The case for sticking with bad clients

True story: 

A couple of years ago, after being reamed out by a client for a silly innocent mistake I made in an email (I don’t remember the exact details, but methinks he got triggered because I added urgency to a promotion that included a bonus). 

Anyway, after this happened, I seriously considered firing the client. This wasn’t the only red flag: He had become too much of a micromanager (by accident), started fires across his entire company for his team to put out (a common mountain entrepreneurs must face and climb or submit to and die), and, truth be told, he just wasn’t all that fun to work with. 

But against my better judgment at the time, I decided to stick with him. After giving him a full serving of reaming him out for reaming me out. 

While the relationship didn’t mend itself overnight (and this was hardly only my complaint, most people on his team felt the same way), he started to get it. 

Fast forward a couple years:

We had a quarterly review meeting yesterday where he admitted that he let his stress and overwhelm turn him into a micromanager that starts fires just to start them. But the past 6 months especially have been eye-opening: 

He’s trusting his team more. (He no longer reviews every email I write or send.) 

He’s writing less. (He told us that one day, he wasted 6 hours in a Google Docs trying to piece together persuasive copy and that’s when it hit him that he has someone on his team to do just that.) 

He’s happier. Less stressed and overwhelmed. 

But most important of all? 

He’s working in his unique strengths that only he has as the CEO instead of meddling around with everyone else’s roles. 

This is a natural progression for any CEO. 

When he started his company, he had to do EVERYTHING. 

Write all the copy. 

Come up with all the ideas. 

Implement all the tech. 

Etc etc etc.

But when your business grows, the sooner you ask who not how (and actually believe it and not take it as some kind of personal attack that you no longer have to handle everything), the sooner you can start achieving real growth again. 

Because here’s the thing:

Most entrepreneurs who, say, write all the copy when their business is young think that they’re an exceptional copywriter. But more likely, they’ve just created an offer so good that makes the copy far less important. 

Anyway, I decided to stick with this “bad” client—and he’s turned himself into a good client. 

I like to call that a win. 

Now, could he have done this without my help and influence? 

Probably. 

But it also probably would’ve taken much longer, created more fires and stressed his team even more, and it’s possible that this natural evolution would’ve never been realized. 

That is just one unusual benefit of working with a copywriter. 

Wanna see how this could work in your business? 

Hit reply, and let’s chat. 

John