I’ve heard it said many times that the company with the best people wins. Having a great team is important, but that’s not the key ingredient to success. Some believe the company with the best technology wins, or the best products wins. Also not true.
How about the best brand? Well, perhaps if you’re a mega-brand like Nike, or Coke, or Harley or BMW, it might be true. But, for the rest of us, its not..
For most of the small and medium sized manufacturers – especially B2B enterprises – the company with the best customers wins.
Let me explain why this is true.
The “best” customers aren’t your biggest customers revenue-wise; the best are the ones that you can grow with and that don’t begrudge you your success when you help them achieve theirs. They always pay their bills; they honour commitments, verbal or written. They give you opportunities to stretch yourself, to create new products, to align your objectives with theirs.
They extend you grace, encouragement and even second chances when you fail.
Having great customers requires building strong relationships and building strong relationships require talented, committed and good people. Good products are also important, but great relationships usually trump better products, prices and technology; at least, with the best customers they do.
Around 2008, the automotive supply chain went through a very difficult period. Many good companies couldn’t survive the challenging period, but others did, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of them. When I ask about how they got through that period, most pointed to how their customers worked with them through those difficult times. In other words, they had the best customers.
If I look at the growth trajectories of the companies I cofounded and helped build, those companies' successes tracks perfectly their best customers' successes.
Likewise, failing to recognize and capitalize on new, potential “best customers” opportunities is a failure to “seize the day” (entrepreneurial carpe diem) and grow your business exponentially.
Looking back over my 40-year entrepreneurial journey, its easy to recognize who those “best customers” were. They were the ones we (my companies) could build with, that stretched us, that shared the same values and allowed us to align with their vision; they took us into new markets, honoured their commitments, and made us live up to ours. Many of their logos are in the graphic below (and in this way, I acknowledge and thank them).
Many of those customers became cornerstone accounts that the companies I cofounded were built on and continue growing with to this day. Some "best customers" opened entirely new business opportunities, spawning completely new divisions, or operations in other parts of the world. Some caused us to stretch so far beyond our means and skill levels, which helped us create industry leading and patented IP.
All of them helped us create challenges and opportunities for our talented people to grow into.
Yes, great people are important, and yes, great technology and products are important too. But it’s the customers that provide the opportunity to convert ideas, energy, raw material and effort, into economic benefit that pays the salaries and the bills. Without customers, people can’t get paid, great ideas won’t get turned into great products, and companies won’t survive.
But not all customers are great customers, and some aren’t even good customers. You don’t know until you invest some time and energy, and we made quite a few mistakes, which we could learn from as well. The most painful mistakes though were not the ones where we tried and failed, but the ones when we failed to recognize, appreciate and develop what could've been another "best customer". The cost of those failures can’t be calculated, but I think its fair to categorize it as the primary cause many companies fail to reach their true potential.
Ultimately, it boils down to a mantra I adopted many years ago, and in hindsight – looking back over the successes and the failures of my career - has certainly proven to be true for me, and it will likely prove true for you: “choose your customers wisely, and then settle for nothing short of their success”.

Postscript:
For tips on choosing your customers wisely, check out the following blogs:
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