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You’re wired to help your clients—when they’re struggling, you instinctively want to ease their pain.
You’ll look for a way—even if it’s outside your deal, your preferences or your core expertise—to solve their problem.
This instinct is a good thing—it drives you to live your mission and cement the bond with your clients and buyers.
The problem is that it can go bad—even very, very bad—if you don’t check that instinct against what’s best for BOTH parties in the short-run and the long-run.
Like when your client:
- Loses a key staff member and asks you to step into the breach (you’ve instantly moved from strategic advisor to an order taker).
- Insists that you continue doing certain tasks—or hire someone to keep doing them on your payroll—after you’ve given them proper notice of your business change.
- Asks you to take on a new “thing” that makes your toes curl (you’re running an authority business, not a concierge service).
- Starts adding items to your project’s punch list that make no kind of sense for the scope and outcomes you’re delivering.
- Changes timetables and delivery dates—assuming you’ll roll with them—without talking to you first.
- Asks for the “friends + family special” (they’re only pretending it’s a joke).
It’s not even that clients are intentionally dissing you (well, except for that friends + family discount).
They’re asking because they trust you, they rely on you, and they’re hoping you’ll come to the rescue.
They’re reaching for the easiest solution they see.
Your job is to show them the way that also works for you, not to lie down waiting for the steamroller.
Related: When The Universe Isn’t Cooperating It’s Time To Take Matters Into Your Own Hands