You spent time, energy, effort, risk, money or reputation to have the conversation. You now have all of the elements of rejection. On the other hand, these are also the common elements of regret. The feeling is hard because on one side you have been rejected and on the other hand you also know you have regrets.
There’s a client in your roster right now you keep making excuses for. You know it, your team knows it…heck, everyone knows it. You tell yourself the revenue matters. You tell yourself it’ll get better and they won’t do it again. The problem is this is a behavior and it will happen again if you let it.
It’s time to ask: Will the worst client cost you more than the income they bring? You know the uncomfortable answer, and you are hoping that you don’t have to face it. Time’s up. You are better off to fire them.
The tell—Bad behavior shows up early
There are telltale signs early on in any relationship if you are looking. There are red flags, yellow flags and green flags. The difficult thing for most people is the red and yellow flags get covered by revenue. It’s the old “revenue covers sins” playbook. You chose to ignore the issues out of hope they are a fluke. Deep down inside it comes to your comfort for calling out the activity.
How you start your relationship may set the trend for how you and your team are treated for the duration. When you allow bad actions to occur over time you are signaling that they are OK by default.
Do you have these signs mapped out and can you explain what they are easily? If you see the play being played from the playbook early it makes it easier to spot bad behavior. You may find that bad actors ask specific questions, have statements in meetings or act a certain way before signing an agreement.
There are multiple bad behavior signs, it’s better to list them out then to say they are repetitive.
The hidden cost—What an idle team actually costs
Let’s do some fun math and rub some salt into your wounds. Today is the day that you figure out the hard cost of some of these games. It’s true that most people move away from pain. Let’s build that hurt.
- Your hard cost—If you take your hourly rate or billing you can quickly figure out lost revenue.
- Your team’s hard cost—If you have a team you can figure out their hourly rate of pay or output and assign a value to it.
- The missed opportunity cost—It’s not just the hard cost of you and your team, there were other projects you missed out on. You could have been somewhere else with an income producing activity.
- The emotional cost—When you get treated poorly or ghosted there is emotional baggage you bring to the table. You lose momentum, for most people this is a few hours. This is something that is painful to track but necessary.
- The momentum cost—When your team is producing and then sits idle they get out of sync, they lose focus. The next time a meeting is missed take a moment and look at the effects it has on your team.
These are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) most people never consider or map out. The next time you are blown off, figure out what you could have been doing and put a cost to it. You will treat your time differently when you know the cost of it being wasted.
The trust issue
If you have a team or peers you work with, they are watching you. Nobody wants to be a part of a losing team that doesn’t want to get better. The people around you will lose trust in you and your leadership skills if you don’t call these actions out.
The cost you don’t always see
There are costs above and beyond money. You and your team have other ways you can lose from clients who cause problems. When you take a look at this list you will start to envision clients who have broken your trust.
- Production costs—A loss of momentum means you and or your team slows down. You may not always pin a number to this loss. It may be a good idea to look at this drag that is created.
- Opportunity cost—The good client you couldn’t take because the bad one filled the slot. You also missed out on the deals you could have been working on.
- Emotional cost—The dread before their calls, the relief when they cancel. You or your team could have taken a bad interaction out on a client who had nothing to do with it.
This would also include the mental wear and tear of building a project and then stopping it before it completes. - Reputation cost—A bad client tells a bad story about you no matter how well you serve them. When someone gets broken up with they may not tell the whole story and you will be the villain.
- The math nobody runs—What you’d earn if that energy went somewhere that respected it.
Why you tolerate bad behavior
When you accept this bad behavior you signal neediness. One of the best books you can read about this subject is Start With No – Jim Camp. The first chapter outlines “Do not be needy.” You may have a fear of the empty slot or a fear of the hard conversation. Out of need you may be accepting horrible behavior. If you accept this behavior to get paid it will become a vicious cycle.
There is also the sunk-cost trap—you’ve already invested, so you keep investing. The problem is you keep investing and the other side does not. The lie that you tell yourself is one more chance fixes a pattern.
The real fix for this is to have a full pipeline so you don’t have to worry about money. When this issue arises you will want to pause and ask: “Am I accepting this activity out of fear and if so what can I do to find more clients.”
Set the boundary first
You must get good at setting boundaries with people personally and professionally. The first few times may be hard or uncomfortable. Boundaries get easier over time with practice. You want to start early with the conversations and that means from the beginning. Know that some people will treat this as rejection and escalate. When this happens know you made the right decision.
At the agreement stage of the relationship you can set the rules for how you work. You do need one warning, your brain will tell you to go hard on this. You will want to map out what you will say and how you will say it.
Take a look at the common issues you face in business and you will find that they come down to these main issues:
- Communication—The channels you and your team communicate with clients. This can be text, email, calls, Slack etc.
- Treatment—How you and your team are treated and are spoken to.
- Meetings—This can be the times that the meetings are and when they start.
- Deliverables—When items will be delivered to you and your team.
- Payment Terms—These are the terms to which is agreed to and the time of the payments.
Here is an example. I want to point something out in the agreement here and it is important: “If you need to reschedule a meeting we need a 48 hour notice. I have initial spots here to make sure that you saw the requirements”. You would do well by practicing the explanation of your agreements. You can craft these on your own or get your team involved.
Firing isn’t the first move. The boundary is.
When you start a relationship with boundaries it may be easier. You will want to learn how to call out the behavior the moment it happens—not the third time. As you talk with the client you can name it plainly: “This meeting started 20 minutes late. I need that to change.” Most bad behavior continues because nobody ever named it. Name it and watch who corrects and who doesn’t.
Bad actions accumulate over time and increase when not addressed. The sooner you can have the conversation with confidence the better.
Call out the action, not the person
As you are having these conversations, you’re not attacking them. You’re describing what happened and resetting the rules. Their behavior is the thing on the table—late, unpaid, missed, abusive to staff or anything else. The boundary gives them a choice. The good ones adjust. The bad ones reveal themselves and they get fired.
You will want to take a look at the common issues you face and role play them. It takes on average 60 times to say something to become comfortable with it. The first time you call out the activity it may be uncomfortable. This is true no matter what you do in life.
When the boundary doesn’t work—fire them
You will have to fire people professionally. This is part of business. You took strides to get the client to do the work needed. They decided to not play ball. This one is on them. You don’t need to apologize. You just need to let them go.
The easy way to say this: “This arrangement isn’t working out, you will need to find someone else to help you at this point. We hope you can find what you need from someone else.” You may look at this and say it’s cold and clinical. They brought it upon themselves. They were the bad actor.
Some agencies and consultants have break up clauses in their contracts for a reason. There may be penalties assigned. Whatever the case you can build out a document that is generic for the break up. You may want your break up scripts to run past legal so you don’t open a can of worms.
What happens after you fire them
The first time you let a client go there is a weight you lose. Over time this action becomes second nature but should also happen less. If you are finding that you are constantly having problems you will want to take inventory because it’s you. Breaking up with clients should also be tracked as part of your KPIs. If you have a team you will want to track them as well. Breaking up should not be the norm, it should be the exception.
In some instances you will want to do a break up autopsy to see where you and or your team could have done better. This should be an outlined meeting with specific questions asked. There will be some responsibility on you and your team for the loss. Work through the problems and ask the tough questions. When you let a client go its easy to blame them for everything.
You may get a bad review, but this is to be expected. Bad reviews that hold you hostage are proof you made the right decision.
Protect your House
Your business is the asset. Every bad client you keep is a withdrawal from it. You set the standard by what you tolerate. You also set the standards of what you will not allow. You’re not firing a client—you’re keeping your business. Some you’re better off to Fire.
