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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/526329
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do D - I - Y M a n a g e m e n t No one wants to lose a client, but sometimes working together just doesn't work out. Business development coach Pamela Chatry and GrowthPoint chair Robert Murray advise how to fire a customer without burning bridges by Felicity Stone Bring staff on Board Everybody has to understand the reason why, says Murray. "There might be really good revenue that comes from that customer but at what cost? If the organization is losing money on it and there's no strategic value to carrying on with that, and at the same time the relationship is causing the customer to be the worst form of advertising in the marketplace by spreading negative talk about you, what is the tangible value of that?" offer alternatives "If I'm going to terminate a client, I always give them names of others who do similar work to me and say, 'Perhaps there's a better fit?'" says Chatry. Murray invited his competitor to lunch with an about-to-be-former client and introduced them. "The client walked away from the meeting thinking, 'This is a classy organization that realizes they're not serving us well, but they found a solution for me,'" he says. "They didn't just walk away from it." • Consider timing If the business owner sees a possibility of the relationship deteriorating, nip it in the bud early while it is still amicable, advises Chatry. She and Murray recommend first completing the current stage of the client's project. "We lost more money than we would have if we had made the change earlier, however we were in a place of integrity with the client by waiting," says Murray. talk it over The first thing is to listen, says Chatry. Understand and acknowl- edge the client's unhappiness, that there is a problem. "And then it's always good to ask that client, What do you see as a step here in resolving this? 'What would you like to have happen?'" she adds. "It still comes down to, are you going to end this on a bad note or are you going to end this on a good note?" say goodBye "Some people you'll never make happy," says Chatry. "You're better to say, I don't think this is working for you any more than this is working for me." It may simply be a bad fit and the client should never have been taken on in the first place. It's usually not a surprise to the client that it's not working out, notes Murray. "You have to look at that and say, this is a relationship that's fail- ing and it needs to go." 1 2 3 4 5 JUly 2015 BCBusiness 33 IllUSTRATIONS: VICTORIA PARK