We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jheneal McDuffie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jheneal below.

Jheneal, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

A customer was referred to my business for resume writing services. When he finished the services, he called his credit card company to request a refund, claiming he’d never received them. I woke up to my PayPal account in red. Let’s start from the beginning. We connected over the phone, and he was ready to provide his card number in our first conversation, but then decided to think about it. He scheduled a follow-up call, by which time my prices increased. He decided to think about it again. He took about two months and then called back to get a new quote, but I’d increased my prices for the services he requested.

Our process is simple: the client pays, and we create a comprehensive career profile. The client reviews and approves the profile. Once completed, we hand over the profile, passwords, documents, etc., and close your account. He was under the impression that this was a lifetime service, meaning we would update his career profile for the rest of his life for the price we would charge a client for one document. We explained this in writing multiple times, and he did not understand that this was not a “lifetime” package, and we’ve never communicated or alluded to it being such.

He called his credit card company and said we took his money and never provided services. After three months of back-and-forth with PayPal, they deemed that the services were rendered and refunded our account. What a disaster!! Since then, he hasn’t contacted us, and we’re not interested in his business or referrals.

Jheneal, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The Resume Chic & Co. (TRC) is a women-owned, black-owned boutique resume writing firm headed by Jheneal McDuffie, a 7X award-winning resume writer and coach. Our team provides career profile services—resumes, LinkedIn profile revamps, career coaching, and interview prep—to improve candidates’ chances of employment.

TRC has positively impacted the lives of its customers by providing them with high-quality resumes that showcase their skills and experience. Our services allow our customers to stand out in a competitive job market, increase their chances of getting hired, and ultimately achieve their career goals. We take a personalized approach to each customer, working closely with them to understand their unique strengths and achievements and crafting a resume that effectively communicates these qualities to potential employers. Our commitment to excellence has helped many customers secure their dream jobs and advance their careers.

We want potential clients, followers, and fans to understand the value they bring to the table. We want them to know that their stories need to be heard, and we help them get the right people’s attention while enhancing their professional image. We aim to build trust and credibility among our audience. We want people to know that investing in our services can lead to tangible results, such as securing more job interviews, receiving job offers, promotions, and salary increases.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

I went through a course creation program that taught me how to sell to clients. Before the program, I’d been doing pretty well for myself, but after the program, I lost 100% of sales opportunities for six months. That’s six months with $0–no income!!

I had to figure out what I was doing wrong and why clients were unwilling to buy from me. The answer was simple: they didn’t want to be sold to; they couldn’t see the value in the business because of the way the program taught me to approach the sale.

I went through my potential client list for the six months and asked them all to complete a brief survey. The responses were eye-opening and right on par with what I thought–customers want to feel heard.

During the original sales process, I was so hell-bent on getting my point across and telling them how great my services were that I lost track of their needs. The survey helped me bridge the gap between my offerings and the customers’ pain points. By simply listening to what my customers needed, I went from losing all the business opportunities to closing 97% of my sales with increased price points.

I created a new Process to Profit program to help my peers achieve the same success. I helped them to identify pain points, create customer avatars, and price their packages. Additionally, I taught them to sell without selling.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I enjoy automating processes and using technology to build workflows. I have built-in emails that go out to clients monthly; I also use the Cloze app that reminds me when I haven’t heard from a client in a while and prompts me to connect with them. That app is the coolest and great for customer relationship management.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theresumechic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theresumechic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theresumechic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-resume-chic/
• Other: TikTok – @thetiktokresumedoc