know when to fire the client

Today I heard through the grapevine about a business person who actually had the nerve to fire their client. All I can say is Way to go!

I’m sure this is a foreign concept to some, but knowing when to fire the client may be the most overlooked ignored skill that a business person can possess.

So how do you know when to fire your client? It’s simpler than you think.

You, as a business professional, are hired presumably because you possess certain skills and/or expertise that your client does not possess. Otherwise why else would they need to hire you, right? However, if your client treats you like you are the marionette and they are the puppet master, then you are really functioning as nothing more than a glorified “button pusher.”

In these cases, the client is actually preventing you from doing what they hired you to do.

Of course some will argue that since the client signs the checks, it’s ultimately their final decision. And while this is true, this reasoning is at best short-sighted.

Who do you think the client will blame if the project/campaign/whatever goes south? Themselves? Of course not! The same narcissism that led them to think that they could tell you how to do your job better than you could do it yourself will prevent them from seeing that they, not you, are the one to blame. And the long term implications of that for you and your brand/company/whatever is that you get a reputation for doing work that is unsuccessful.

If we were all willing to fire a client every now and then, we might just have a few more success stories. So just remember: “Another check” may help pay the bills in the short term, but you could be hurting your long term credibility (i.e. your brand equity) in the process.

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