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  • What’s the Best Way to Fire a Client

    I know the title of this post may sound a bit harsh, but even the sunniest business owner has faced the cold harsh reality – sometimes the best thing you can do is let a client go.

    There are many reasons why this may be. A client can become too demanding, your business has evolved to a point where you no longer want to provide a certain type of service, a client constantly pays slowly, you can only work with so many clients, and so on.

    No matter what the reason, actually going to someone who has been paying you for a service and telling them you can’t do business with them, even if it’s the right move for both of you, is tough.

    The strategy that I find has worked best for me over the years is to simply go to the client and inform them that you are making significant changes in your business and one of those is a need to raise your prices (something you should actually do anyway!)

    Increasing the revenue you receive from a client will do one of two things: make them decide to move on, or make them less of a problem client.

    In some cases the best thing to do with a problem client is to let them go no matter what, but in many instances your business will benefit by taking the approach of replacing clients with higher paying clients.

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    Posted by: John Jantsch on Oct 06, 06 | 1:01 pm
    Category: Customer Service | Tags:

    Comments
    • My coach once said, "Sometimes the cost of money is too high". And in the case of bad clients, that is certainly true.

      Once I had to fire a client who was a good friend. We were good friends, but working together was terrible. He was a perfectionist. I am detail challenged. He made me a nervous wreck so I made even more mistakes.

      I used the "it's not you, it's me" approach. Now we are just friends. It's much better that way.

      I had to fire one client who was getting way too far behind on payments. That was easy to communicate, "I can't work with you anymore until you pay."

      My favorite though is along the lines of what you said, "My business is changing and I am not doing that kind of work anymore. "

      Firing a client is tough to do, especially when they represent a pretty good paycheck. But the PEACE you get when they are gone is priceless! *grin
    • Several years ago, I was doing a lot of work for a client. I thought they were one of my 'bedrock' clients and then a new manager came on and started giving me all kinds of grief. A couple of months later, it had got too much and I told them I didn't want to write for them again. It was scary, because they represented a big chunk of my income - but the price of my work for them hadn't increased in the course of three years. Six months later, I had a raft of new clients and business had never been better. Much better. Turned out that 'firing my client' was the kick in the ass I needed to grow my business. Perhaps this is another reason to fire the odd client from time to time. 'Pour encourager les autres'!
    • John Jantsch
      One wrong client can suck the life right out of you - if you choose to let them.

      Way international blog here with all this French!
    • <pingback>...in French and nine other languages… (tags: corporate blogging sun ceo) What’s the Best Way to Fire a Client? No matter what the reason, actually going to someone who has been paying you for a service and telling them you ...</pingback>
    • My client portfolio has definitely benefited from annual spring cleaning. It is easy to get emotionally attached to certain clients and projects, and letting a source of steady income go is always scary thing. When the prices you are charging haven't budged in a couple of years that's usually a good sign it's time to take a look at which clients to keep and which to let go, *especially* when your bread-and-butter clients start morphing into low-rate, high-volume sources of work that keep you too busy to grow your business.

      By the way, I am in France, but that's a total coincidence!

      Vive le nettoyage du printemps !
    • John Jantsch
      Sara,

      Now if I could only figure out how to work that on the closets.
    • Sometimes letting a client go is the only thing to do. I agree it is useful to do some spring cleaning on your client base.

      It is more important when you establish the opportunity cost some time consuming clients represent.
    • Its a harsh reality but i think the best approach. A wrong client can do lot of harm to your business and growth. So stop it right there!!
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