Prince Charming Had an Off Switch (And I Found It)
- Andrea Goodman
- May 28
- 2 min read
He came in as a referral.
Which means my guard was already down before the first email landed.
And not just any referral.
A client I'd built a real relationship with.
Someone who always showed up like a partner.
The kind of person you assume keeps good company.
You assume the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Sometimes you assume wrong.
Multi-facility operation. Mid-Atlantic. Serious player.
The pre-meeting back and forth was everything you want.
Engaged.
Thoughtful.
Genuinely
interested.
Talked about growth like he meant it.
Talked about partnership like he understood what that word costs.
I was in.
Then the work got real.
Not the big stuff.
The basic stuff. Phone number that matched the geography. Simple logistics.
The kind of thing you talk through together before you start.
I wasn't asking him to do anything. I was thinking out loud. Like partners do.
He bellowed...
"I don't want to know about any of that. I don't want to get involved in any of that."
Just like that.
The charm had an off switch.
And I'd just found it.
That was the moment.
Not a yellow flag. Not a warning shot. A trapdoor.
The man who showed up in the emails and the man who showed up when the work started were not the same man.
Looking back the signs were always there.
He complained bitterly about his last BD person.
Cut them loose in under three months.
Couldn't explain why. Just a strange experience, he said.
The last one always has a story worth hearing.
Emails took days to get a reply.
Not because he was busy.
Because he wasn't that interested.
Something just seemed off. There's a difference. You learn to feel it.
Then he missed the contract signing.
Conference, he said.
I wonder sometimes how he'd feel if someone did that to him.
I stopped wondering pretty quickly.
That conference was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Here's what nobody tells you about bad clients:
The obvious ones are easy.
The rude ones.
The cheap ones.
The disorganized ones.
You see them coming.
It's the charming ones that cost you.
The ones who did their homework before the call.
The ones who made you feel like — finally...a real partner.
Those are the ones that get you.
Decades of sales culture train us to spot bad clients after they've signed.
The flags were always there before the ink dried.
The charm was real until the work got real.
Those are the ones to watch for.
Have you ever been fooled by the referral that looked perfect on paper?
Drop it below.
Let's compare notes.
Andrea Goodman
Appointments By Design
High-touch business development partner for B2B companies in facility services, trades, and beyond. We open doors to decision-makers—not just calendars.
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