Sometimes you just have to move on. Here's how to do it. Tricky clients are usually just a tiny proportion of the clients a consultancy attracts, but their influence can be significant. They can take up a lot of management time, make your team unhappy, require constant rework which delays projects and ruins margins, and cause reputational damage within the client and even possibly wider. Here's how to get the best outcome from a split-up.

1. How to sack a difficult client
...and end up better off
Simon Clark, Founder, Metis

2. Difficultclients
The pain you feel
The damage they
can actually do
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3. The problems with difficult clients
Take up a lot of
management time
Make your team
unhappy
Require constant rework
which delays projects
and ruins margins -
classic over-servicing
(We’ve written about
over-servicing before -
you might find it useful)
Can do reputational
damage within the
client and possibly
even wider
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4. How to spot them
We’ve seen these behaviours from valuable clients a few times:
Bitter
They resent the cost
of consultants and
treat you like
servants
Narcissist
They want miracles
that make them
look awesome
Passer-off
They take the
credit for your
hard work
Incompetent
They lack
credibility and this
can spread to you
Taker
They’re always
asking for your
input, never
buying
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5. The symptoms
You’ve tried:
• Introduced pragmatic changes.
• Shouldered the blame for things that aren't in your control.
• Done re-work, or accepted scope creep into areas that are doomed
to fail.
But your team are still uncharacteristically under-performing,
taking time off, or requesting transfers to other clients, and no-one
wants to go onto the project / account.
And it’s still a struggle.
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6. I can’t resign the account!
The client might be a significant part of
your revenue (but I'd wager you're not
making the profit on them you should
be) so it feels difficult, if not impossible,
to consider resigning the account.
So before we look at actually letting go,
here are three final things to try.
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7. Personality clash
Is it a personality clash with the client?
• Check whether there’s a personality clash between your
account lead and the individual client.
• If so, try a swap of personnel, but in a way that’s
supportive and positive for your team. Make no excuses
to the client.

8. Are you and your team pawns on
the chessboard of corporate
shenanigans?
• Look at the client’s internal
politics. Go gently upwards
with your relationship
engagement until you get
above the squabbling.
• If that's not possible, it’s time
to withdraw gracefully.
Political clash
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9. Culture clash
Is it a culture mismatch between your firms?
• Maybe you were hired for the wrong reasons.
• Is there enough variety in culture between
your teams to pick a better one?
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10. End of the road – or a new route to success?
This could be your best decision ever.
You could:
• Free the time and headspace to find other clients who are a better fit.
• Refresh your teams’ creativity and commitment.
• Sell to competitors who were previously off-limits.
• Cut the chance of reputational damage.
• Eliminate a source of rework and scope creep - and boost your margins.
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11. Validate your decision
Find a senior colleague, unconnected to the account.
Get an objective view that you've tried all the reasonable things:
• Introduce the colleague into the account on a non-chargeable basis.
• Give them a small piece of work or support role.
• Ask them to give you an assessment and their feel for the account.
Get to a point where you’re confident your work and efforts are at their best.
1
2
3
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12. Don’t leave the client
in the lurch
• Pick your timing.
• Give them appropriate notice.
• Try to find them a solution for the gap you'll create by departing.
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13. Don’t leave your team
in the lurch
• Communicate with your team. Agree how you’ll
handle the handover / notice period.
• Look after your freelancers - can the client
engage some of them directly?
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14. I’ve set up and run consultancies myself.
I had to say goodbye to some clients along the way.
Marshalling my evidence helped enormously - having
facts to hand reduced the emotional stress. But it was
always hard to get hold of the facts, so...
How I did it
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15. Getting
the facts
...I created software to help
It shows you in real time
the actual amount of time
being spent on delivering
a client project.
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16. Getting the facts
Shows you whether the project, and the client as a whole, are profitable when all
the management time is taken into account.
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17. Metis
The software is called Metis,
and it helps increase
profitability and business
value for consultancies of
10-100 people.
Metis puts you in control, and
lets you focus your time and
energy on the real purpose of
your consultancy.
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18. Save time
What Metis does
Metis is software based on business best practice. It collects your data in one place, and
provides real-time dashboards and insight for both daily and strategic decision-making.
Spend less time
hunting for information
Grow profits
Focus on profitability
and growth
Manage more effectively
Support your teams
using insight
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19. Find out more
Check our website for
more on our elegant,
powerful software.
Get a free online demo.
Or call us for a chat.
We’ll show you how you can:
● Get a smart overview of your
business
● Manage the profitability of
active projects
● Manage your sales pipeline
● Track time and expenses
● Take it to the next level or
step back
About us
Metis is the brainchild of Simon
Clark and Jonathan Peachey. We
have both founded, grown and sold
our own consultancies and had up to
100 people working for us.
Metis distills all that we learned, and
bottles not only the tools we wish
we’d had when we were running our
businesses, but some of the
practices that we saw the very best
firms and agencies using.
We’d love to talk with you.
UK: +44 (0) 20 3475 5165
USA: 1-800-657-9306
hello@getmetis.com
BOOK A DEMO
TALK TO US
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