In presentations and on this blog, I talk a lot about selecting your ideal customers and firing existing customers who don’t meet that criteria. I try to emphasize the idea that the customers that pay you the most are not necessarily your ideal customers; you also want to customers that appreciate the value you bring, provide you with challenging projects, and maybe even listen to your advice once in a while.
Over on the Golden Practices blog, Michelle Golden has a great article that outlines a methodology for evaluating your customer list. Michelle explains how the traditional methods of ranking by revenue and the A-B-C grading systems are flawed when it comes to identifying your ideal customer. Michelle outlines her process for capturing and evaluating both the objective and subjective information that needs to be considered when evaluating your client list.
You can download a copy of this article from Michelle’s site.
