Terminating client relationships is something you must occasionally do as a leader, but it is something that I never felt good about doing. Clients are essentially fired for two main reasons.
First, something has changed and a client no longer fits the profile of things you do best. They may be too small or too big or they fall outside your, or their, evolved area of expertise. Perhaps your company changed and it is just no longer a good match. This would generally be classified as a good reason to terminate a client relationship as you have both changed or grown and you’d both be better off either on your own or working with others.
Second (a bad reason for terminating or firing a client), the client becomes abusive to those who work for you. An abusive client cannot be tolerated for any reason even if they contribute mightily to your profit. I have always told people I work with that I simply didn’t pay them enough money to take verbal abuse from a client.
Nothing is more debilitating to one’s dignity and self-confidence then to have a person in a position of authority abuse one of your workers. People who are on the front lines leading your company in battle need all of the self-confidence and self-respect they can muster and nothing will knock down those two things as quickly as an abusive client.
Years ago we worked with a well-known media brand (you would recognize the distinctive outline of their symbol in a heartbeat). One of their mid-level managers was occasionally abusive to our people and that abuse was increasing in frequency. I spoke with him on several occasions and made it clear to him that abuse was unacceptable behavior on his part. I also spoke with his superior who was my “corporate equal,” but I could not achieve change in his behavior so I finally terminated the client.
I confess there was about two minutes of satisfaction in telling the client to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine for abusing my co-workers. But it quickly faded and I never felt good about it again. In fact, I regretted it for years because I always felt I should have been able to do something to get him to change his ways and stop the abuse. Perhaps an unrealistic vision, but that is what leaders must do most often. They must find solutions to difficult problems. And it isn’t always easy.
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