How to Righteously Fire a Toxic Customer...

Back in the mid-90s, this guy I know named Adriel ran a small web development shop.

One day he got a call from the CEO of a hot Silicon Valley startup—and the project sounded like a match made in heaven.

Adriel's software was perfect for the new website this company wanted to build. The startup had cash to burn. And for his part, Adriel welcomed the $100K check that would help him meet his swelling payroll.

Then things got ugly.

Turns out Mr. CEO was a fanatical micromanager with a short fuse and a viscous tongue.

Adriel's team put on a brave face—for a while. But then one day his project manager told him she couldn't take it anymore.

Now a lot of biz owners in Adriel's position would have told their employee that she'd just have to suck it up and deal.

This was after all the Adriel's biggest client. The check was cashed, and the money was spent. He NEEDED this deal to work out.

But that's not what he. The next day Adriel called his team together and announced that he was firing the customer and refunding all their money.

Then he got Mr. Bigshot CEO on the horn and—in a calm, level voice—told him the jig was up.

Right on cue, the guy goes APE, slinging accusations and questioning Adriel's competence.

When the human volcano started to run out of steam and vitriol, Adriel explained that he would no longer tolerate the way the CEO had mistreated his team. End of discussion, the check is in the mail.

The silence on the other end of the line dragged on for minutes—and when the CEO did speak again, he sounded like a completely different person. Chastened, reflective, resigned.

Half an hour later Adriel's phone rings. Mr. CEO again. He'd talked to his top managers, and THEY confirmed that he'd made their lives hell too.

The CEO thanked Adriel for his brutal honesty and asked if there was a chance the project could still go forward.

Adriel ended up flying out on a Saturday and spending a whole day with the CEO, who privately poured out his heart to him.

And the end result was:

The partners resumed work, the project finished on time, and the CEO ended up selling the company to ESPN for a huge pile of cash.

I've shared other "firing client" stories in the past, but this is the RIGHT way to do it. And it led to a resolution.

He might not realize it, but Adriel followed almost to the letter the best conflict resolution model ever devised.

This approach was spelled out by a carpenter just over 2,000 years ago:

"If your friend does evil to you, go privately and point

out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you

have won that person back.

"But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with

you and go back again, so that everything you say may be

confirmed by two or three witnesses.

"If that person still refuses to listen, take your case to

the entire group [the church]. If they decide you are right, but

the other person won't accept it, treat that person as a pagan or

a corrupt tax collector."

That's the "Jesus method" of conflict escalation, straight from Matthew chapter 18.

It almost always works if followed correctly. If it doesn't work, it gets rid of the problem, with eyewitnesses and documentation.

But... here's what most people do:

They talk to everybody except the person who did wrong, (often exaggerating the story at the same time) and create a bunch of bad blood. Usually the person who did the offending isn't even aware of it.

Then they take some kind of "official" action, register a Big Complaint or something, and pound the snot out of the guy. He recoils and a big fight gets started. There's so much ill will generated that the situation careens out of control.

Why do they do this? Out of cowardice and fear of confrontation, mostly. This is the most unhealthy kind of fear there is.

I was once involved in a project where an entire company folded, for precisely this reason. One guy thought another guy was mis-handling some funds and rather than notifying others in the company (who would certainly have been willing to address the problem) he just pulled all the money out of the bank account.

The result: Checks bounced, partners got black eyes, feelings hurt, hard work undone, trust irreparably damaged.

The company officially dissolved a short time later.

Totally unnecessary. (They had a very promising business plan, too.) ¡Qué lástima! Don't let that happen to you.

Carpe Diem,

Perry Marshall

P.S. Sometimes you need a second and third opinion to help you sort out what's what.

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