Happy Friday, everyone!
This week's poll question was inspired by Phil Bernstein's recent blog post, "Tear up His Business Card!", in which he discusses when it's time to stop working with a waste-of-time client.
Have you ever had to "fire" a client? Why? And what happened?
Looking forward to reading your answers!
I think we have all had that one client that was a major pain in the butt however we often tend to hand on to them like it was a hunk of gold. Destroying a business card is a huge step in the right direction. Never actually "fired" a client but have certainly just let them fade into the sunset. This is a good idea.
There is always at least one client you have to let go. I don't usually tear up their card. I hand it off to another person explaining the caveats of this customer, then let them have a shot. I don't discourage the new rep, but rather give them a little background on what I've experienced. Sometimes it's the sales rep and not the client and the new rep is successful when I was not and vice versa. I usually use the "baseball" rule. Three proposals and you're out.
YES: We had one of those bling type stores that sold cheap jewelry, sunglasses and swimwear. The woman who ran it was in her mid 20's and treated our rep like crap. She would tell the rep not to run an ad on a particular day...at 4 in the afternoon on a Friday. Then try to call on Saturday and get new ads. Nothing big, but over and over again. Finally after many abusive calls I fired the customer... who then told us she would go to the FCC on it... we gave her the phone number.
We have had a few over the years that treated our reps badly, so we let them go. A good salesman is worth more than a few bucks from a power hungry customer. At least in my world. No one else can abuse our reps... only we can abuse our reps!
I have fired a client when they prove they are more interested in conducting a poll about how many people came into their store from a radio ad than actually selling product to the increased traffic.
Never answer a question no one is asking. People don't want to be peppered with questions about marketing.
Yes. Several years ago I had a mortgage broker on the air and while waiting for the owner, I overheard one of his loan officers talking to a client about his application. It was for a no-doc loan, meaning they didn't need proof of income and other important info.
The guy was inflating his customers income on the loan application to get him qualified among other things. I asked the owner about it later and he said it was common, everyone does it, etc.
His contract was up in 2 weeks and we didn't renew him due to his questionable business practices. It didn't matter to me if "everyone was doing it". I didn't want our listeners to get in over their heads with a loan they couldn't afford.
From Robert E. Lee on the RSC Facebook page:
Regrettably, yes. Sometimes, we will get a client who just becomes too demanding in what they expect from us if they want us to continue the business relationship. And sometimes, just as bad, they expect 'something for nothing' because that's what a radio competitor gives them. But that just shows that the client did not find value in the relationship to begin with. The client would never consider 'giving away' their business, but they expect us to. Nope. "You're fired!"
Thank you for this. I am new and hungry but need to know this.
As a straight commission station representative, I have to put up with some occasional 'guff', because that money buys my kids shoes! But, I have had to "fire" a few of my advertising accounts over the years, usually to hand them off to another station rep in hopes that he/she can make something of them. (Remember, NOBODY can get along with everyone they meet, especially in business and sales settings!)
But, aside from the very occasional absolute a--holes and the rare endless procrastinators, I did have one unusual client that I finally had to "fire". She is a woman who owns and manages a floral and gift shop, and at the time, she was one of my smallest clients. This middle-aged woman was strongly opinionated (and depressing as heck) on every topic from American politics to Radio Advertising to, I'm sure, Zebras. She would start our meetings by whining - at about 200 words per minute - about her advertising bills, forcing me to remind her that I did not sell newspaper and billboard advertising, just radio advertising. After moaning about the 'ineffective' nature of radio advertising for 5-10 minutes, she would move on to completely irrelevant topics, such as: her endlessly failing marriage, greedy tax collections, lousy parking in her downtown area, deceptive politicians everywhere and the coming collapse of society. I only wrote about one small advertising order for every 2 or 3 sales calls, but every sales call with her ended with me feeling frustrated and depressed. The last time I met with her, I went right home, with a bad mood and feeling frustrated. This woman had sucked all the energy out of me, like a Psychic Vampire, and she had sucked all of the emotional oxygen out of the building! YIKES!
I vowed to never call on her again, despite the fact that she did occasionally make small advertising buys from me. Any prospect or client who destroys your will to sell radio advertising, is your Psychic Vampire! You can't pound a stake into the heart of these horrible people, but you can usually choose to STAY AWAY from these motivation-draining leeches!
From Rick "Kahuna" Nesbitt on the RSC Facebook page:
Unfortunately, yes, when a particular client kept demanding lower rates. It finally came down to the wire when they DEMANDED $3.00 spots. I said we just couldn't do that, and they said they didn't think they should pay the regular ROS $12.50 rate (Even though they were requesting specific dayparts and I had already given them a discount and bonus spots). I said "Well, I guess our relationship has ended.".
