When to Fire a Client

Consultants’ professional lives are defined by the clients we work with and the projects we tackle. As a new year approaches, it’s a great time to reflect on whether your current clients are contributing to your practice. It may be time to prune your client list.

It may seem crazy to “fire” a client, but it might be the best strategic move you can make. Few things damage the long-term vibrancy of your business more than an unproductive client relationship. Remember, sometimes the client-consultant relationship just doesn’t work. Or maybe the effort to keep a client happy isn’t worth it.

Here are five telltale signs that you might want to fire a client:

•    You’ve stopped growing professionally from the client’s projects
•    The client has disengaged from your project, leaving decisions to others in the company
•    It’s tough to get a meeting with your key client sponsor
•    Your project profit margin is eroding
•    The client nit-picks your invoices or payments are consistently late.

Disengaging from a client relationship is easier said than done, though, so expect it to take some time and courage. It’s tough to drop a paying client, but the upside can be enormous. You’ll likely replace that client with one or more projects that stretch you professionally, make positive changes in your new client’s business, and boost your profitability.

So take a look at your client list. Is there an opportunity for growth through reducing the size of that list?

Comments

[olivier blanchard]

Bravo!

[Andreas]

I believe it is also time to disengage when your values - professional and personal - and those of your client diverge. When there is no fun anymore working with each other, basically, and when communication breaks down because of misinterpretations of things that worked so easily earlier. All signs of values divergence.

[James]

Profit margins and nitpicking tend to occur when you as a consulting are not bringing real value and simply focused on billing...

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