There are three reasons why you need to fire a problem client. Three key reasons. We're going to share them with you today on this episode of the Inside BS Show.

Hey, now I'm Dave Lorenzo, the Godfather of Growth, and I'm here with my partner, Nikki G. Good afternoon, Nicola. How are you? Afternoon, Dave. I'm great.

How are you? I'm fantastic. Thank you. So today we're going to talk about the 1% or less of clients who need to be fired immediately.

Now I know what you're thinking, Dave, I worked so hard to get these clients. I worked so hard to get these customers. I don't want to fire them.

Well, there are three reasons why you got to get rid of your clients right away. If they exhibit these three behaviors. So we're going to tell you what they are.

We're going to give you some scenarios and we're going to show you how we've handled them. And hopefully this will make your life less miserable if you come across each of these types of clients. So Nicola, you start, give us the first time we should absolutely positively fire a client.

First time is not following your advice. That is number one for me. Why? Because if the client isn't going to follow your advice, it is going to create problems for you to do your job and to do it well.

So especially for what I do in the practice of law, I'm, I am providing legal advice and if the client is not carrying out that advice, it will cause a lot of problems for the matter that I'm handling. It can number one and will impact the legal strategy that is happening to, it will also tell me I need to be careful where I'm placing that client because I don't have control of that client. If I, if I allow that client to sit down, for example, in deposition and testify, I now don't know that the client is going to follow the advice I provided.

That will impact the case moving forward and everything that I have done to prepare it up into that point. Same thing with allowing client to testify in court. If I can not make sure that the client is going to carry out the legal advice I am providing, there is now a tension between the two, between the client and the attorney.

And this is really applies to any setting. You don't want to have a relationship where you have tension with your client. It's not going to be good for you.

It will cause you to change what you're doing in your own job, question yourself, and you won't be at the top of your game. And you're not going to have a good working relationship with this client. So while I don't like having to fire clients, that is a good reason why you need to, because it's not a healthy relationship for you.

I love it. Yeah, you're a hundred percent right. If a client doesn't follow your advice, you got to get rid of them right away.

They pay you for your skills, your knowledge, your experience and your talent. If they don't appreciate it, they're not taking you up on it. They got to go.

The other time I don't ever take anybody seriously when they question my advice is when they've not done what I've done. And they're listening to someone who's not done what I've done. So if I give, if we sit down and we outline an entire business strategy, the CEO and I, and then the CEO comes to me and he says, you know, over Thanksgiving dinner, I was reviewing this business strategy with my brother-in-law and my brother in law thinks that these three points are off and thinks we should do something different in these three areas.

I say, Hmm, okay, well let's take a look at that for a minute. Why don't you tell me what your brother-in-law does? Oh, he sells insurance. Oh, he sells insurance.

Does he own an insurance agency? No, no, no. He's an insurance. He's a producer.

He sells insurance to people, but he talks to a lot of people, Dave. I immediately step back and I go, I'm sorry. I just can't entertain this conversation because it's not a serious discussion.

These points, while you may think they're relevant, we discussed them already and they don't really fit into what you're trying to do. If you think your brother-in-law's advice is that good, I think you should go with your brother-in-law. And I don't think we need to be working together any longer.

So it's not a question of being defensive and not or having my ego bruised. It's a question of being able to move forward in a way that I know that what I'm saying is meaningful, it's impactful, and we're going to have the result that we committed to at the beginning. For me, that's what it's all about.

When somebody engages me, I commit to working with them to deliver a specific result. And those specific results only come when they follow my guidance step by step. I'm not a coach.

I'm a consultant. I tell you what to do. And if you do it, you get the results.

So if you don't want my advice, that's fine. You don't have to hire me, but if you do hire me and you don't follow my advice, then you can't have the expectation that you're going to get the results that we committed to at the beginning. Is that fair, Nikki G? Oh, it sure is, Matt.

I'm glad you mentioned that. It's not just not following your advice, but it's also questioning your advice because a friend or somebody else put some thoughts into your head. That's not going to work for what we do.

