One of my clients keeps pushing for free extras...extra reporting, faster turnarounds, even last-minute creative work, and they’re a big account, so leadership is pressuring me to “keep them happy.” But it’s starting to hurt our margins and burn out the team. I’ve tried gently setting boundaries, but they always frame it as “just one more favor.” I know client retention is key, but where’s the line? How do you push back without putting the account—or your relationship with leadership—at risk?

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You train clients how to treat you. If you keep giving freebies, they’ll never stop asking. Say no once and deal with the fallout—it’s better than being bled dry.

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At some point you just have to pull the trigger and say their request is not possible, or if they really want it completed, you'll need to talk to your superiors to write up a one-off SOW. Placating clients is a necessary evil, but you can't bend over backwards for them 24/7 without jeopardizing your overall productivity.

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Threaten to charge them a fee since you have no choice but to add additional resource originally allocated elsewhere.

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What level is the client?

I am fortunate to have leadership that lets us ‘keep people happy’ but also to know when enough is enough. It is a slippery slope to being a constant issue instead of doing one off things to help out. I’d consider discussing the ‘cost’ to leadership, the cons outweigh the pros and clients like that will burn everyone out quick.

Ugh I feel this. I was on my last agency's largest account. The amount of discounts and freebies and extended payment terms that my agency agreed to was just stupid.

The client was behind millions and millions of dollars in unpaid invoices but the agency was just so glad to say it had this one client.

We'd have million dollar projects where our profit was like $5k. It was just insanity. The agency had multiple rounds of layoffs including my role as a result of poor cash flow.

I tried very hard to be diplomatic and escalate concerns in a tactful way only to have it fall on deaf ears.

Senior leadership should be backing you up with these types of requests and discussions. Please keep us posted?

I would solicit advice from your leaders: align on what the hard line is - and ask if they are open to piloting a well structured push back. How it typically works is that investment in the client should result in additional scopes or opportunities for you to pitch new work. That doesn’t include giving work away. But you could (under the right circumstance) find a way to let your clients know you are investing in them because you want to support them every which way - at the same time it’s not sustainable to give more away for free unless the account shows growth. These things are very situational. I’d start by doing a realistic assessment whether they actually represent a growth oppy.

Unfortunately it’s a “give an inch, they take a mile” situation. Setting boundaries is key. It will be awkward now for sure especially as you want to keep them happy. Can you try saying “unfortunately we’ve hit our quota this quarter/year for ad hoc work”?

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