Hold your Ground
Dementor Clients
Dementor clients are the clients your entire team walks around. They pay late. They stretch the scope without discussing it. They drain energy from the team for a margin that does not even make sense. Revenue is revenue is the biggest lie in the agency world.
Why You Keep Holding On to Them
It makes perfect sense. You have planned around that revenue. If it disappears, you have a gap in your schedule. You may have to reduce someone's hours, or worse. That feels too expensive to choose, so you do not choose it. You simply leave things as they are.
There is also a hidden benefit. As long as that client is there, you do not have to look for a better one. You do not have to have the pricing conversations, make the decision, or take the risk. The dementor client fills the gap and gives you a reason not to move. And that is exactly why they are dangerous: not because they demand too much, but because they remove the pressure to find something better.
What They Really Cost You
Three years ago, you would have already let them go. Your boundary was still clear then. Now it is not, and you know exactly when it shifted: somewhere between the first time you accepted something you did not actually want to accept and the moment it simply became normal.
Meanwhile, your team is paying the price. Not in money, but in energy. Everyone knows who that client is. Everyone walks around them a little. And that detour costs time, focus, and morale that could have gone elsewhere.
A client leaving because your boundary becomes clearer creates space. Space you can fill with someone who is a better fit, better priced, and better defined. That is what Good Growth vs Bad Growth is about at its core: the right clients, not the most clients.
The golden envelope is the structural solution: if you invest continuously in client acquisition, you never have to hold on because you are afraid of a gap. And buffet versus starvation explains why agencies fall into this pattern: too little pipeline pressure when things are going well, and too much when things are going badly. Agency standards determine which clients fit and which do not.
Which client in your current portfolio would you have already let go of three years ago?
What Are Dementor Clients?
Clients who drain energy from your team: they pay late, stretch the scope, and make unreasonable demands for a margin that does not make sense. A term created by Chris Out, inspired by the energy-draining creatures in Harry Potter.
Why Is 'Revenue Is Revenue' a Lie?
Because the wrong client costs more than they generate. Not only in margin, but also in team energy, focus, and the space they block for a client who would be a better fit.
How Do You Know Whether a Client Is a Dementor Client?
Your team walks around them. Everyone knows who it is without you having to say their name.
What Do You Do With a Dementor Client?
You reset the boundary. That may mean a pricing conversation, a scope conversation, or ending the relationship. Which route you take depends on how far the standard has slipped.