How Firing Toxic Clients Leads to Stronger Relationships with Susan Finch | Ep #725

Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

Have you ever fired a client? If you could do it without repercussions on cash flow, would you? Most agency owners have horror stories about toxic clients who created an unhealthy environment for the team. Deciding to cut ties can be particularly daunting, especially when the client in question represents a significant portion of your revenue.

Today’s featured guest decided to prioritize herself and her team's well-being by firing a client before the situation escalated. She looks back on a long and successful career in marketing and highlights how she came back from losing major clients and how she learned to advocate for herself and her team.

Susan Finch is a seasoned entrepreneur, writer, and podcaster with nearly four decades of experience in the advertising and marketing industry. She began her career as a teenager at a recreational boating company and eventually transitioned to an agency in the 1990s, during the transformative rise of the internet.

After a few key clients parted ways with the agency she was presented with the chance to start her own firm and continue to work with the remaining clients. With thirty years of industry experience under her belt, she is eager to share valuable insights, discuss the challenges of losing significant clients, and explore the strategies she’s been using to focus on working on the business rather than in the business.

In this episode, we’ll discuss:

• Susa’s early mistake and learning to build a sustainable agency.

• Cutting ties with tosic clients.

• On impactful networking.

• Love, hate, delegate.

How Early Success Can Mask the Need to Build Systems and Processes

In 1996, when the web was still very new, Susan started to work for an agency where she had the opportunity to work with clients like the City of Anaheim on interesting projects and fell in love with the work.

However, the agency took a big hit once this client moved their work in-house. The agency owner suggested that Susan establish her own agency offering to become her first client. At the time, she was nine months pregnant, and the idea of launching her own business felt overwhelming. Nevertheless, she embraced the opportunity and never looked back.

The transition to building her own agency was relatively smooth, with introductions being made, clients satisfied, and the work continuing without much fuss. However, looking back, Susan realizes this made her too comfortable. She was late to create her own prospecting processes to keep the pipeline full when referrals dried up.

Having landed on a business, Susan failed to plan for the future and have the different pieces in place to guarantee its proper functioning. Without those pieces in place, an agency will scale for a while but ultimately crash. The lack of vision, goals, and processes led her to work on the business all the time.

Longterm Benefit to Cutting Ties with a Toxic Client

The breaking point that led to the ultimate change for Susan was getting rid of a toxic client. This specific client was causing her and her team immense stress and draining their creativity and joy. It came down to making the difficult decision to fire them, despite accounting for 40% of the agency’s business, to guarantee a healthy and abuse-free work environment.

The immediate aftermath of this decision was a rough patch where thankfully Susan was not shy about calling up all her contacts and being very open about looking for small and big projects alike and the type of client she wanted to work with.

She began working as a fractional CMO with several companies and sometimes became the full-time solution they were looking for. Before long, Susan secured a new high-profile client, whose esteemed reputation gave her the confidence she needed to network effectively in her industry, having conversations with big-time CEOs and CMOs. Ultimately, firing her toxic client was a painful decision but the right one in the long run.

Rebuilding Your Agency’s Momentum & Bouncing Back from Firing a Major Client

Firing a client is intimidating, especially when they account for a significant part of your revenue. However, Susan knew it was time to stand up for herself and her team. Every agency owner has stories about difficult clients but it’s important to advocate for yourself and your team.

Don’t wait too long to raise the issue once you notice the problematic behavior is affecting the team and set clear boundaries This assertiveness can foster a more positive working relationship or lead to a necessary separation. Regardless of the outcome, your team will appreciate your commitment to their well-being, reinforcing the standards of treatment you expect.

In the end, the problematic individual at that old client’s company left and the company approached Susan to continue the working relationship months later. By standing up for herself, Susan was able to maintain her integrity, build stronger relationships, and create a more positive work environment.

Lessons on the Power of Personal Touch for Impactful Networking

Networking provided Susan with the opportunity to meet new people and make a lasting impression. She credits this to the fact that she’s not afraid to pick up the phone or schedule an in-person meeting.

People nowadays tend to rely on emails and social media to start conversations and don’t realize this can create a sense of detachment. By picking up the phone, meeting for coffee, attending events, and engaging in real conversations, agency owners can establish genuine connections that can lead to new opportunities, collaborations, and friendships.

In-person interactions allow for spontaneity, creativity, and a deeper level of understanding that may not be achieved through digital communication alone.

Consider your agency’s email list. If you have a few high-engagement contacts who are yet to become clients, why not reach out with a simple phone call to express your gratitude for their engagement? They will likely be pleasantly surprised to learn that your sole intention is to thank them, leaving a memorable impression.

Making that phone call demonstrates your commitment to going the extra mile to connect, engage, and show genuine interest in others. This approach can lead to stronger relationships, enhanced trust, and a profound sense of connection among individuals.

The Love, Hate, Delegate Approach to Leadership

Just like choosing to work with the right clients will help you create the type of work you love to do and motivate you to do great things, Susan advocates for the “love, hate, delegate” approach—an effective method she's learning to use to regain focus on her business operations. This system involves categorizing tasks into three distinct groups: those she loves to handle personally, those she can eliminate, and those that can be delegated to others.

At the end of the day, agency owners don’t just want to scale their business, they want to get to a point where they can build a team that can take over and get their time back. Time is irreplaceable so find ways to keep building your business while still doing the work you love. Get your ego out of it and allow other people to come in and make you look better.

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