Yesterday, I got this really freaking good question in my email inbox.

I LOVE this.

Such a mature question to ask since most copywriters act like Needy Fiends when it comes to clients (which is the ultimate repellant of money).

And yes.

There certainly are Red Flags that tell you whether a client is gonna be a nightmare or not.

But I’ve found that one flag in particular is The Ultimate Red Flag That Tells It All.

That is…

DOES THE BUSINESS HAVE PROOF?

Let me show you what I mean…

Some years back, I was brought in to a Meta Ads agency to redo all their funnels (ads, emails, sales pages).

I knew the CEO personally — good Christian guy that went to my church. ✅

They didn’t gawk at my fees either so we’re off to the races! ✅

I send my 50% invoice.

It gets paid.

I get started.

Well, what’s the first thing I do?

RESEARCH!

Urgent problems. Benefits. Customer avatar. Features. Stories. Offers we’ve tried. Offers we haven’t tried. Competitors ads, funnels, sales pages. And uh… of course… PROOF.

But uh oh…

Turns out…

THEY DIDN’T HAVE A SMIDGE OF PROOF!

The testimonials they had came from ex-clients they told me not to use cause “that relationship didn’t end well.”

The “results” they had were like a unicorn farts in the wind — non existent!

And behind the scenes…

… the CEO was a chicken with his head cut off trying to put out all these “fires”, having to hire new employees to replace the ones that quit, swirling his head for new product ideas (since the current offers don’t sell) and constantly on the phone with angry clients try to save them (because they haven’t delivered a lick of the performance they promised)

I ended up having a real candid conversation with the guy.

Mostly because we went to church together and I didn’t want it to be awkward on Sunday 🤣

I returned the 50% and told him that I would not be comfortable selling a product that doesn’t deliver on it’s promise.

Which was a very nice way of saying…

“No one wants to buy your 💩 and I don’t wanna sell it cause it’s 💩”

I typically wouldn’t have returned ALL the money since I had already done a load of work but this was a lesson for me…

I shouldn't have accepted the work before verifying the product was worth selling.

That’s on me.

And for that, I needed to bite the bullet.

But looking back…

Not only would verifying their product’s proof helped me sell the thing, it would have also helped me identify the culture and people I’d be working with — especially with done-for-you services like delivering Meta Ads.

Cause if you have no proof or results with DFY services…

It means your service sucks…

Which means your people suck…

Which means your culture sucks…

Which means working with you likely…

SUCKS!

On the flip side…

I had a different very close friend of mine call me earlier this year to do some funnels for their audio engineering company.

You know what the first thing I asked them was?

SEND ME YOUR GOOGLE PROFILE.

I read through all their google reviews… then all their facebook reviews… and then all their website videos and testimonials (which they had tons of!).

And guess what?

That relationship worked out AWESOME!

Literally could not have gone any better!

Those are life lessons you just don’t get from stroking ChadGPT.

You get them from living it.

And if you thought that was helpful... then you’re gonna love Client Casanova.​

It’s 55 hard rules I learned from my 12 years of client experience that will help you get clients to love you, pay you and use no other copywriter… BUT YOU!

It’s a measly $27 right now but the second I get all my funnels migrated off of ThriveCart to ClickFunnels (within the next few weeks) — price jumps up to $55. Even at $55 it’s a steal.

But grab it at $27 while you can.

Enjoy!

Your friend,

Alin “Proof Pimp” Dragu