Saying bye bye to clients

Why and how to fire your clients

Photo by Dylan Hunter on Unsplash

In 2023, I spent a lot of time dealing with difficult clients and we fired most of them. For the safety of my team and for our future selfs moving forward, this had to be done. 

It’s one of the most fun parts of being an entrepreneur.

If you have planned and played the game well enough, you would be in a good position to reject clients and fire your customers.

The important thing when firing customers is to not burn bridges. Make sure that you leave space for them to continue working with you in the future. You want to use the firing as an opportunity for your customer to become your advocate too. You want to provide your customer with the right explanation as to why you are not a good fit and more importantly, you want to leave the customer better off than before they first contacted you.

Some examples of the past week:

Client 1 - Operations Manager at a large MNC

“Can you keep the consistency of the 3D Prints within 0.0001″? Can you print 5 of them and send them all to us? Within one day? If there is a need to reprint, can you do the reprint and send it to us, within one day? Can you also give us a big discount?”

In a previous assignment with the same client, they rejected a whole batch, nearly $1000 worth of 3D Prints that they deemed were not “usable”. We did the reprints and then instituted a process where one piece is sent for checking and confirmation before the rest of the batch. This way, our interests and the client’s interests are protected. 

But the client was not interested in protected our interests. They wanted us to take on all the risks, while providing them with a quick turnaround on design and parts. All while giving them a discount. 

Here is how it was handled: 

“We are unable to support your current needs, here are the contact details of some other businesses that may be able to help you. “

Client 2 - Infocomm Manager at an Educational Institution

“Can we come see the 3D Printer this week? We are looking at something that is easy to use, good quality prints with at least two year warranty? Ideally, we also want multi-colour printing capabilities.” After telling them that we do not sell 3D Printers anymore, this happened. “Are you able to support us with this? We will provide you details on which machine to buy, you just have to support us with the local warranty.” 

The machines would have cost $1800 each and the clients total budget was $4000. 

Here is how it was handled: 

“Unfortunately, we are unable to support your request at the moment. The machine you have chosen is a good one, however, you want to be sure of these few things - (insert some advice from years of experience). 

Here is information on some resources you can use to create lesson plans later on.”

Client 3 - Innovation Manager at large local engineering business

“Here are the 20 files we need to print, quantity is shown in the filename. We need you to complete this within one week of our confirmation (if you are chosen). Please send us one set as a sample for evaluation. Payment term is 60 days after delivery”

Here is how it was handled: 

“Thank you for the opportunity to support your requirements, unfortunately, we may not be the best fit for you based on your requirements. Here are the contact details of some other providers who may be able to help you.”

As we work to push mēkā into product design and development, we’re saying no to clients who do not suit our goals.