When & why you should drop your client.

In a target driven industry it’s easy to get stuck working with clients that take up large amounts of your time for little return. We often think that if we just persevere, it will pay off in the end. Well, unfortunately that isn’t always the case, sometimes you have to be brave & politely kick them to the kerb. So how do you know when is the right time to make the call? Firstly, it’s important to establish why things aren’t moving and to be honest with yourself. Consultants are all too quick to blame a client for not buying, when in fact it’s them who are not providing what the client really wants. 

We think they are being too fussy or have unrealistic expectations, a lot of the time they do, in fact quite a lot of the time they do, but sometimes we just haven’t grasped what it is they actually want and we present them with the wrong thing. It’s hard putting the blame on yourself & bruising your pride, how could it be me?, I’m good at what I do, but this is exactly why you should question yourself first before blaming the client. To do this you have to remove your emotions from the picture to get a clear & honest view of the situation. The more you do this, the better you will get at being accountable for your outcomes, which in turn will make you a better consultant, because you’ll stop passing the blame when things don’t go your way and find solutions instead of complaints.

If you do this however & you are still confident that you have understood the brief correctly and delivered what was asked, then feel free to throw that ball back over the net. Now is the time to educate your client & be the expert you said you were when you first pitched them. Be clear in your message by explaining exactly why they are not getting what they want & suggest how they can if they follow your advice. By the way “suggest” is the key word here, don’t tell people what to do, you’re not here to tell them off, you’re here to guide them & make them feel like it’s still their decision.

If you have done all but draw them a picture & they still don’t get it, maybe it’s time to walk away. Maybe it’s time to move your focus to another client & let them become someone else’s problem. I’m not saying burn the bridge, I’m saying stop trading your time for no benefit. You don’t need to be rude about it or divorce them, you’re just going to hang out with some other friends for a while. There is always opportunity elsewhere, you just need to find it & that takes time. It’s a very grey area & decisions like this are hard to make, but if your input is outweighing the return it might be time to consider your options. If you are unsure, ask someone you trust what they would do, outside perspective can be helpful, especially because the emotion is removed.