Chris, an alley-oop subscriber, asked a fascinating question the other day:
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KG, I’d love to better understand why you don’t allow anyone back after they cancel the Alley-Oop? Not trying to say I’d ever cancel but I had a client come back after taking a year break from training and thought about your policy. Don’t you miss out on opportunities like this where clients may want to come back later?
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I’ll admit, the idea of ‘blocking’ someone from resubscribing to the Alley-Oop is a strange play. You might even think I’m downright evil for implementing it.
And while I mentioned my reasons why in the podcast I did with Jordi when I first floated the ‘blacklist’, I thought I might revisit the topic since I’ve been asked again.
Here is why the policy exists:
1. Whenever I’ve processed a cancellation in any of my businesses, that cancellation is consistently and reliably replaced with clients who value what we/I do even more. If you need a reminder — look back on your net growth over the last year — as long as you’re growing, you’re clearly replacing those you lose, and then some. The lesson? Never be afraid to “trim the fat”, even if it feels like a waste at the time.
2. Outside of a few exceptions, very rarely is “money” the actual reason why someone is cancelling. For the vast majority, they just aren’t being truthful to you or themselves — and I don’t have a lot of bandwidth for fibbers because even a homeless man sitting outside a 7/11 rattling coins in a coffee cup makes more than $3.23 a day. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us.
3. It acts as a barrier to the people who think success in business is an event, not a process. I very rarely, if ever, can help them anyway because they’re looking for a magic bullet I can’t give them.
4. It adds exclusivity — because you only get one shot at staying a part of the club. This weeds out the flakey types.
5. There is a legitimate cost to leaving — which makes people think twice before they have a bad month and impulsively want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
6. I’d prefer to work with less gym and clinic owners, not more, so choosing the committed ones makes my life way more enjoyable.
7. There is an alarming trend where business owners jump from novel solution to novel solution like crack addicts looking for their next hit. I’m not a junkie-enabler so it’s my way of helping stem the spread.
8. If I can shift a business owner’s mindset so that they understand the importance of investing in themselves all year around, I’ll give them a skill that will return them millions over the long haul.
9. It makes for more serious customers who actually consume the content and this creates a positive feedback loop because they get great results then, too.
10. I’m the type of guy that prefers my products to demonstrate my values — and commitment is one of them. I’m not a stop-start kinda guy.
11. And, it clearly separates the players in the arena from the spectators watching on.
Now just to be clear: I’ve got no issue with anyone cancelling. They know what’s right for them and their business and the Alley-Oop newsletter is certainly not for everyone.
The blacklist is just for those who want to weasel their way back.
Because the way I see it:
Anyone who doesn’t like the policy only needs to look in a mirror to see why it exists — they truly are their own worst enemies and ironically, they don’t even realise it.
And, as the low-attention, low-commitment phenomena sinks its claws even deeper into the collective social psyche as a result of social media and TikTok, I think more business owners will realise how important and profitable it is to create and enforce standards that filter out time-wasters…
And once they start to experience the upside of not having to deal with time-wasters and the uncommitted types, I think you’ll start seeing policies like this become the norm, not the exception.
Time will tell I guess.
In the meantime, this entire email is a ‘demonstration’ of how to sell in a way that gives you elasticity with your pricing, and allows you to sell at, and for, a premium.
And for the good graces of God, please don’t think it’s by implementing a blacklist. That would be an amateur interpretation.
No, what I’m talking about is everything that is ‘between the lines’ of this email. The eleven reasons gives you a sneak peak.
But if you want the full breakdown, including how to systematically increase pricing so you can command what you’re worth, then you’ll want to subscribe to the Alley-Oop.
You can do that here:
– Karl Goodman
