How to Repel the Wrong People from Your Company

If you’re anything like me, you learn best by seeing examples of great advice put into action. So let’s take a trip to the movies – the Alamo Drafthouse to be specific – and see how they’ve made their culture clear while appealing to their true fans, people who love movies.

When it first opened in 1997, it described itself as “…good food, good beer and good film, all at the same place!” But the thing that puts Alamo over the top (and makes it my favorite place to see a movie) is its super-strict “no talking or texting” rule.

From its founder, Tim League:

We want to keep the movie-watching experience safe from people who aren't movie fans.

So, how does it deliver on that? Before every showing, it plays a warning video that says:

This auditorium is now a quiet zone. Don't talk, text or arrive late. Keep your cell phone dark, silent and out of sight. After one warning, you will be ejected from the theater without a refund.

And they mean it, too.

One time, they even got an expletive-filled, angry voicemail from an indignant customer who had been ejected for breaking the rules. What they did next is a perfect example of promoting culture and focusing on their tribe.

Rather than apologize to this customer or try to earn their business back, they took the voicemail and turned it into a hilarious piece of content that they’ve used as an ad and in other promotional materials (I’m a proud owner of a “Magnited We Stand” t-shirt). The simple video has earned millions of views on YouTube.

But underneath the funny video, there’s a deeper strategy at play that showcases what matters to Alamo Drafthouse (and their tribe) and honors what they’re all about. You come away from the video knowing two things about the Alamo Drafthouse:

1. They love movies.

2. They hate obnoxious moviegoers.

They even went so far as to define (and even vilify) their anti-customer – the type of person they don’t want coming to their theater. To Alamo, running a movie theater is about more than selling tickets, it’s about creating the best environment for people like them – people who love movies.

I’ve been at their theater when they play this before a movie and you can hear people snickering, clapping, or cheering. These are clearly the people Alamo wants.

It’s the same in the financial world. I imagine most advisors would agree that trying to make a “bad fit” client into a “good fit” client is way more trouble than it’s worth. When the wrong prospects come along, it’s important to get a “no” as quickly as possible so you can focus on the right prospects.

Attracting the right people doesn’t end at clients – it can also go a long way toward attracting the right job candidates and repelling the wrong ones. It’s important to make your culture as obvious as possible so people who interact with you get a clear message about whether you’re a good fit or not. By encouraging the behavior you want and discouraging the behavior you don’t want, you can do what Alamo has done. In the end, they’re more than enforcers – they are champions of their tribe for normalizing the right behavior and stigmatizing bad behavior. From its About page:

We don’t just want to be another multiplex. Everyone who works at Alamo Drafthouse, from the managers to the servers to the kitchen staff, is passionate about film.

As of this writing, my own company has a section on our website stating:

• “Snappy Kraken is NOT RIGHT for you if…” and
• “Snappy Kraken is RIGHT for you if…”

Our Careers page does the expected job of listing out our open positions, but we’ve also added language around our principles and what we believe. We take it a step further, too, sending applicants a PDF with more info about who we are and what we value, then during interviews we ask them what from that PDF resonates with them the most (or least).

You can see other examples of people who have used similar approaches successfully throughout the business world. Ramit Sethi, author and entrepreneur, sells courses on personal finance and how to be successful, but don’t bother checking them out if you have credit card debt. Sethi explicitly states that students should not buy his courses if they have credit card debt, going so far as to cancel their orders if he found out they do.

One advisor I know told me he never wanted to compromise on who he worked with, and he wasn’t kidding. Across his website, he’s made it clear that he is only interested in working with three types of clients: conservative families, business owners and executives. Another firm committed to contribute to policy initiatives that reduce wealth inequality, so they gave a percentage of their revenue to organizations working toward that cause. This simple commitment went a long way toward attracting like-minded people to their firm.

These examples repelled some people, but they attracted the right ones. In short, there has to be a wrong and a right fit.

What’s your perspective on what you do, how you do it and who you want to do it with? How will you communicate that unique perspective to your target audience, your team and your potential hires? What’s your “talking during the movie”? And how will you encourage the right behavior?

Angel Gonzalez is the chief marketing officer of Snappy Kraken.

Read more articles by Angel Gonzalez