I have found the most important aspect of a quality relationship is keeping value and goals in the forefront. We won’t start a project anymore without actual conversion goals being spelled out. We have found it is far too difficult to measure success or failure later on without clearly defined goals. We also keep value in clear view. What is the value of X daily visitors to your site and Y conversions? Focusing on value generally squelches any expense complaints from purchasing.

We have also moved towards being very clear with customers who are overly price conscious that there probably isn’t a good fit between our companies. And try an go our separate ways before the relationship spirals into an actual firing.

Char, you make a good point about responsiveness. In the search marketing industry, I’ve seen stats that say all SEO recommendations are NOT implemented by clients about 60% of the time. That’s a huge number, but it doesn’t dig into the details, like whether SEO recommendations are even possible or whether the cost of implementation outweighs the potential benefit.

…Than you have to multiply the probability of the scenarios with the present value of the expected profit (of course you have to take into consideration of the risk sensitivity of your company). Than add the profits of the two parts of your portfolio, and you will get the present value of your profit. If it is below your minimal profit expectations, you have to reject the client relationship, otherwise you have to start (or continue) it. Isn’t it simple?

Of course the modell is simple. But it is very hard to evalute future scenarios. The only thing I tried to explain, that it is a mistake to decide about a client considering one special factor of the relationship. For instance I do not send a client becouse it is hard to work with him. If he pays my ‘difficulties’ I continue the hard work with him. On the aother hand I tend to work for share- if the profit is high enough, and the risk is low enough for me, why not?

If you think about the client relationship just as an order the only important thing is that your work have to be payed.

If you think about the client relationship as an investment (reference, long term relationship, widening range of services you will deliver later) than your portfolio (remember- every business activity is an investment, just like T-Bonds) consist of two parts: The first part is payed immedietly, and without risk (ideally). The other part of the portfolio consist of references, good-will growth, more orders (approving that the client’s business also grows) (probably with greater profit-ratio), etc.

# Client is too difficult to work with – avoidable unless SEM is dealing with a change in management & contacts.
# Your agency oversold and cannot deliver – avoidable if expectations are set realistically.
# The engagement is not profitable for your agency – avoidable if a 6 mo. to 1 yr. contract is signed with fair pricing to both buyer and seller.
# The client

Actually, poor client involvement is another reason to release a client. I can’t help a client if they are unresponsive, don’t know what they want or need, and expect me to pull things out of thin air. If I ask them for a vital piece of their web site copy, input or other information and they can’t meet their own self-imposed deadlines, it does not bode well for the project.