What To Do With Bad Customers: Cut Them Loose
Submitted by Matt Brown on

If you've been in business long enough, you've probably had the displeasure of dealing with customers who force you to do all the heavy lifting on a deal, use you as a bargaining chip while negotiating with one of your competitors or simply act unprofessionally when they hit even the slightest snag.
Inc. magazine has a quick and useful column by Geoffrey James that names each of these customers by type and gives you the advice you've probably been eagerly waiting to hear: Drop them.
James is direct and doesn't mince words. Check out the title of his latest book. Having experienced each of the offending customer-types first-hand, James has concluded that IT businesses shouldn't maintain toxic customer relationships. They're simply not worth the trouble.
That's a tough argument to make, but it's true. The revenue a problem customer represents may not be worth the time, energy and resources required to put it in the books, especially in the fast-paced and ultra-competitive environment solution providers inhabit today.
Check out James' column here. Does this describe any of your customers? Do you have the horsepower to let them go?