When Firing A Client Doesn't Go Exactly To Plan
Gather around, it's storytime.
Once upon a time in 2017, I had to fire a client mid-way through a project.
It wasn’t that she was a terrible person.
She got stuck listening to Aunt Karen's opinions on what her sales page should look like and sound like. Which stories should be told. Which were ‘nice’ and which 'were a bit much.'
All from someone who was never ever ever going to buy her service.
We’d already had a coaching call and nailed down her message, her edge + her audience. We'd locked that certainty in. I had taken care of that and she was excited so off I went.
I wrote and wrote and wrote.
She loved it.
Then, she came back with another email saying that Aunt Karen's Best Friend Who's A High School Teacher thinks this.
And all I could think was:
Who gives a shit?
Aunt Karen and Her Best Friend aren't your target market. They've never paid you for this service. They'll never ever ever (with Taylor Swift certainty) pay you for this service.
But it was too late.
Aunt Karen has infiltrated my client's brain.
She started questioning whether her services were right.
She started telling me that because Aunt Karen said *this* we needed to change the message, change the direction, change the copy.
Big mistake. Huge.
The next day, I terminated our project.
With Aunt Karen's opinion taking a dump all over my copy, I couldn’t deliver what I had promised:
Results. With integrity.
I gave her the first version of the sales page I wrote, refunded a portion, and wished her well.
Fast forward to present day.
Recently, I got an email.
From my fired client.
She was interested in hiring me again.
She ended up using the first draft sales page copy I wrote.
And she was loving it.
She was selling her coaching packages easily + effortlessly.
And she wants more copy from me.
Why do I tell you this?
Well, sometimes you’ll get clients that aren’t a perfect match and yeah, you gotta fire them.
But mostly I'm telling you this because copy matters every single time. Even if your Aunt Karen thinks it’s all a bit too much and you shouldn’t swear and she doesn't get the punchline.
Copy is exactly the reason whether you get clients or not.
Not getting clients?
Get a copywriter.
*Waves hellooooo*