Fire the wrong customer

"Even though we have signed a letter of agreement with you to hold our October tournament at your Ian Baker-Finch Woodlands course, we have decided to to reverse our decision and not hold the event at your place." The email from Raymond read. All this was due to the non-waiver of 2 no-show charge for the previous event, despite the fact that we have built a supposedly strong business relationship over the past couple of years.

The saying used to be "If you've got the money, we've got the time." I spent years finding out the hard way that just because the customer can buy doesn't mean we should sell to them. The wrong customers can be abomination.

We should always start with and constantly assess who the "right" customers are and what they value when they buy. This is done by laying out the criteria doe the wrong customers. They either need a deep discount or too many concessions or impossible service levels. They believe us and our competitors are all the same. They behave badly.

I have since learned to "fire" the wrong customer (abusive, inebriated) while pulling out the stops for the right customer.

fromright: David, Francis, Georgina, Margaret, Ernie