Spring cleaning: Drop your bad clients

Spring cleaning: Drop bad clients

A difficult decision for any company is whether to intentionally part ways with a difficult client. That could be for any number of reasons:
- The client routinely abuses the agency.
- Too much labor invested on low cost projects.
- The ideas you pitch are executed internally or given to other agencies.
- Client refusal to compensate fairly on per-projects or retainer models.
- Low overall return on investment.

Generally, senior management will be less likely to agree on cutting a client loose. So it’s the managers and day-to-day personal that suffer. What do you do?

Create a business case to present to your management.
Document every instance of why this client relationship is bad.
Find a new client opportunity to replace the client.

You can’t just complain, but you can’t just take unprofessional behavior either. Take control of your destiny. Hate something, change something.

Once you have another client lined up or senior management agreement, part ways with the bad client. But don’t be nasty about it. Just respectfully decline the next time he/she comes to you with a new assignment. Above all, be respectful. Professionally speaking, it is a small world. You never know if you might run into him/her again some day.

I hope that helps. Please add your comments below. Thanks and good luck!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.