It may be $20k for one project in a year, or two $10k projects, or one $15k project and $5k in residuals (e.g. support). It really doesn't matter. Either way, t

It may be $20k for one project in a year, or two $10k projects, or one $15k project and $5k in residuals (e.g. support). It really doesn't matter. Either way, they're a customer that you estimate will bring in about $20k of revenue to you over the course of the year. In a consultancy, your costs are pretty well fixed, modulo hiring/firing staff, and mostly consists of payroll. There are relatively few marginal expenses (some travel expenses, perhaps?), which means that adding new work increases your revenue but only marginally affects your costs. So a customer's value to the business is how much that customer adds to your revenue, because that's easy to measure individually and is almost the same thing as how much they add to your profit.