Should your MSP fire a client? It’s a question almost no one asks aloud, but a lot of MSP owners think about it privately… this is what you need to know. Also this week, analogies to help any prospect understand complex tech issues, and how this guy generated 1,000 highly qualified leads for MSPs.

Welcome to Episode 336 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

Should your MSP fire your most annoying client?

A big question… Should your MSP fire a client? It’s a question almost no one asks aloud, but a lot of MSP owners think about it privately. Now, you know the client I mean, right? The one whose name pops up and your stomach tightens slightly. The one who, when they ring, your team kind of looks around quietly hoping someone else answers the phone or more likely they look down at their desk hoping they don’t make eye contact with someone. I mean the client who drains more energy than they generate. And you know that name that’s in your head right now, if you’ve had that name negatively floating around in your head or in meetings or in discussions more than once over the last few weeks or months, then what I’ve got to say here is worth paying attention to.

Every so often in business, perhaps if you just take a few days off or if you have a bit of space to think about things strategically, you get this amazing rare combination of perspective and momentum, the two going together. Perspective because you can step back and see the bigger picture to how the last 12 months have really felt and momentum because you’re thinking about growth and direction and what the next stage of your MSP’s growth looks like. And when you zoom out like that, the handful of difficult clients, they really stand out very, very clearly.

The noisy one, the energy vampire, the one who questions every single line on every invoice, the one who is permanently unhappy, the one who doesn’t treat your team with respect. And you find yourself thinking, “Am I really going to put up with this for another 6, 12, 18 months?” And then the doubt creeps in. You tell yourself, “Oh, hang on here. I’m trying to grow the business. Firing your client is going backwards.” No, that’s completely the wrong way to think about it because here’s something that most MSPs don’t realise until they’ve done it…

Your worst client often costs you more than they actually pay you.

Now sometimes yes, that cost is financial, but it’s always emotional, mental, and operational. A single difficult client can completely demoralise your team. They can drain all the time from your senior technicians and from senior management. They can create chaos in your calendar and slow down work that you’re doing for good clients. Bad clients can even contribute to staff churn, I’ve seen it happen, and they can absolutely destroy your personal mood or the mood of your team with a single ticket. Why would you continue to tolerate that? The opportunity cost of keeping the wrong client is huge. So how do you spot one clearly? To me, there are four big red flags:

• First, is when your team groans, when their name appears on caller ID. That is the biggest warning sign of all. If your people feel dread and are just avoiding the call, something is very wrong there.
• Second, they argue over everything – quotes, invoices, priorities, response times. Every time anyone speaks to them, any kind of interaction, it just feels like a negotiation, which is not a partnership, is it? That’s just pain.
• Third, they expect champagne service on a lemonade budget. I love that line. They want premium response and premium outcomes, but when you explain what that costs, suddenly you’re too expensive.
• Fourth, they don’t follow your processes. They won’t log tickets properly. They won’t approve upgrad...