I was at a morning coffee event recently, and a friend told me about a business owner who was trying to get out of a service contract that was not working. The service was nowhere close to what the business owner had been promised, communication between the provider and the company had dropped to zero, and the owner wanted to move on. When he tried to cancel, the service provider pointed to the contract, which basically said the company had to keep paying for years even if they cancelled.

The owner consulted an attorney, who said the contract was written entirely in the service provider’s favor, and it was going to be very expensive to get out of it. I do not know the details of the contract, and I am not offering legal advice, but I left the coffee meeting super annoyed that a business owner could find themselves stuck paying for a service that was not delivering value.

Clearly, I’m not over it yet. So that’s what I decided to rant about this week.

The Business Model Is the Issue

The pattern these providers use has been around for a very long time. The sales process is a polished presentation that promises a clean solution to a frustrating problem.  The provider explains that the agreement requires a long-term commitment because onboarding is expensive, which doesn’t feel like an issue to the owner in the moment because a promise has been made to take care of a real business problem.

Then reality sets in.

The service does not work as promised. The account team changes. The only consistent part of the process is the provider’s monthly invoice. When the customer tries to get out of the contract, they are reminded that the agreement protects the provider much better than it protects the business.

The provider gets guaranteed revenue. The customer gets guaranteed invoices. Actual results become secondary.

Why Should Providers Be Harder to Fire Than Employees?

When most of us hire new staff members, there is usually some kind of an onboarding period. The new person is learning the job, we are learning more about them, and after some time has passed, we decide together whether the relationship is win-win.

Why would we settle for anything less from a service provider?

Sageplan is a service provider, but we also hire fractional help for our own team. Whether I am the provider or the client, my expectation is the same: both parties should be receiving meaningful value from the relationship. If that is not the reality, we should be able to shake hands and part company.

Period.

The Best Providers Should Welcome Accountability

That does not mean the engagement should be casual or undefined. Good service still requires commitments. It takes time to learn a business, clean up inherited problems, document systems, understand workflows, establish communication patterns, and build trust.

But there is a difference between asking for enough time to do the work responsibly and trapping a client in a relationship that is no longer serving them.

The best service providers should be confident enough in their value to make it easy for clients to leave. Not because they want clients to leave, but because they believe the relationship should continue only as long as it is creating value.

That kind of accountability keeps the provider focused on outcomes instead of excuses, and that should be the standard for any partner we engage with in business.

How We Think About This at Sageplan

At Sageplan, we do ask for a 90-day commitment when a new client starts.

Why 90 days? There is usually a lot to sort out in the beginning. We need to understand the business, review the technology environment, identify cybersecurity risks, evaluate disaster recovery practices, look at communications, document systems, and separate urgent issues from long-term improvement opportunities. It all takes time, sometimes a lot of time, but after three months we typically have the basics covered and are making meaningful progress.

After that, our service is month to month.

Earning the Client Every Month

Long-term client relationships are still the goal, and we want to work with businesses for years. But we believe that those relationships should last because they are healthy and valued, not because the client is trapped.

A service agreement should define expectations, protect both parties, and create a clear framework for the work. It should not become a substitute for performance.

That is the standard we hold ourselves to, and it is the standard I think every business owner should expect from the partners they trust.

If that sounds like the kind of partner you want to help your business technology move forward, feel free to book a spot on my calendar, and let’s have a conversation about how we might be able to help.