When the customer is wrong for you

The customer is not always right, argues this article from Business Week. If they are taking up too much time sometimes it’s better to part company and put the effort into finding new business.

“All that time and energy I had spent on resolving conflict was now spent on getting new customers”, reported one business owner whose revenues were up by a third six months after the split.

“When, Why, and How to Fire That Customer” also goes into less drastic ways of dealing with problem or unprofitable customers. Sometimes you can save them by re-negotiating the terms of the relationship.

There’s also a useful graphic that shows how to work out the profit on a given client.