You don’t want clients who don’t value your product

In business-to-business companies that are just getting off the ground, occasionally a potential client will say something like: “OK, I’m in. But I’m not paying anything, and I’m not changing any of my internal processes either. If you want me to try your product, it has to be free and effortless.”

At the beginning, this deal may make sense. They might provide valuable feedback. If they’re one of your few customers, you can probably afford to do all the integration work for them. If they’re a big name, they may also buy you credibility at a time when you need it most.

But you should convert these relationships into normal, paying ones, or get rid of them, as soon as you can. It isn’t about the money or the initial effort, although the money helps. It’s about what the money and effort represent: People pay for, and put time into, things they value. And you don’t want clients who don’t value what you provide.

One big reason is that when you’re selling something new, you’re trying to figure out how much people are willing to pay for it. You won’t figure that out by doing your own calculations, or by having friends ballpark how much they would pay, or even by running a survey. People will say anything. In my experience, the only way to know whether and how much a person or a business will pay for something is to ask them to pay for it.

So it’s important to determine whether your freebie client isn’t paying because you gave them a deal, or because whatever you’re selling isn’t worth anything to them. If it’s the latter, you may have deeper problems.

Clients who value your product are also easier to deal with. Customers who spend money on, and take time to integrate with, your business have an interest in making the relationship work, because when it doesn’t, some part of their business will stop working too. They see you as a partner. Customers who contribute nothing to your business relationship often act like they’re doing you a favour. Expect them to be non-responsive to your requests, intransigent in their views, and unreasonable in their demands. When it feels like you’re the one doing all the work, you may become resentful too.

You also want all clients on board the same train because you don’t want to cultivate exceptions. That client whose hand you’re holding isn’t too much trouble at the beginning, but as you get larger, your business gets more complex. Every exception increases that complexity.

The exception must be defined and codified — in software, in writing, or verbally. You must pass it onto employees, who must remember it, correctly act on it, record it, and explain it to others. After the fact, you might have to treat it differently in your administration. Every step in this process can lead to mistakes. If you’re anything like me, there comes a time when having a smoothly running system that allows you to sleep well at night outweighs most other considerations.

It can be hard to let go of these initial clients. Some of them helped you to get where you are now, so maybe you feel an emotional attachment. They may still bring some cachet to your brand. And breaking up isn’t easy. But if you don’t let them go, they may end up holding you back.