Codie SanchezFounder @ Contrarian Thinking

When To Get Rid Of Clients

27 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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Codie Sanchez ranks six types of problem clients from F-tier one-time buyers to A-tier payment disasters. Fire the worst ones, raise prices on discount seekers, automate responses for boundary-pushers, and stop trading equity for work. Keeping bad clients kills your margins and your best people.

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You can't find your best customers until you know exactly who your worst ones are. And there are 6 customer red flags ranked from annoying to absolutely fireable. So let's start with F tier. I want you to proceed with caution. The one-time buyer. They buy once, disappear, never again. D tier, profit killers. This is like the discount seeker. Their first question is about price, not value. Then we've got C tier, the trade offer. So this is, they want to barter, collaborate instead of paying you. These customers don't want a deal. They want to eat your margin. B tier, the boundary pusher. So they text it, midnight. They demand instant responses, treat every problem like your emergency. No. And then we have the payment problem. Late invoices, disputed charges, endless excuses. This is the fire right now tier. Here's the rule. That tier gets boundaries. D tier gets higher prices. Tier C gets strict offers. Tier B gets tech, not people. And obviously you fire the ones that you got to fire.