How To Fire A Client (The Right Way!)

No, this is a you problem. No, no, no, it's not me. It's definitely you. Tell me you've never had a client who was a total nightmare to work with. You can't, because you and I both know that when you're working with clients, some of them are going to be a total pain in the. How do you deal with those clients? Do you just put up with their BS and take the retainer, hoping that they'll treat you better, or do you stand up for yourself and put your foot down? Well, in this video, I'm going to break down the exact script we use at our agency to either realign with our or fire them the right way. Of course. And make sure you stay till the very end of this video, because I'll be giving you this exact script to download for yourself. Now, before we get into the script, let's share a few warning signs or red flags that you might be experiencing right now that made you want to click on this video in the first place. Number one, the client is always asking for more work than they paid for. They're constantly asking you to do things that you didn't promise them. They're always going outside the scope of work, but they justify it and they make you feel bad too, so you just do it. Number two, the clients don't pay their invoice on time. And when you have to ask, they ghost you. They don't reply to you, or they take days to even respond. You have to chase them down just to get an answer. And then it takes days, even weeks for them to actually give you the money they owed you from last month. Number three, the client just flat out doesn't respect you. They treat you like shit. They're passive aggressive, they don't respect your time, and you're beginning hate working with them each and every day that goes by. Does this sound familiar? If so, here's exactly how to deal with these types of clients. This is the reset call. Okay? The goal of this script and this call is to realign expectations for your client, plus understand tension they're experiencing resulting in either a healthy relationship with you or or ending the engagement and you guys both going your own separate ways. Right or wrong here, this is an opportunity for you and them and us to learn if there's a communication breakdown in your process. Plus still lead with integrity and make sure you guys end on decent terms. Sound good? Okay, let's get into it. Part 1. Message to the client. This is a script that you send to the client when you want to have this reset call again after those red flags that we've just discussed. You say, hey, client, first name, thanks for your message. Or simply, I'd like to get on a call ASAP with you to find the best solution for you this problem and moving forward. Again, you're giving them a direct message letting them know you want to chat, right? You hear what they're saying. If they're complaining about something or you just want to chat with them because you're complaining about them specifically, makes sense. Message them. Okay, that's part one. Part two, exercise before the call takes place. Now, this is very important, okay? You want to get out of your head, plus not be emotional, all right? So it's very important that the day before the call or the day of the call, you get a good workout in, get outside, get some sun, make sure you get a good sweat on, move your body and get into your body so you can get out of your mind. This is very important. So you don't show up to the call reacting emotionally or heated, right? And just wanting to go off on the person for how they're treating you if it's in not so good of a manner. All right? So if the client scheduled via a link that you sent them rather than that same day, block off time on your calendar beforehand and give yourself some space to really make sure you exercise and get in a good frame of mind. Make sense? Part three, preparation. You have to prepare before this call. You don't want to show up to the call and just kind of start spewing things randomly and not have your argument made beforehand. Again, you want to make sure you're prepared and they feel like you're actually taking this very seriously because this is a serious call. Okay? So before this call, write out explicitly the ways in which the client has been unruly and or broken boundaries, okay? These will be used for realignment during the call together. So for examples here, right, if they're messaging you after hours and expecting responses like instantly from you, let's say it's like 12 o' clock at night, you know, you're sleeping and they're in a different time zone for some reason, and they're like, hey man, why aren't you replying? It's been one hour, it's been two hours, it's been three hours. It's like sleeping, dude, what can we do here, right? You know that I'm in a completely different time zone. Where's the disconnect, Right? Number two, if they're being disrespectful to you or your team. You cannot tolerate this because how they treat you and your team is a direct reflection of how and what you're willing to tolerate. It's not good for you. It's not good for your team. Nobody on your team likes working with someone who's disrespectful. All right, so it starts with you putting your foot down. Number three, changing directions with projects consistently. Okay? This can happen a lot of ways. For example, going outside of scope of work, right? Asking you to do more than what they're actually paying for, or changing the project completely, which you've already put tons of time, energy, effort, and hours into. And then them saying, we're going to scrap all this and start over. And you're like, dude, you already paid me for this. Now you're asking me to do double the amount of work. You got to make sure that you have your argument prepared beforehand. Those are just a few examples of how to come prepared to the call with your argument made. Part four, the reset call. First, you want to start off with an intro. So you start off the call very direct. Hey, client, first name. Thanks for