Top Five Reasons to Fire a Client
OK, I admit it, that's a slightly click-baity title. You usually don't fire a client as much as terminate your working arrangement. But I remember thinking that I'd never voluntarily part ways with a paying client. Now, I realize that it's probably the more common ending to a working relationship. Knock on wood, I've never been fired by a client. Projects have ended, and I've ended engagements. Here's five reasons that generally happens.
They've become overly dependent.
I'll start with the hardest one to judge. On the one hand, it's great when your clients are dependent on your services. It provides them with a sense of value and you with a sense of security.
It can also lead to them becoming very demanding of your time and a nagging sense that you have a boss now.
If you really want them to succeed, they need to find their ability to stand on their own two feet at some point. What if you fall down a manhole? Or it goes on long enough that you retire? Or they find themselves in a gut-wrenching emergency that requires more time than you can give them?
The goal of the consultant is really to get clients in a "good place" so that, sure, you can provide long-term services, but if you disappear for whatever reason, it's not a risk to their business.
That said, it's hard to know when this time has come, but you generally do in your gut.
They're not listening to you.
This one is emotionally challenging. If you've been hired as an advisor, but the people paying you are consistently ignoring your advice, no one is happy. They're paying for, essentially, nothing, and you are literally just wasting your time and skills.
Here's the important thing. It's not personal. What you've learned is that you are not a good client fit. You may feel like you're right, but if they're not taking your advice, you're either not explaining it well, or you're missing something about what they need. It's a two-way street.
In any case, it's time to move on. You need to work with people who appreciate your expertise, and they need to find people who they trust enough to follow their advice.
You're not making any money. Or you could be making more.
This can happen for a lot of reasons, but the most common are:
- Not billing enough hours
- Your rate's too low
- Your costs are eating up their fees
If it costs you anything, and I'd argue it always does, to maintain communication, records, billing, hosting, space, whatever to have a client, but you're not billing them for any hours, it's a losing proposition.
Likewise, if your rate is too low, and you know you could make more with a new client, you're doing yourself a disservice. This can happen in long-term clients when your practice picks up, inflation has been rampant, or you're doing higher value work now.
You didn't raise them as you went, and now you'd have to double them to make it worth your while.
You just don't want to do the work anymore.
For a time, I was an SEO/SEM guy-- hence my cynicism about that business. Not that it's not real. It's just that the majority of SEO vendors are fly-by-night scammers who just send over SEMRush reports, advise clients to <fill in thing from the Google Page Speed tool>, and act like their keyword research is critical. "You can't say 'widget company' you need to say 'widget-tastic manu-widgeter of premium widgets five times per page'.
Client expect secret, magical knowledge. Vendors pretend to have it. Neither is right.
Paid search is a much more analytical, cut-and-dried business, your ads are either boosting your KPI or they're not.
I used to say managing paid search accounts was like lining up marbles on a windy road and then getting up in the morning to see which ones blew off and lining them all up again. Day after day. I had gotten completely burnt-out only doing that-- a fact made extra difficult because it was so lucrative.
At some point, I had to stop. More specifically, I had to stop working for clients for whom that was all I was doing. My real strengths were in technology advising and application development. I needed clients who wanted that. If they needed SEO/SEM, I was happy to provide it, but only as part of a larger engagement.
You really just can't stand them.
You'd think this would be the most common reason, but I find it's the least. I generally like people. Sure, there's typically some friction, particularly for new engagements or if you're trying to convince them to do something they don't want to do (but you know is right).
But if you're having the Sunday Scaries about even talking to your clients because you know they're going to be obnoxious or belittling or inappropriate-- it's time to call it quits. It's the least common reason, but it might be the easiest.
How to do it?
The most important thing is not to take any of this personally-- even the people you can't stand. It is in everyone's interests for you to make an orderly exit. Give the client plenty of notice if you can. Explain what they need to do now. Document things they might need to know. Help them, to the degree you're comfortable, to migrate to a stable place.
Above all, be professional. Explain why you're leaving. If you can't stand them, just make something up. Those are the people who will typically be the most difficult; I was once threatened with a frivolous lawsuit for being too valuable to leave. So, I just found a compromise that made that less likely. And I tried to be nice. At least I tried.
Maybe don't do it?
I'll close with another thing you might consider-- talk to the client about the situation. Explain to them that the relationship isn't working for whatever reason. If you have to raise your rates, explain that and see if they're open to it. They might be. They can only say 'no'.
Again, don't make it personal, but even if you're having difficulties with your contacts there, but you think it's just an individual, ask their boss if you might work with someone else so that you can be more productive.
Sometimes, like in personal relationships, we get so focused on escape to avoid a difficult conversation that we miss an opportunity for growth. Have the conversation. Explain what you need to make it work for you.
If they say 'no', well, then you can feel better about moving on, knowing that you tried. If they say 'yes', you may find yourself in a much better position with a new favorite client.