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B2BStrategy5 min read
When you should fire your customer
Not every paying customer is good for your business. Some are quietly destroying margin, morale, or your roadmap. Knowing when to walk away is a strategy.
Some customers consume four times the support, demand custom features that fit nobody else, beat you down on price every renewal, and produce nothing but stress. Keeping them isn't loyalty — it's loss aversion dressed as customer focus.
Signals to look for
- Margin per customer trending negative even at standard usage.
- Roadmap shaped to one account's quirks.
- Support time per dollar of revenue 5x your average.
- The relationship leaves your team drained, not energized.
How to do it
Tell them honestly: "You need something we're not built to provide. Here are two alternatives we'd recommend." Most of the time it ends the relationship cleanly. Occasionally it forces both sides to renegotiate the terms — and the renegotiated version actually works.
Saying no to the wrong customer is how you have time to be excellent for the right ones.