How to fire those bottom-ranked clients.

When practitioners joke about 20 percent of their clients consuming 80 percent of their time, they are joking about reality. That's the very reason why they need to act like business managers and fire the 20 percent of their clients consuming an inordinate amount of time while adding nothing to the bottom line. Who are these clients? Oh, you know, they're the ones:

* sending in work that is always incomplete;

* calling constantly with "just a quick question." Translation: "Don't send me a bill for this;"

* ignoring you until their banker needs a financial statement, or until they need a copy tomorrow of a tax return for a mortgage application (never mind that they have not yet filed that return); and/or

* wanting a financial statement in November showing profits for their annual loan review. Then, in December, they want a statement for their tax return showing no profits.

We all have these types of clients and are painfully aware that we are not profiting from them. As practitioners, there's potential liability in serving clients whose erratic behavior could impede us from performing adequately. However, most of us are afraid to get rid of them because we "need the cash flow."

Identifying Who to Cut Loose

How can you identify the clients in your practice needing to be "fired"? Enlist your staff to help you with the following steps because they usually know clients better than you do. Next, follow these four steps to identify your bottom-rung clients:

1. Create a spreadsheet listing all clients and their characteristics.

2. Rank each client on a scale of one to 10--one being "poor" and 10 being "excellent"--on characteristics such as:

* timeliness in providing information,

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* completeness of information,

* truthfulness,

* integrity,

* payment habits, and

* agreeable to constructive suggestions.

3. Total the scores for each client and rank the clients based on the final scores--high scores at the top of the list and low scores at the bottom.

4. This part of the task is the most difficult: Identify the clients in the bottom 10 percent, and send them the dreaded letter saying something like, "Our business model has changed, and we can no longer serve your needs."

This exercise is especially difficult because you'll anticipate cash flying out the window. In truth, however, you'll have more time to serve your better, less time-consuming clients. Encourage the remaining 90 percent of your clients to refer business to you--and they will after recognizing you have time to serve more clients.

Make this evaluation an annual event in your practice. In fact, the best time to perform it is right now while preparing for another busy season.

Ultimately, the goal is to replace the bottom 20 percent of your client base with new, quality clients. After three years of such a strategy, your practice no longer will resemble the former practice, you'll serve clients you enjoy and make more money.

If you have the mental strength and courage to implement this plan of action, you will be amazed at the success your practice will experience. Here's to courage--and a top-ranked 2006!

Bill Parrish, ABA, ATP, ATA, ECS, is founder and CEO of (oneplusone)[.sup.3]. Contact him at billparrish@oneplusone3.com.

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