“Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” Neil Sedaka observed. It's difficult for an insurance professional to fire a client, just as it is for any other businessperson, especially in an economic downturn, when new clients may be scarce. Is it worth it sometimes to sever the relationship? Consider the title of a lesser-known country love ballad, “I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Almost Like Having You Here,” which expresses that bittersweet feeling of being rid of someone who causes more grief than gladness, more pain than profit

Why do we stay in dysfunctional business relationships? l suspect that one reason why professionals–and not just insurance agents and brokers, I might add–find it hard to say farewell to truly difficult clients is that we see ourselves as problem solvers, so telling them to look elsewhere for solutions feels like admitting a failure on our part. But that's not always so.

The reasons to say “sayonara” range from very serious situations to mere annoyance. Here are some real-life examples:

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