Stupid Sales

 

Let’s take a moment while the year is new to consider your worst customer. Yes, I know, it’s tough to pick the worst one from among the multitude of candidates. There’s the one who makes you chase her for every invoice, the one that insists on last-minute changes at no extra cost, the one that abuses your staff so much that it’s now an HR issue….the list might seem endless.

Next—not that I want to pour salt on the wound—here’s a cheery thought to bear in mind as you pursue new sales in 2015:

You invested real dollars and gave up irreplaceable time to win your worst accounts, and you are continuing to pay commission dollars on revenue that just might not be generating a profit on a fully-burdened basis. And, if you keep doing business in 2015 the way you did it in 2014, you’re going to win more accounts that keep you from achieving your goals.

Worse, you know better. You’ve been running your business long enough to spot the problem accounts long before the contract is signed. Really, how many times are you surprised when a new customer turns out to be a problem account? In most businesses, the bad clients fit into a pattern, just like the good ones, and experienced execs like you can see the pattern unfold before it’s too late.

So, what happens? Most successful executives are optimists who see themselves as problem solvers. When the warning signs reveal themselves, it doesn’t take much of a leap for us to think, “Maybe this one will be different, and, even if it isn’t, I’ll figure out how to make it work.”

Let’s make a resolution this year to avoid the pain we caused ourselves in 2014, and 2013, and 2012….  Let’s resolve to pinpoint the warning signals for bad business and, when a prospect starts setting off the alarms, take a pass.

Quadrant Five wishes you a happy, profitable, sustainable New Year, free from the headaches that we often create for ourselves.

Written by Michael Rosenbaum on January 13th, 2015. Posted in Performance Improvement, Strategic Insights

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