Have you ever fired a customer?

No seriously... Has your organization ever enabled/supported you to fire a customer who is more of a liability nett nett.

I am with a large B2B corp (the types that makes money by selling complex software) in a Key Account Mgmt role. A key point of contact in the customer organization is a pain in the a**.

It is like he and his entire project team justify their jobs by delaying the real solution to the problem and think that bitching about my org and pointing fingers is their job description.


How do you shut down such behavior (when their mgmt is also less-inspired maniacs) ?

Have you ever had success in firing a customer for their bad behaviour in a B2B ?


Or tell me where you find rant buddy for me to cool down ? How do you deal with shit like that?

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CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
๐ŸฆŠ
@1nbatopshotfanwhere you at ๐Ÿ‘€
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
3
Sales
Hey thanks for the mention @CuriousFox!

my main strategy here is to define if itโ€™s actually worth your time. If there is a way to salvage it, do it. Maybe your VP needs to have dinner with someone there to boost the relationship. If itโ€™s dead, a quick email with a call is the best way.

Something like โ€œWe have evaluated our clients and partners and in an effort to drive the most value we think we would be better moving on from this partnership. Both of our groups are spending too much time on back and forth and. Or enough on client deliveryโ€ something like that.

Good luck!
jefe
Arsonist
2
๐Ÿ
Yup. My last company did a ton of custom development, so we had to work extremely closely with our clients and if they were extremely difficult then it was more of a liability to work with them.

When you're partnering with someone, you need to be able ensure success of an endeavour otherwise there's no point. We were small, and my boss/the owner of the company was burned a few times so he was very careful.
Corpslovechild
Politicker
2
Inbound Sales Manager
Me no, my old company yes... They made their CSM team cry, and my old CEO protected his employees.
BenitoBlanco_
Opinionated
2
Regional Account Executive
Yep, and fired one twice. At my prior company, we found that a client was buying licenses in bulk, marking them up and reselling them at lower quantities. Also they were massive assholes. Pretty easy decision. I work in K-12 EdTech so it's rare to come across a situation like this.

This client also tried to get slick and worked out a deal with a purchasing consortium in another state to buy licenses through them. We found that out, fired them again. Legal had to get involved in the messaging that time.
SADNESSLieutenant
Politicker
1
Officer of โ™ฅ๏ธ
set clear expectations and thins they should and need to do in order to achieve the results they need. then show ur manager how they didn't do them and came at you and the company instead, then explain how they are not committed to success and take too much time money and energy of company resources and aren't the right type of customer for us
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Not as often as I would like.

But seriously, yes, we've walked away from deals when the customer has become unreasonable.

Outright firing a customer? Not exactly, but my SVP has pulled certain benefits from companies when they haven't acted in partnership with us, e.g., being on leadership councils and the like. It's nice to have a leader who will push back on unreasonable behavior - he's the guy who will walk away from the car dealership without a backward look or any regrets. In my world, that translates to having someone in my corner who is ready to have the tough conversations to make sure that we're on the same page and that our customers aren't rolling over us.
KB_FarmerType
Opinionated
2
Strategic Sales
Oh man , never leave that boss - you are so lucky
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Believe me, I know.
Bodhisattva
Tycoon
1
CRO
Firing a customer is as easy as saying no to a prospect and should be done any time the customer/prospect values and expectations donโ€™t align with company.

The energy that goes into serving a client who has no intention of using the service or product correctly is far beyond that of one that will. This really goes for prospects and customers alike.

Imagine the time you could invest into a another deal or client. Itโ€™s something I ask CSMs, AEs, and SDRs in my weekly rundowns.

At the end of the day time is money.

KB_FarmerType
Opinionated
1
Strategic Sales
I feel like copying your thinking and installing into my boss..
Thanks ๐Ÿ™


But genuinely curious, why is it rare to have top leaders to have this sort of thinking?
Bodhisattva
Tycoon
0
CRO
Sadly, most leadership roles are filled with administrative managers who, over time, have fallen into management because they were, at one point, good individual contributors. The outcome creates a paradox where those who would be good leaders never make it to the leadership roles they would excel in.

Those promoted end up trying to manage people over leading teams - most people get stuck in this middle management cycle because they don't have the tools for leaders.

Only a few leaders who were also high performers exist; most fall into this administrative management cycle. Some organizations can identify leaders (who may or may not be high performers) and provide them with the tools to grow into leadership. Most of these organizations are more extensive or have core leadership who intentionally work to build people and careers.

I hope this is helpful, and you can find yourself a leader whose focus is on team development and growth in the same way they are focused on revenue.
ChumpChange
Politicker
0
Channel Manager
Yes... sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Fenderbaum
Politicker
0
Retired Choirboy๐Ÿช•
Yep.
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