We Need To Talk | Breaking Up With Clients
Issue #04 | Saturday, May 25th | The Pipal Perspective
Welcome to the fourth issue of The Pipal Perspective! Coming to your inbox, straight from the beautiful beaches of Koh Tao, Thailand. 🇹🇭 🏖️🤿. This week we talk about breakups, and some real wise words by ad gurus in India. Also, keep reading to know more about openings at Subko Coffee ☕.
In this issue:
✏️ From Our Desk: We Need To Talk
🔎 Hidden Opportunities
🔦 Talent Spotlight
▶️ Resource Corner
✏️ FROM OUR DESK: WE NEED TO TALK (ABOUT BREAKING UP)
"This isn't working anymore. Can we connect tomorrow?" The text arrived at 8:37 PM on a Tuesday. My stomach did that familiar drop - the one that feels exactly like getting dumped in high school, except this time it's a client relationship hanging in the balance instead of movie plans.
If you're running an agency or freelancing, you know this feeling. Here's the hard truth we've learned after two years building The Pipal Collective: these texts aren't rare. They're practically a weekly occurrence.
Client breakups are as common as deadline extensions. But how we handle them? That's what separates agencies that struggle from those that thrive.
First things first – it's your problem. Always. No matter how unreasonable the client behavior feels, no matter how many times they moved the goalposts. The success of the project sits squarely on your shoulders. That's the reality of service businesses that nobody talks about enough.
Do we have internal tantrums about this? Absolutely. Daily. "Why can't they just follow the process we agreed on?" or "This is the fourth time they've changed their mind!" But after I've had my ten-minute mental vent session, I put my ego aside and think: how do we fix this?
Because here's what we strongly believe: most client issues are actually solvable. They just require a conversation and some thinking, beyond the obvious.
Take the email marketing disaster we faced last year. A client repeatedly rejected our email designs after sign-off, creating 4-5 weeks of frustration on both sides. Our immediate reaction? Blame the client for unclear feedback. But the actual solution? We switched designers (the work wasn't our best anyway) and co-created a detailed design guideline document with specific rules for everything from logo placement to CTA text. Result? The relationship that was heading for a breakup text is still going strong 1.5 years later.
Then there was the social media nightmare with another brand. Their in-house designer would ghost us until posting day, giving zero time for revisions. Things continuously felt chaotic and we felt we aren’t living up to our potential.The founder was also (obviously) unhappy with our performance, even though the bottleneck wasn't our fault. Was this technically our problem to solve? No. Did we need to solve it anyway? Absolutely. We created a full set of alternative assets using our own designer (unbudgeted and unbilled), presented them alongside the original content, and let the quality difference speak for itself. And guess what? They expanded our scope to include all design work going forward.
Shoutout to Nikita Noronha and the team at Moira for really showing us how to navigate such troubled waters.
But sometimes - and this is the uncomfortable truth - breaking up is the right answer.
We've walked away from situations that looked fixable but revealed deeper incompatibilities no process could solve. A skincare company constantly shifting requirements after products shipped to influencers. A clothing brand that sent incorrect merchandise, demanded free reshoots, then refused to fulfil promised collaboration posts. And most recently, a SaaS client where complicated internal dynamics meant our work was approved by one executive only to be publicly criticized by another after going live. Feedback on the lines of “we don't do calls, we're an async company" and at the same time "don't send such long updates, I won't read them" - basically created a situation where we lost track of how to communicate at all 🫠.
Were we absolutely perfect in any of the above? No. We messed up, and made some serious mistakes. We weren’t afraid to acknowledge our issues, and all we needed at times was for the other side to consciously acknowledge their’s as well - and try to solve the situation, for the brand, together. And wherever we didn’t see that intent, it was okay to walk away.
What really separated these unsalvageable relationships from the ones we saved wasn't budget size or project complexity. It was a fundamental misalignment in work ethic and mutual respect. You can patch systems issues and quality concerns, but you can't manufacture shared values or basic trust.
It’s a hard pill to swallow and a hard fact to accept: if they're unhappy, it's your problem. If they're difficult, it's still your problem. But, then again, solving that problem doesn't always mean preserving the relationship at all costs.
Sometimes the most professional approach is creating space for a clean break. When we frame conversations as "we get it, we're not happy either, so let's solve this together" rather than listing everything they're doing wrong, resolution becomes possible. Maybe that's a renewed partnership with better boundaries. Maybe it's an amicable split. Either way, you preserve professional dignity.
The thing about agency work they don't talk about enough: clients who leave today often become the referral sources that sustain you tomorrow - but only if you handle the breakup with grace.
TLDR: Client breakup texts are part of agency/service model life. The secret to longevity isn't avoiding these moments but approaching them with ownership and creativity. When problems arise, it's always your responsibility to solve them - even when it feels unfair. Most relationships can be saved through honest conversation and process fixes, but recognize when fundamental value misalignments make breaking up the best path forward. And when you do part ways, do it with enough professionalism that today's ex-client might become tomorrow's biggest advocate.
🔎 HIDDEN OPPORTUNITIES
Curated openings in startups (mainly marketing focused roles) that fly under the radar but (potentially) offer exceptional growth.
Tiny Owl | Influencer Marketing Executive
Perfect for freshers! TinyOwl's looking for an Influencer Marketing newbie (6 months to 1 year experience) who's ready to learn on the job. It's remote, hands-on with real campaigns and clients - perfect for someone just starting out who wants to grow fast. No micromanagement, just send your CV and favourite campaign example to Shubhashish. Check LinkedIN post here
Lenskart | Performance Marketing
Thailand-based Senior Manager role for a performance marketing pro with 6+ years experience, ideally from retail/e-commerce backgrounds. They want someone who can lead digital strategy and optimize campaigns across channels - basically a data-driven marketer who can deliver real results in a fast-paced environment. Check LinkedIN post here
And one very recent opening at Subko, for ALL THE COFFEE LOVERS ☕.
Check LinkedIn post here.
*Know of an opening? Forward details to priyanshi@thepipal.in and we’d happy to share it with our network!
🔦 TALENT SPOTLIGHT
Aditya Sethia | Startup Growth Architect
MICA graduate with 4+ years scaling startups from 20 to 70+ team members. Expertise in P&L, marketing, sales, and CX across D2C and SaaS. Partnered with founders to build brands from scratch, blending analytical precision with strategic vision. Keen to work in spaces that fuel his insatiable curiosity and like a balanced approach to decision-making.
"Let's transform startup potential into sustainable growth."
*Looking for your next opportunity? Email your profile to priyanshi@thepipal.in and we’d love to feature you!
▶️ RESOURCE CORNER
Platform: YouTube
The Podcast We Loved: Good Ads Matter Roundtable - Agency Business Heads
We’ve linked Part 1 above, but make sure you don’t miss Part 2!
And in case you can’t sit through 1 hour long podcasts, try Notebook LLM by Google.
This chat between India's ad world top level tackles the retainer vs. project work debate, highlighting how agencies must prove their worth to clients with varying in-house skills. They also question if unpaid pitches are fair game or if agencies should be able to say "thanks, but no thanks" to protect their creative mojo. Bottom line? The best partnerships need trust, respect, and agencies that consistently deliver the goods.
Snippets we loved:
Paying the client to have the chance to pitch to them, how the folks at Famous are changing the game:
Advertising pays less, and how Talented is addressing it:
Did you know Sa Re Ga Ma Caravan was the product of an ad agency, not business or product leads:
Thank you for reading The Pipal Perspective. Want to stay updated with more insights like these?
Would you like to have a quick chat with Priyanshi? Connect here.