Andy Wibbels' latest contribution to the lexicon:

Trim the freaks verb. to manage or get rid of business prospects/clients who require a terrifyingly disproportionate amount of hand-holding, or are always looking for special treatment or a freebie

Without a system to trim the freaks, these kinds of people are usually very frustrating to the business owner to say the least! See Andy's rather amusing examples here. [Sorry Andy, I guess they're only funny when it's not me. ;-)]

For the record, I refer to this kind of thing of person as the Two-percenter. This is based on the idea that there will always be 2% of the population who are 'messers' in any given situation. In business the two-percenters are the people who end up costing you money to deal with.

Here is a little Standard Operating Procedure I use for the two-percenter - my FreakFilter, if you will. Not in any kind of 'order' - you or your team will have to exercise your judgement on a case-by-case basis.

1. Ignore.

Repeated odd requests for explanations, special treatment, etc. will eventually go away. Make sure you are okay with them leaving 'unhappy.' For me, this happens when I can think of the worst feedback they can give about me and my biz, and I'm comfortable with it.

2. Proactively refund money.

A template email can go like this:

Hi Name, and thanks for your comments. I can see that you definitely have strong feelings (a different perspective, etc.) about things.

Although I wish we could help NAME, at this point I'd like to suggest that there's likely a better solution for you for your (X) needs somewhere else, so I'm going to ask my assistant to process a refund in full, in the amount of (Y). You should see that amount come through and a receipt in your email in the next 48 hours.

Best wishes to you NAME in your pursuit of success.

3. Embrace the message, detach from the person.

Even if we feel as though we've answered a question for the millionth time, and the person is very frustrating to deal with, sometimes we will practice embracing the situation. For example:

"Dear NAME, of course we'd be happy to explain the Ice Cream Journey to you. Here's a link to purchase the book as a place to start. INSERT LINK.

I think you'll find it covers just about everything on the topic. Enjoy!"

Notice we don't say 'Let us know if you have further questions...' a deliberate omission when activating a FreakFilter. One thing we've come to understand is that our materials themselves are a great filter - people either get it or don't, and pursue our services or not, once they've read some of our writing.

4. Stick to your guns and enjoy making a point.

This one's my fave.

Although we actually don't get a lot of two-percenters, one of the most common things is a person who complains about poor spelling or punctuation on the blog or in our everyday emails. When this happens I actually enjoy making the point that I don't use a spell check or pay for a proofreader because it's more important to me to have a wide open canvas for expression and creativity than perfect English. And that English to me is a tool that I get to break as I create new words, bend rules so that they conform to new thoughts instead of the other way around.

In any case, sometimes a really lovely coaching point arises - the person will come back after I've stuck to my guns to say 'Oh, I so get it - I'm sorry I imposed my rigidity on you...I'm going to look at this differently now!'

Interesting right?

(5) Delegate.

Bear with me here, but isn't trimming the freaks about zapping tolerations? And if so, we know that every toleration can be zapped by one of three actions, right? Do it [deal with it], ditch it [scratch it off your list], or delegate it [pay someone else money to do it instead of you.]

If handling two-percenters is worthwhile to you for some reason, say on a specific project, delegating it can be a great solution too.

After all these years and probably hundreds of thousands of prospects by now, I do feel well equipped to handle the freay two-percenters - it does get better, in other words. In fact, we don't get that much freakiness anymore...and all this is tempered by the fact that I can be a two-percenter myself sometimes... :-)

Hope this helps! Feel free to use the templates above, just please don't worry if you catch a typoe. ;-)

P.S. Can someone help figure out how to reach Paul McFedries of the gosh-darn amazing www.WordSpy.com site for submission of cool new phrases like Andy'sFreakFilter? and just general adulation?

I know the guy is busy but he needs to go on vacation sometimes, right? I'd help manage his blog while he's away...is that freaky?

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