What can your largest customer teach you about your business?

What you learn from your largest customer may grow you. Or kill you.

THINK ON IT: What can your largest customer teach you about your business?

There are many values that large customers bring to your business, beyond the revenue, and hopefully, profit that comes with it. 

A large customer can give your much smaller business market credibility. It’s always easier to sell to a smaller customer in the same industry when you’ve already got a large one on your roster, and it’s much easier to book a new large customer in a different industry when they can see that other large companies already trust you. 

As supportive as they might want to be of their smaller partners, one of the concerns large firms have is that a prospective smaller vendor is sustainable. Having other large customers that also rely upon you gives them more confidence and lowers their perceived risk of buying from you.

Of course, along with all the market leverage benefits of having a large customer, there is the very real impact on your business. Some are positive. Some, may be less so.

And that’s where today’s question for reflection comes in. What can your largest customer teach you about your business?

How have their demands affected your products, your processes, and your priorities? 

Is your growth strategy getting lost in their wake? Does the fear of losing their revenue cause you to sacrifice your vision to satisfy their demands?

These are not always easy questions to answer. But understanding both the positive contributions your largest customers are making to your business as well as the potentially unhelpful accommodations you made to keep them is a critical consideration.

And if you’d like a little help thinking that through… read on. [Become a Premium Member].

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” ― Peter Drucker

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