We’ve written before about how to spot difficult clients, and the types you might run into. They’re usually just a tiny proportion of the clients a consultancy attracts, but their influence can be significant. And sometimes you just have to move on. Here are some thoughts about how to do it. 

The problem 

Difficult clients can: 

• Take up a lot of management time
• Make your team unhappy
• Require constant rework which delays projects and ruins margins - classic over-servicing
• Cause reputational damage within the client and even possibly wider 

The symptoms 

It’s not going well. You keep getting blamed for things that aren't in your control. You’re being made to re-do work, or scope creep is forcing you into areas that are doomed to fail. And your team are uncharacteristically under-performing, taking time off, requesting transfers to other clients, and no-one wants to go onto the project or account. 

You’ve tried pragmatic changes to make it work, and it’s still a struggle. 

But the account is far too valuable to resign! 

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 - see below for more on this) 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: 

1. 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. If you think you’re right, don’t be too apologetic to the client, though a courteous “it’s not working between us” message can make it gentler.
2. Look at the client’s internal politics. If you reckon that you and your team are pawns on the chessboard of corporate shenanigans, go gently upwards with your relationship engagement until you get above the squabbling. If that's not possible, it’s time to withdraw gracefully.
3. Check whether it’s a culture mismatch between your firms. Maybe you were hired for the wrong reasons. 

Time to go 

Find a senior colleague, ideally one who’s not connected to the account, and get an objective view that you've tried all the reasonable things. Introduce the colleague into the account on a non-chargeable basis to do a small piece of work or support role, so they can do a proper assessment and get a feel for the account. 

Get to a point where you’re confident your work and efforts are at their best. 

And then, don't leave the client in the lurch. Pick your timing, give them appropriate notice and try to find them a solution for the gap you'll create by departing. 

Communicate with your team. Agree how you’ll handle the handover / notice period. 

Be conscious that, for freelancers, this means the gig ends early, and they’ll be less bought in to the success of your business than permanent colleagues. To mitigate this for both freelancer and client, one of the exit options could be to let the client engage some of the freelancers directly - if that works for your business model. 

Getting your arguments in order

I’ve set up and run consultancies myself, and had to say goodbye to some clients along the way. I found that marshalling my evidence helped enormously - having facts to hand reduced the emotional stress a fair bit.  But it was always hard to get hold of the facts, which is why I created Metis. 

Metis will show you, in real time, the actual amount of time being spent on delivering a client project. Then you can truly understand if the project / client is profitable when all the management time is taken into account. 

Metis is designed for consultancies of 10-100 people. It puts you in control, and lets you focus your time and energy on the real purpose of your consultancy.   

You'll get over the fear of loss and your team and bank account will thank you for it.