In 1995, a man named McArthur Wheeler walked into two Pittsburgh banks in broad daylight, no mask, no disguise, and robbed them both while grinning up at the security cameras like the fool that he was.

He didn’t hide his identity because he didn’t think he needed to (wait for it).

Naturally, the cops tracked him down in no time flat and arrested him. He denied it all until the police showed him the surveillance footage from the bank’s security camera that clearly identified him committing the crime. He stared at the screen, genuinely stunned, and said the six words that would go on to launch an entire branch of psychology:

“But I wore the juice!”

Wheeler wasn’t trying to be funny. He had smeared lemon juice all over his face because he knew lemon juice acts as invisible ink — so he concluded it would make his face invisible to cameras too.

Two psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, read about ol’ Wheeler and used it as the basis for one of the most well-known findings in modern psychology. It’s called the Dunning-Kruger effect, which simply means this: the people who are the MOST incompetent at something are almost always the most confident they’re great at it.

This explains a LOT about the world we live in.

But more to the point of this week’s Rant, it’s also why you have to use discrimination when selecting which clients you will and won’t take.

The business world is full of McArthur Wheelers – prospects or even clients who think they’re smarter than you about what they need and what they don’t when it comes to security, backups or general IT support. They’ll argue with you, dismiss your legitimate concerns and belittle you for even suggesting they make a change or investment – but will fully expect top-level service and the same results.

Here’s the lesson: You cannot build a lucrative, sane business when your client base is made up of non-compliant, completely unreasonable lemon-juice-smeared idiots too stupid to know they’re stupid.

Yes, every once in a while one sneaks through and you’ll have to sit them down and attempt to talk sense into them – and sometimes that even works. But if they refuse to follow your advice, they need to be offboarded quick, fast and in a hurry.

Most MSPs try to argue with these people. They over-explain, drop their price and concede. Some come to me looking for a magic email they can send to fix stupid. When they get nowhere, they make concessions and twist their reasonable proposal and service plan into a balloon animal trying to get them to buy. Finally, they discount, not because their services are overpriced and bloated, but because they fear telling the prospect or client to kick rocks.

Problem is, when your new client pipeline is one prospect deep, every Wheeler looks like an opportunity you can’t afford to lose.

You sign the account you KNOW is going to be a giant pain in the ass, and then you spend the next three years getting yelled at and put at risk by a guy who confuses MDR with invisible ink.

Being selective and choosing to target and accept only HVCs (high-value clients) is something I’ve been harping on for YEARS. This is a choice you consciously make.

It’s a choice between being smart or stupid, thinking as investor or pauper, and often and increasingly, between prosperity and being chained to a JOB wearing an entrepreneur’s cloak. I don’t think there is any other factor more determinate of success or failure now than the “who” you choose to get as your customers – and the “who” you deliberately choose to repel.

Never forget: It’s a BIG world out there. You do NOT want everyone as a customer. Not even close. What you do want are FEWER clients for whom you can do your BEST work, get the BEST results and live your BEST life serving.

You know your sales process and marketing is still not working. Are you ready to stop dealing with Wheelers and start getting the HVCs you want? Head on over to my site and let’s talk: https://www.robinrobins.com/msp-marketing-services/