We want clients who are paying us for our advice and they're going to implement that advice. But if you're now bringing in all these outside influences who, like you said, don't do what you do and it's coming from someone who also is not in that space, it's not helpful to that relationship because it's not going to be good for any of us and it's not going to work out. Yeah.

If you're listening to the guy who sells shoes at Foot Locker on your business strategy, it's probably not going to work out for you. But if you really want to listen to that guy, you can get them for a lot cheaper than you can get Dave Lorenzo. Hey, Nikki G, did you know you can also get our show as an audio podcast? Of course I know you can get the show as an audio podcast.

I'm on it. But does our audience? I don't know. So those of you who are watching on YouTube, you can find us wherever you get your podcast.

Just search up the Inside BS Show with The Godfather and Nikki G and you'll find us right there. Click the follow button so that you never miss a show. Now there's a couple of reasons why you're going to want to do that.

Nikki G, tell them what the first reason is. You get to ask us questions that is exclusive to our podcast listeners. Yeah.

We only answer listener questions on the audio version of the podcast. We don't do it on video. So if you want to hear what everyone's thinking or if you want to ask us a question, you got to download the audio podcast.

The second reason and my favorite reason is because you can take us with you. You can have a little Nikki G in your pocket while you're working out in the gym, washing the dishes or walking the dog. I love me some Nikki G in my pocket when I'm walking the dogs.

I don't know about you, Nikola, but that's one of my favorite things to do. Absolutely. Take us with you.

After you watch this episode here on YouTube, go to wherever you get your podcast, click the follow button so we can go with you on your journey and you can ask us questions. We will see you or more like hear you there. Okay, Nikki G, give us point number two.

What is the second time you should absolutely positively fire the client? Point number two is complaining about costs. Look, folks, we have to charge our services. We are good at what we do.

We deliver excellent value. That is why we do this. But if you are not willing to pay for that service, then do not hire us.

And when we end up in a position where a client signs up, knows in advance what we are charging, starts that relationship, and then midway through starts realizing that it's a little too expensive for what they think it should be and wants to back out of the relationship or simply just complains to you about it, then it's going to create a bad relationship. You're not going to be able to move forward when you know they're just going to complain about the cost. We know we're delivering that value.

I can't tell you how frustrating this is, especially from the standpoint of what I do for a living, because I know how hard I work. I know what I put into every matter that I handle. I'm constantly thinking about how I can do the best job possible for every client I work with.

And so when you hear a complaint about what you're charging, it's devastating for you as a professional. We have to get paid for what we do or we wouldn't make a living. And I know like what I'm, you know, charging that client is a very fair price for the services that I'm providing.

So that's a good sign for us as professionals to know, we know what our value is. And if you don't have someone who's willing to pay that value, they're not a good client for you. And it is okay to cut them loose because it's not going to end up in a good relationship for you.

I love it. I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again because I can't tell it enough. Two weeks ago, I had a gentleman call me, a gentleman who knows me well, a gentleman who Nicola knows as well too.

And he says, Hey Dave, I need some advice on an issue. I want to pay you for an hour of your time. Gentleman happens to be a lawyer.

I don't, I don't sell my time by the hour. I, you know, if you want me to solve a problem for you, I'll solve a problem for you. But solving that problem has a value to it.

And whenever I solve a problem for someone, I bring 30 plus years of experience to the table. I bring, you know, my Ivy league education, my second master's degree in management science to the table. And I bring the relationships that I have to the table as well.

And the introductions that I can make to you, all of those things come to bear to solve that problem. So 30 years of experience, Ivy league education and thousands of people that I know that I'm connected to who can help you with this particular problem. I never ever tolerate anybody questioning my price.

You know, what's worse than that for me, uh, Nicola, aside from being ironic and comical, what's worse for me is when people, when I would give my price out to people and they would say, that's it. And they were shocked that it was too little. I would, that would hurt me even more because I would go home and I would lose sleep thinking about how much money I left on the table.

