Wednesday, July 28, 2010

2:00 PM

Horror stories:

o    Check out http://clientsfromhell.net/ for horror stories

Why/Who (to fire):

o    Clients who don’t ever deliver the stuff you need to do you job done

o    Clients that always ask for things out of scope / over and over / even after  you have educated them on workflow.

o    Clients who blame you when they make mistakes.

o    Clients or Prospects that make threats / or hold things “over your head”

Signs (that you may need to fire):

o    Clients that don’t know what they want (only what they don’t want) should raise a red flag.

o    Long emails that you have to scroll to read (especially if they are aggressive)

o    Horribly disorganized clients lead to issues that make your job very difficult

o    “Follow your instincts”

o    People who are condescending

o    Unreasonable time expectations

o    Email threats

o    Cheap / prospects or clients that want you to do more for less

o    People that are taking up a lot of time (the result is less time for the work you are enjoying)

o    If you avoid taking their calls… hiding them in your chat program to avoid them

o    Check your emotional during interactions for a gauge on who the working relationship is going.

How (to fire):

o    Entrepreneur.com “Fire Your Bad Clients” - great article

o    Five Steps to firing

1. Education - educate them to see if that helps the situation

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     1. educate them about your process

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     2. Talk about expectations

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     3. Cut things off before things get bad and they may become a better client

2. Re-education

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  2.  
     1. Reeducate things from step one in a different way

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     2. State your policies or reference the contract

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     3. This is a less friendly version of first step

3. Try to transfer them

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     1. Nicely state that you don’t think that your companies are not working well together and try to match them with someone else

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     2. Suggest someone that they may work better with

4. Last Request

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     1. Say no more “playing around” if you don’t change we will not continue work

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     2. We are not happy with the relationship

5. Firing

Prevention (vetting clients to avoid the need to fire):

o    Educating your clients in the beginning is the best way to avoid issues.

o    Remind people that you are hiring you for your expertise - let you do your job.

o    Having a “system” and set of rules that the client needs to follow in writing

Notes:

o    Be sure to know your PERFECT clients AND also know who you don’t want to work.

o    Create your list of your ideal client and keep it close.

o    Know what personality types you get along with and who you do not.

o    Have a PIA (“pain in the ass”)  factor on your estimates / try to figure out how much of a PIA they are going to be.

o    Include an “out clause” on your contract

o    80/20 rule 

·         80 percent of your time is spent on 20 percent of  your clients

·         80 percent of your money will be made with 20 percent of your clients

·         80 percent of your problems will come from 20 percent of your clients

o    You may have to loose the money owed to you if you do not have enough outstanding to warrant paying a lawyer to help collect.