Clients You Need to Fire!
While it’s always important in the recruitment business to develop a sales pipe line, it’s fair to say that not all clients are created equal. Therefore, your professional focus should be on those clients that you can serve the best, and who deliver great results for you in turn. The client-recruiter relationship should be a ‘win-win’ relationship, yet some clients seem to ‘take more than they give’, as the song goes…
Often, recruiters fall into the trap of thinking that they can accept a bit of a raw deal thinking that the sacrifice will pay off later with that client, but what is really happening is that the client is getting the message that you’re a pushover, and is then very unlikely to change their strategy in future!
Of course, some clients really are great…but still might not be the right client for you. Remember, there’s no shame in letting clients go and freeing up space for new ones.
Today we’re discussing some of the signs of an unhealthy recruiter-client relationship, and some key indicators that it’s time to let that client go their own way and seek out better ones.
Clients you need to fire
The client is a terrible communicator
You’re trying hard to fill positions for them, but they don’t provide you with the information you need to do so. Job descriptions are woolly, they’re vague on salary details, and they keep messing the candidates around by changing interview times and cancelling at the last minute. You end up looking bad in front of the candidate and the candidate turns down the job offer due to the messed-up recruitment experience they’ve had…ironically leaving the client disappointed and unhappy with you!
This type of client is also often hard to pin down with phone calls and email responses, but wants you to drop everything when they’re ready. This client is almost impossible to please, but often doesn’t understand how they’re contributing to that. A polite conversation is required to try and turn the situation around; if that fails, it’s definitely time to fire that client.
The client is visibly unhappy with your fees and constantly tries to renegotiate
This type of client is always trying to get ‘something for nothing’. They’ll often object to your fees right from the start, and might even battle you down into a lower placement fee. This type of low-paying client is known to make many promises about how you’ll make more money in the long run, because they’ll need lots of candidates in the future, etc, etc. Of course, you have no idea if these vacancies will actually arise…
Remember, you know how much your service is worth, and agreeing to place people for less is just undermining your billing numbers. It’s also not great for your confidence to be undervalued, nor does it make you feel warmly predisposed to the client (and therefore you might find it hard to go the extra mile for them). In the end, nobody wins from fees being undercut.
The client doesn’t understand boundaries
It’s 9:30 pm and you’re getting ready for bed, and you get a call from a client, asking you if you received their urgent email they sent an hour ago about one of your candidates that they love/hate/want to know more about, or to discuss a placement from last year that isn’t working out. This client requires you to be immediately available to them at any time, and has no visible understanding that you have other clients that you need to take care of as well. (Oddly, these kinds of clients often don’t have big budgets, but desire 100% of your time regardless.)
In this client’s mind, they are the only client that matters, and you often get the sense that they think their fee means that they ‘own’ you. You can resolve this by setting clear boundaries, but this kind of client tends to have very stubborn ideas about their importance and will often revert to type very quickly…’I’m sorry to call on a weekend as I know it’s not what we discussed, but I really need your input- it’s an emergency….). If they continue to test and even ignore your boundaries,
then it’s time to say goodbye.
The client pays late and you always have to chase invoices repeatedly
It’s very difficult to think well of a client who doesn’t pay on time. You’re thrust into the position of having to send increasingly awkward follow-up emails about payment, and you start to feel that the client is messing you around. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t- perhaps they’re just disorganised. But regardless of whichever it is: who wants a client who doesn’t pay what they owe, when they owe it?
When you do decide to let a client go, do it with maximum politeness and as much notice as possible. Thank them thoroughly for their business, and do everything you can to leave the relationship on good terms. It’s then time to learn from this experience, taking everything you now know about bad clients and bringing that to bear on finding better ones.
Make sure your future contracts are really specific about payment, availability, and non-negotiable fees to avoid future problems…and keep a very careful eye on any potential client’s communications styles. Learn from this and move on to the many great clients out there!
Until next time,
Cheryl