Fire These Clients Now.
Christopher Hawkins tells us about 11 Clients You Need to Fire Right Now. Recognize any of these folks?
THE DISILLUSIONED consistently expresses disappointment with your work even though it is of good quality and conforms to spec.
THE SUSPICIOUS consistently expresses a lack of trust, disdain for your work, or questions your integrity.
THE CHISELER consistently complains about your bill, even though it conforms to the estimate they agreed to.
THE BULLY consistently is verbally abusive or threatening to you.
THE SOMETHING-FOR-NOTHING consistently increases the scope of the project but refuses to pay for the additional work.
THE SLOW PAY consistently pays invoices late.
THE FLAKE consistently is late meeting responsibilities, but still holds you to the original schedule.
THE LIAR consistently lies to you.
THE BLACKMAILER consistently refuses to pay an invoice until you perform additional work at no charge.
THE MONEY PIT consistently is unprofitable.
THE CLINGER consistently makes unreasonable demands regarding your availability.
The full post has a more detailed description of each “client” and has some great ideas for getting rid of them. Though Christopher runs a software shop, I think his descriptions are spot-on and instantly recognizable to any professional service provider.
Wow...dejavue (probably spelled that wrong though)
:)
Posted by: Marketing tips blog | July 08, 2005 at 10:54 PM
Hi Matt,
Perhaps you could add to the title "and don't attract these clients either"
If we're getting those types of clients, then perhaps an audit of the marketing we're using, our image and our brand may need some improvement!
And when it's improved sufficiently - these 'types' of clients won't choose us.
They say that it only takes 1 bad customer to ruin a day... so why have one!
Casey
Posted by: Business Growth | July 08, 2005 at 01:57 AM