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TL;DR for folks without sales lingo: Companies often think their business would be healthier if they got rid of their "bad customers," but a customer who is di
by ridaj 7y ago
TL;DR for folks without sales lingo:
Companies often think their business would be healthier if they got rid of their "bad customers," but a customer who is difficult with one provider (e.g. always asks for discounts, doesn't commit over time) can act much more nicely with providers who they consider critical to their business. This is evidenced through a merger where two distribution companies compare customer lists and realize that one's best customer is the other's worst — in other words, a customer isn't good or bad, they just behave differently with different suppliers. So the key to business is not to get rid of the bad customers, but to become your customers' favorite supplier so that they build a long-term partnership with you.
- hn_throwaway_99 7y agoThank you, I really appreciate your summary as I couldn't get past the first couple paragraphs.
- thrower123 7y agoIn my experience, the worst customers are when you are not dealing with the customer directly, and have some sort of consulting or global services consulting company in the way. Most customers are not particularly difficult if you can interface with them directly, but the middleman has their own set of incentives that don't necessarily align with either yours or the end customer's. Throw in the extra communication overhead and room for error when playing telephone like that, and the typical communication styles of such VARs (daily status calls, expectation of instant support at ungodly hours, reluctance to put anything in writing or email, bald-faced dishonesty at times...), and it can be downright soul-sucking.