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CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS

6 Signs It's Time to Fire a Client

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July 11, 2016 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Client relationships are tricky, especially when you’re an entrepreneur. There’s no one
set of strategies that will help you get along with every client you have, and because
each client translates to more revenue for your business, it’s tempting and natural to
want to do everything you can to preserve those relationships inde nitely.

Related: It's Your Fault: 5 Steps to Repair A Client Relationship

Unfortunately, however, not all client relationships are positive, and there are cases
where it’s better to re a client than allow the relationship to continue. Obviously,
every client relationship is going to have its ups and downs, and you shouldn’t re a
client just because you’re experiencing some temporary dif culties. So at what point
does it become advantageous, or even necessary to follow through in ring a client?

These are six signs to let you know it’s time:

1. The client takes more time than he or she is worth.

As much as I’d like to say we’re all in this purely for the good of helping each other, at
the end of the day, you’re running a business. For that business to be successful, you
need to earn more money than you spend. If you end up spending more money or time
(as an equivalent of money) on a client than he or she is directly paying you in
compensation, it makes sense, from a logical perspective, to end the relationship as
this person is literally costing you money.

The only exception is if this is truly a temporary expense, or if that client has strong
potential to become much more lucrative in the future.

2. The client dominates your work and/or overrides your

recommendations.

You’re the expert. Your client may know his or her brand better than you do, but when
it comes down to the actual work involved, you know the strategies and best practices
necessary to do a good job. If the client ends up micromanaging your work, or
consistently rejects your recommendations, it may not be worth pursuing the
relationship further.

It’s a sign of disrespect, or at least poor understanding, and if you continue working in
an inef cient or inappropriate way, it could eventually re ect poorly on your brand
and reputation -- especially when you get blamed for the client's poor results, even
after he or she has failed to implement your recommendations.

Related: It's Not Me, It's You: When to End a Toxic Client Relationship

3. There's a lack of respect.

Like any other personal relationship, a good client relationship is built on mutual
respect -- and it has to work both ways. If your client doesn’t respect you as a business
or as a person, he or she may undermine or constantly question your work. The
client may even treat you and your account managers as subordinates; don’t put up
with this.

There’s no amount of money that makes a toxic relationship worth continued effort.
Similarly, if you don’t respect your client—if this person has loose ethics or
treats employees and customers poorly, for example -- don’t feel obligated to continue
the relationship further.

4. There's a lack of communication.

For a client relationship to be successful, you need to have mutually established lines
of communication. You’ll need to reach out regularly with news, updates and
questions, and the client will need to respond with agreements, suggestions or other
forms of guidance. If your client isn’t willing to put forth the effort to support this
ongoing level of communication, eventually the relationship is going to suffer. You
won’t be able to do a good job, and it could cause even bigger problems later on. Work
to address these problems before outright ring a client.

5. The relationship isn't improving.

Any one of the above signs can manifest itself in varying degrees. For example, a client
might show mild signs of disrespect, or be occasionally unreachable for long periods of
time. If this person isn't directly and seriously affecting your relationship, these
scenarios don’t warrant fully ring the client, but instead warrant a conversation and
a mutual effort to improve. If, however, you’ve had those conversations and the
relationship isn’t improving, you need to move on.

6. You can't stand working with the client.

This is the most basic sign on this list, but it’s an important one. Strangely enough, it’s
the one that people seem to neglect the most because they de-prioritize their own
personal experiences in favor of making money. You’re in charge here, so if you hate
working with a given client, don’t continue putting yourself through that torture.

At some point, it doesn’t matter how much money you’re making if you’re
miserable; and if your account managers are the ones dealing with it, it may be worth
preserving your relationship with them over the relationship with the client, if things
are truly that bad.

Related: It's Your Fault: 5 Steps to Repair A Client Relationship

Any one of these signs is potential grounds for ring a client, depending on the exact
nature of the circumstances. If you notice more than one of these signs happening
simultaneously, that should be a strong cue to remove yourself from the relationship.
When you do so, do so respectfully and (hopefully) within the con nes of your
contractual agreement. The last thing you want to do is burn a bridge or compromise
your integrity or reputation.

Free Webinar | Feb 20: Learn How to Tell Your Business'

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beyond the pro t and loss of a business, this webinar will give you the
direction you need to be more successful.

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