Have you ever had a difficult client – a client who questions everything you do, thinks they you’re your job better than you do, don’t pay their bills on time, fight you on your fees, constantly complain, don’t listen to your advice, or who just don’t “feel right” to you?

I’ve been talking about spring cleaning a lot lately and today I’d like to talk about spring cleaning your client list.

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Spring Clean Your Client List

I heard some advice many years ago that you should eliminate the bottom 10% of your clients every year.

But why would you get rid of clients? It seems counterintuitive.

Bad clients drive out good clients.

They take a disproportionate amount of your time and energy, leaving you less time and energy to focus on your best clients.

They can cost you money if they don’t pay their bills on time or in full. They may even cost you good clients by badmouthing you, leaving bad reviews or possibly even worse, by referring other clients just like them!

As you’re doing your spring cleaning, think about whether you have clients you can eliminate from your practice – and let me know in the comments if you do fire a client and what your experience was like.

If you have identified some clients you’d like to fire, but aren’t sure how to go about it, check out this post and video on how to fire a client.

Keep Difficult Clients Out of Your Practice

What if you could keep those problematic clients from entering your practice in the first place?

While nothing is 100% foolproof, there are some steps you can take to identify clients who are a bad fit for you early – preferably before a retainer agreement is signed.

The first step is by trusting your gut.

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Trust Your Gut

Have you ever had a client who just made you uncomfortable during your initial consultation or phone call? Maybe you couldn’t identify exactly what was wrong but something just felt “off.” Maybe the client was evasive or you got the feeling they weren’t telling you the whole story. Or maybe they were asking for services you weren’t comfortable providing.

It’s easy to ignore these feelings, especially if you need to increase your client base, or if the client is a referral from a good referral source. But if your gut tells you the client is not right for you, it’s time to pay attention.

I can’t tell you how many lawyers I’ve worked with who have ignored their gut, talked themselves into the representation, and regretted it later.

The good news is you don’t have to rely on your gut alone. You can develop an early warning system to help you identify difficult clients and provide concrete support for that gut feeling. I’ll talk more about that below.

What are the Red Flags That Signal a Difficult Client?

What are the red flags that signal a client might not be the right client for you?

The first step in developing your early warning system to identify clients who are a poor fit for your practice early on is to identify and make a list of those red flags.  

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Identifying Red Flags

Think about clients you have worked with in the past that were not the right fit for you.

What were the behaviors or characteristics that they exhibited early on that might have alerted you that they were not the right client for you?

For example:

• Did they show up late for their initial consultation?
• Did they fail to follow your instructions about what to bring to the consultation?
• Did they expect an unrealistic outcome to their case?
• Did they want you to approach the case in a way that was uncomfortable for you?
• Did they want everything in a rush?
• Were they rude to your staff?
• Or perhaps all of the clients who were not the right fit for you came from the same referral source.

Once you have identified the red flags, you can put some processes in place to weed out those clients, and we’ll talk about that next. Don’t forget to tell me about your red flags in the comments!

Another way to avoid difficult clients is by creating an ideal client profile that will help you focus on attracting the clients who are the best fit for you. Get a copy of the Ideal Client Profile Workbook here.

Even clients who make it through your early warning system could become difficult clients later in the representation. But there are some ways you can prevent a client from turning into a difficult client by how you handle the initial consultation and your interactions with the client throughout the representation. To learn more, check out this article on dealing with difficult clients.