I chatted with a friend in the industry this evening who signed up a consulting client several months ago. My friend has been in touch with the client several times about starting the work, but apart from a couple general questions, they've never used the consulting time they purchased. I was immensely curious about the details and luckily, my friend could share a few specifics.

The consulting rate is above $300/hr and they're buying in excess of 10 hours a month (relatively common in the industry). But, my friend has a suspicion about why they client isn't using their time, yet still wants to continue the contract. Her theory is that the client only purchased her time to get her under a non-compete agreement for 12 months. Apparently, she had just started talks with another player in the same SERPs when this client suddenly signed on. With their agreement in place, she could no longer offer services to the second client and referred them elsewhere. Coincidence, maybe? But she seemed to have some good (unshareable) reasons and evidence that the client who signed knew about the other.

What do you think? Is it worth spending thousands of dollars each month to keep a particular SEO away from the competition? Any similiar experiences out there?