you. It’s going to cause you a lot of stress. So keep those things in mind next time when you’re interviewing potential clients to see if they’re a good fit for your business