Riding up the escalator in our San Diego hotel on Sunday I asked my client, "Would you do this meeting again next year?"
My client, a meeting producer, had subcontracted with me to write speeches for a company convention. He said, "No."

In his mind, he was on his way to firing "the client " but not until we were back in Minneapolis and the check had cleared.

But like relationships, "the client" wanted out to faster than my client did.

The relationship between my client and "the client" had been rocky for a couple of weeks. It wasn't that "the client" was unhappy with the end product. Their meeting was huge success. But their working styles were not compatible.

In the end "the client" said it was simply too stressful to continue working with "my client."
My client is typically not as buttoned up as many corporate types .
His deadlines often float.
He was still creating the slides to support the presentations on Sunday --the day before the meeting started.
"The Client" was not amused -- particularly when "my client" did not adhere to "the client's" PowerPoint template.

Did I mention the client handed us version 21 of her speech on Sunday and then turned around and made significant changes to the ultimate draft 22?

My client said the PowerPoint template was too busy and would be distracting from the client's message. He is a big follower of Presentation Zen.

The client almost had cardiac arrest. She was not amused. She was livid. And she definitely did not like that he was challenging their corporate mandated PowerPoint template.

No one said, but that confrontation over the PowerPoint template, was probably the proverbial straw.

In fact "my client" and "the client" were so incompatible that on the second day of the meeting, "the client" told "my client" that our services were no longer needed and they would handle the remaining day's meeting without us.

For me that meant an afternoon free of editing the final version of the fourth final version of the final script of the meeting.

As in any relationship, there is that power struggle between clients and consultants. Sometimes its a minor undercurrent, sometimes its out and out abusive. It's an ongoing theme that consultants deal with every day.

Shirley George Frazier, one of last year's speakers at the BlogHer Business Conference writes, "Marketing Also Means Saying "Goodbye"

Is firing difficult-to-work-with clients part of your marketing plan? I’m learning from attendees at my seminars that saying “goodbye” is a process they embrace wholeheartedly

September 2000 was the first time I coached a business owner to reduce her stress by ending a client relationship. She told me about the client constant mind changing regarding products he ordered. Keeping up with the changes was exhausting, yet she didn’t want to lose the client and catered to his wishes.This woman came to me after a seminar presentation and asked how she could politely bow out of the relationship.

In five minutes, I helped her craft a letter to end the account. She was grateful and sent the letter the same month. There were, of course, numerous phone calls placed to her from her client to try and keep the account open, but my coaching helped her to not back down. She’s much happier, and her business is thriving.

A couple of weeks ago, Sheila from Sheila's World answered a question posed to her by a brand new attorney. The newbie shared that she wanted to fire a pro bono client who was a domestic violence survivor who had become disrespectful and hard to work with.Jere is part of Sheila's advice.

Whether this woman is paying you or not doesn't change your exposure to malpractice, doesn't change your professional obligations to her OR her obligations to you as a client. You are entitled to respect and cooperation. Whether pro bono or not, I'm sure you have a clause in your retainer agreement which states you have the right to terminate representation pursuant to the Rules of Professional Conduct in your state and/or any local customs of your courts IF the client does not cooperate or makes it difficult for you to represent her. She needs to be reminded that just because she isn't paying for your services doesn't mean that your services are not worth paying for. And you need to remember this, too. This type of client, although you sympathize with her plight, is: - dragging you down professionally; - eating up your time which you could be using to market your services and educating yourself on how to get paying clients; - making you regret your generosity;

In a post called; Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo. Which Clients Should You Just Let Go? the bloggers at careersthatdon'tsuck.com provide a formula to help consultant's determine the actual value of a client.

I shared a formula that I think does a pretty good job of capturing the value of clients. It’s not my formula, but one that I found in Robert Kaplan and Stephen Anderson’s Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing. Here’s the formula:

If that formula feels a bit analytical to you, the folks from Pseudocoded have their own formula for dealing with abusive clients. This was contributed by Douglas Karr.

Not sure whether your client is actually abusive? Bob Sutton, author of the best selling " The No Asshole Rule" offers an online self-assessment, lovingly called the ACHE Exam. It's available at http://yourclientfromhell.com

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness