Are you prepared to fire your clients?

“Vision without Execution is Hallucination” – Arianna Huffington

In my insurance brokerage ownership days, I always trained my team to choose our clients as much as they chose us. There were certain behaviours or traits that let us know which clients would be ideal, and which we would not be able to serve as effectively.

In a few instances over the decades, we had to undertake the process required by our regulators to part ways with a client (insurance is a highly regulated industry and following the steps carefully is a must).

Even without regulatory requirements, firing a client is not always easy.

Some of the behaviours a professional services business may recognize from undesirable clients;

1. As an architect, a client who continues to ask you to provide services outside of the agreed upon scope of work
2. As a lawyer, the client who questions your invoice and wants to debate every item
3. As an accountant, the business owner who does not need your advice, and then blames you when their tax bill is higher than they thought it would be.
4. As an insurance broker, the client who is verbally abusive of your staff

These clients can truly become the energy vampires that take up the resources for your business, giving you less ability to focus on your ideal clients.

This is why articulating the Vision for your ideal clients and sharing it with your team is critical. With a clear understanding about who you best serve, your team can focus on being heroes to those clients – often the ones who will send you referrals for others “just like them”.

When your team works together to exceed the expectations of your ideal client, it becomes a very big win for your business, and can also positively impact your business culture when everyone celebrates as a team.

And, when you empower your team to terminating wrong fit clients, you can be the hero for your team.

The outcome? Great execution of your business vision.