Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

Chapter 16. You're Fired! Firing Your Worst Clients

We have all had our share of bad clients—those wishy-washy, time-consuming, energy-sapping complainers who seem committed to driving us crazy and driving our businesses into the dirt. What do you do with these people? Some would say you need to coddle them, bring them along, and transform them into cooperative clients. I say fire them, and the sooner the better.

What about the customer always being right? It's a myth.

What about the fact that you have too few clients already? Maybe you would have more time and energy to find new and better clients if the bad ones were not wasting so much of your time, energy, and resources.

What about the bad PR this will generate? Well, you don't exactly have to be mean when firing your clients. You should let them down easy; make it seem as though you are doing them a favor. You have to handle it properly, but you also need to get rid of them. At the same time, you have to find superior replacements. In this chapter, I show you how.