So I'm thrilled when knuckleheads come to me and they don't want to pay my price because then I know I'm charging enough. But if somebody is a client and they're already on board and they're complaining about the price, it's because they still haven't seen the value. And part of that is shame on me.

But the other part of it is just, Hey, listen, you know, let's be an adult here and let's take advantage of everything I have to offer. And let me make you 10 X on what you invested in me. That's really the bottom line.

Yeah. I mean, I've just started to realize there are clients out there who just immediately recognize your value and they're going to pay you for what your services are worth. If you don't have the money, you don't have the money.

I mean, I'm not, I'm not the person for everybody. I'm not a public service. You're not a public service.

We're here in a for-profit business to make a living. But somebody that I know looks me in the eye and says, we're not on the same page. That's not cool.

Especially if he's got the money. All right. What's point number three, Nicola, when should we, when does the third time we should absolutely positively fire a client? Third time is passive aggressive behavior.

So, you know, when you see it, I've even seen him border into aggressive behavior, but if you've got a client making remarks to you that, you know, or just they're inappropriate, you're letting it go, it's not going to get any better because if they've already felt that they can do that, it's going to persist. And this is really unfortunate that we even have to be addressing it, but it exists and they will make those comments to you and you're not going to have a good healthy relationship. So you might as well end it early.

I've had this happen to me a couple of times and it's amazing what happens when you challenge passive aggressive behavior early in a relationship. So one of the things I do, I put it right in my engagement agreement is that I do not tolerate passive aggressive behavior. If you've got a problem with me, you tell me what the problem is and I will do everything within my power to, to resolve, to resolve it, to rectify it because I don't want something to be out there and be unspoken.

So I'm working with this client. Okay. And it's, it's actually somebody who is a, is a provisor's member and they decide they're going to hire me.

I don't work with a lot of provisor's members. I, people, provisor's members refer me to their clients frequently, but this one particular provisor's member wanted to work with me. So I decided I was going to work with this provisor's member and we're working together and he stopped, he starts missing meetings.

So we, our schedule was we were going to meet every other week. It was a very specific project at a definite end and a definite beginning. And he starts missing meetings.

We were supposed to meet every other week. And he misses a third meeting and he calls me up and he says, you know, he wants to have meetings three weeks in a row to catch up on the meetings that he missed. And I said, well, listen, I had that time on my schedule.

I blocked it off for you. I was on zoom. You didn't show, I sent you an email.

You didn't respond to it. And that's gone now. So we can't do it that way.

I'll do what I can to accommodate you to catch you up in the best way possible. We can have a longer session. And what he says to me is he says, well, I guess there's just no flexibility any longer in, in, in customer service when you're a published author or whatever.

And I said to him, I said, wait a minute, what does that mean? I said, I'm like the gym, you know, I'm here and I'm open. If you don't come to work out, you don't go and yell at the gym. You didn't show for the meetings you were supposed to have.

So this passive aggressive behavior is not going to be tolerated. You made a commitment to be there. You didn't keep your commitment.

That's on you. It's not on me. We need to agree to that in order to move forward.

Do you agree that you let me down here that I didn't let you down? And there was silence and the silence lasted about 25 seconds. And I said, you know what? I'm going to let you off the hook. Here's the deal.

We're not going to work together anymore. In fact, since you didn't make those meetings, I'm going to give you your money back for that month. And we're going to part company because I don't think this is going to work out.

That passive aggressive behavior would have grown and it would have festered, even though I challenged it. That was just the nature of this person's personality. You got to get rid of those folks when they're passive aggressive.

Listen, people, those of you listening, those of you watching, 99% of your clients are going to be great. But that 1% that push you over the edge, you got to get rid of them. This is when you fire a client.

I'm Dave Lorenzo. I'm the godfather of growth and cheese. Thank you, Dave.

And we'll see you back here again tomorrow. Until then, here's hoping you make a great living and live a great life. And oh, by the way, if you feel like it, watch or listen to another episode.

That really helps us out. We'll see you tomorrow.