Possible Characteristics of Good Customers

They provide valuable insight into areas that you are not familiar with

A good strategy aims to identify and target customers with characteristics that are beneficial for your organization. Here are four possible characteristics to consider.

• Financially beneficial. They provide you with regular profitable income: they are willing to pay a higher-than-average price' they give you a large volume of work so it improves your turnover figures; they pay promptly and it improves your cash flow.
• Reputation enhancing. Their custom enhances your reputation in the market. For example, if you write software for the financial services industry and a major Wall Street firm buys your software, other customers will assume that you must be good.
• Structure enhancing. They enable you to invest in new resources: for example, if a potential but not well-paying customer would provide work to fill 60 percent of an expensive new machines capacity, that customer's work would allow you to invest in a key new resource.
• Knowledge enhancing. They provide valuable insight into areas that you are not familiar with, such as a new market sector or a new country that would be strategically important for your organization.

ACTION POINT: Consider the benefits of a customer and how they may enhance your reputation, structure or market knowledge.