Here’s one of my favorite techniques for making sure my clients have great experiences working with me and I love working with them. First, I remember that not all clients will be great; by definition, some will just be difficult; some of those will be so difficult, that there’s just no way to salvage a relationship with them. Sometimes it will be because of mistakes you made (you’re human); sometimes because of mistakes they made (so are they); sometimes, people just aren’t compatible (just like dating.)
And when someone is difficult, you’ll never do a superb job. Too much baggage is hard to overcome. If you’re not thinking about the challenges in your spare time, or if you’re working round the clock… it’s more likely than not to end in frustration and problems. A great way to solve a problem is to avoid it.
Question: But once you’re already in a relationship, how do you avoid it?
Answer: You end it.
Follow-up question: But how do you end it when you have a lot to do, they count on you, and you need the money?
Answer: Give them enough advance warning, ensure a smooth transfer, act respectfully, and even suggest a replacement, if you know one.
But here’s the key to it, how do you know whom to eliminate? Here is the simple formula I use: I rate all my clients 1 to 10 on how much I enjoy working with them, and that is 100% subjective, different for each person, and only you can do it for yourself. And I also rate them 1 to 10 for how much profit I make from each one. And then I multiply those numbers together. (If multiplication is hard for you, you can add the numbers together, too, it leads to a similar result and the method still works.)
And I then take the result, and rank them, from highest to lowest. The top few are your best clients, you love your work with them, and you make good money. Your bottom few are your worst clients, frustrating and you don’t even really make enough to make it worth it.
I then look at the bottom 15% of the list (about one every 7 clients) and I step down from the work. In a respectful way, including suggesting a replacement, giving them enough time to set up someone new, etc.
The result is surprisingly great, over a few years, your quality of clients will get higher and higher. And when you do take on new clients who end up being bad, you have a structured process for removing them.
As an interesting footnote, I’ve implemented variations of this concept in consumer sales contexts directly. You’re pricing a product and you know a consumer client is really bad (say, takes up a hugely disproportionate amount of support hours, as one example)? Adjust the price appropriately, just for him. It may take some tech wizardry, but it follows this great principle, which we could summarize, more or less, as: be an asshole if you want, but everyone you work with will charge much, much more, in order to compensate for your asshole-ness . Or flipped, the converse is also true: if you’re nice, generous, a pleasure to work with, then the people you work for go out of their way to make sure you get great value and great results, “above and beyond” what is expected. A little niceness goes a long way. But, of course, niceness alone leads people to also take advantage of you, so you need to strike the right balance. And sadly, that is too common—so play the nice game only if you’re comfortable Always Being Alert.