getting on the call with me. I'd like to jump straight into things. Is that all right with you? Right. Very clear, very direct, and straight to the point. There's no time for rapport here. Let's just talk about the issue at hand, because chances are they're probably feeling some type of way as well. The client's going to respond. And then you say, thanks. I feel as if your expectations for this relationship are misaligned. And whether that's us completing this project plus month of services and parting ways or realigning expectations for our work together, I'd like to figure this out together and what's best for you. Right? Because this allows you to do a few things. Number one, it's making sure you're not, again, reacting emotionally and just attacking them and saying, dude, wtf bro? Like, what's going on here? Like, why are you treating me like this? It's giving you the opportunity to make sure that they felt hurt as well and allow them to speak up and tell them, tell you what's on their mind as well. Okay, so you want to hear the client out here, okay. You want to give them an opportunity to speak. Okay. To get things started. I want to understand the tension you're experiencing, what's going on now. You give an opportunity for them to speak. Okay? So you want to listen and accept blame if there was a disconnect on your team's part because again, look, we can be honest with ourselves for a second. If you're trying to get deals through, sometimes you might say things that you know you probably shouldn't have said on the sales call or you over promised too much and now you're having to deal with the consequences of being stretched too thin. You have to take extreme ownership for yourself and for your team and for your company. If you said things that you were going to do that they're asking for that were outside your scope of work, or you did promise them direct communication access to you at all hours of the day, those are things that you have to take extreme ownership of and take full responsibility about because they're expecting what you just told them. So before and again, before you just blame them for everything, you have to take extreme ownership of what you told them and what you promised and what they're expecting. Because sometimes in sales, sometimes things are said that you don't really. So take extreme ownership, thank them for the feedback when necessary and communicate that you hear them if the client has been unruly or disrespectful in feedback. Plus, you do not wish to continue politely tell them you'd like to complete this project and or finish out the rest of the month of services and that this will be the final month working together. If you do choose this, just be prepared for a refund request and be in a place to honor that. So again, if they're just going off on you after you've asked for feedback and you want to hear the client out and they're just like, man, this is terrible, this sucks. You guys are not promising what you're delivering. They're just being super disrespectful. You don't want to continue working with them, be okay with giving them a refund because at the end of the day money is one thing, but your time, your sanity and your sense of peace is a whole other thing. Especially with your team. So just be prepared for a refund request and just give it to them. Just move on. It's better for you, it's probably better for them. And you don't want to be working with that type of client anyways. Okay? So just be okay with that. Last but not least, help the client understand you. And this is if you want to continue working with them, you want to say I want to get on the same page with you for the boundaries of our working relationship. Number one, our hours of operation are 9am to 5pm MST, Arizona time. Meaning we won't respond during outside of those hours unless it's an emergency. Number two, we cannot keep changing directions on projects. It forces me and my team to work double the amount of time. Number three, my team and I cannot complete our high quality standards when communication isn't in Slack. Because if they're messaging you on Slack, they're texting you, they're calling you, and they're emailing you, and you're having to constantly be delivering messages to your team about what they said outside of Slack, it's going to cause a whole bunch of confusion, misalignment, and double the amount of work for you. So make sure that you keep communication, in this case in one central communication channel and make that very clear to them. Now, of course. Will respecting these boundaries of our services work for your needs? You have to ask for their commitment. This is a very key question. You cannot end the call unless you ask them this question. Will respecting these boundaries of our services work for your needs? Get them to say yes now. Decide best foot forward based on your intuition of the conversation and how it goes. Choose how you'd like to proceed with the relationship and be explicit. If this call went great, then make sure to thank the client for their time and you can both move on and continue working together. If it doesn't go great, again, thank them for their time, but let them know that you won't continue and you'll happily honor a refund request if they ask. Because at the end of the day, it's one thing to have the money coming in, it's another thing to have the money coming in, but also hating your life in the process. All right? It's better to just move on for them and for you. So I hope this script can help you, too. Now, if you want this exact script, click the link right here to make a copy for yourself. But again, this is the last resort. You should only use this script for when they've given you no other choice. But if you want to learn how to get more of the right clients, the ones who pay you upfront on time and love working with you, then click this video. Here, I'll show you how we land whale clients at our agency that pay us $15,000 a month plus I'll see you there.