Why Angry Customers Can Be Your Best Clients

In today's episode, I'm going to be going over why angry clients can actually be your best customers?

All right. So how many times have you run into a situation where, you know, you're dealing with a potential customer, and they're just angry, or they're upset, or they seem like they would be difficult to work with. And then you just say to yourself, you know what, I don't need this, you know, I can pick and choose my clients. Boom. Right? And so you let them go, and that's fair. That's totally fair. Or you have a guru or a company that is teaching you how to sell, how to run your business, where they're like, you don't have to take on any client, you can say no. And, you know, you don't have to deal with that stuff. And that's fine too. All right. And I used to think that way I really, really did, but that all changed. I'd say about a year ago when I started realizing that angry customers can be some of your best customers.

And let me tell you a quick story to illustrate that. By the way, this has happened. This is just one example. This has happened multiple times, but I was on a call with somebody once who was very angry and what they were saying about the program, just about everything did not make any sense. And I knew it didn't make any sense. And I was about to hang up and just be like, whatever, dude, you know, I don't need this, but then I thought, you know what, let me try something. Because as I thought about it, I thought about how angry they were, I thought about my relationships in the past. I thought about times when people in my life, my friends, my family, girlfriends, whatever were just saying things that made no sense because they were upset or they're angry.

And, you know, one of the biggest forms of, in my opinion, being a good partner is the discipline to not listen to what your partner or your friend or family member is saying. But what's behind the words that they're saying, you know, and realize that they're only saying that because they're upset. And if you converse with them and you get to the bottom of what is the real problem, not only will they not be upset, but it just developed such a bond 'cause they realize that you saw through what they were saying and you didn't attack it on the surface level. And so what I thought about was, all right, let me see why this person is upset. And so I didn't even listen, I didn't even acknowledge the, you know, somewhat insulting things that were being said on this call.

And I just got to the bottom of it. I said, well, it sounds like you're very angry. Now let me ask you. Let's figure out exactly what's going on. And so I asked multiple questions, and I found that this person, the reason this person was angry, had nothing to do with my product or my program at all. It had to do with their past experience. And when I broke that down and went through that with them, not only were they happy and they bought, but they bought my upper level. They went from my regular program to my mastermind, which was five times the price. And they were very happy with that decision. And they became like a fan. And as I kept doing this, I noticed that when I did this, when I listened to what was behind the words, and I didn't get caught up in what they were saying, I turned them into fans.

'Cause, they're like, wow, this dude understands me. Whereas maybe other people told them to screw off, you know, I got to the bottom of it. Now, don't get me wrong. There have been times where I got to the bottom of it. And I was like, no, this person's just a jerk. And that's fine. I say no. But you know, this works in multiple scenarios rather than just them being angry. Like when somebody says something, especially on a sales call, they're in an emotionally heightened state because they're considering separating themselves from their money. Or if they're angry, they're upset. They're not going to be thinking clearly; they're not going to be articulating themselves clearly. And when you can understand that, and you can ask questions that get behind those words and get to the root of the problem. Not only does it make you look like a really great coach, you know if that's what you're selling if you're selling coaching great.

If you're selling a service, it just makes you look like a really great person to do business with, but it changed the dynamic. And remember when you're on a call, and you're selling, at least if you do it our way, we essentially sell before we get on the call, we close on the call, but it's essentially a mindset call because if somebody is difficult on the phone, there are only one of two options. They're either going to decline to work with that person, which is totally fine. Or you're going to firmly set new expectations and fix their mindset on the call. Basically, for lack of a better term, you're going to show them that you're not going to take their crap, right? And, once they realize that, and they buy, they become even better customers, sometimes, than the people that were just naturally easy to work with because you've proven to them that you can listen beyond what they're saying.

And you got to the root of the problem. And, and they probably hung up the saying, I can't believe that guy didn't tell me to screw off. You know what I mean? And it just develops massive respect, like massive respect. And the other thing is, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs, it doesn't matter what you sell. You could sell a service. You could sell a consulting program. You could sell high-end machinery. It doesn't matter. Entrepreneurs take things personally on sales calls. When somebody challenges their product, they take it personally. You shouldn't take it personally because that person is, you've been with your product for years, right?

Like, imagine you're out at dinner with your wife, and you've been with your wife for 20 years. And you know that your wife is this amazing person she's given a charity. She's, I dunno, spent months over in Africa building wells or something. I mean, she's just like Mother Teresa, right? And then you go into this restaurant and she accidentally, you know, I don't know, does something like, doesn't scoot her chair in far enough, and some other couple walking through, you know, the guy, like, you know, calls her rude or something. And then you get all like upset. And you're like, this woman is Mother Teresa. And what you don't realize is that, yeah, you've spent the last 20 years with your partner. You've seen all those things that she's done, but that other person hasn't. Not that they should call anybody rude just for not moving a chair. But the point is, is that you can't expect your customer to be aware of all the great things in your product, your program or your service because they haven't been there this whole time, but you have.

And so those challenges being taken or being given for your product, we tend to take them personally, and you have to learn to let that go. When you learn to let that go, you learn to do better business with people, close sales that you wouldn't have closed, and reframe people's and clients' minds to come into the relationship a lot easier to work with being a lot more coachable, making the whole thing smoother to do business with. Then you create lifelong fans. So that is my suggestion. Next time you get a difficult customer, challenge yourself. Don't just say no. Try to turn them into a fan. Try to turn an angry customer and fan. When you can do that, now you're really getting good at sales. And if you need any help, you can always go to getclients.com and check out some of our stuff. You can apply to become a client, and we'll teach you how to do this stuff. We'll teach you how to grow your business book calls, and close sales, and scale to the moon. So hope you enjoyed this episode. I'll see you in the next one.