Comments on: Will Pruning Your Business Build Your Brand ? http://randallbeard.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/pruning-business-builds-brands/ Marketing with Impact Fri, 17 May 2013 19:10:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: beardrs http://randallbeard.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/pruning-business-builds-brands/#comment-116 Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:49:47 +0000 http://randallbeard.wordpress.com/?p=944#comment-116 Hi Andrea — Thanks for reading the blog. Your point is a great one. When I wrote the post, I was thinking primarily of consumer business models, not B2B. Having said this, in principle, it seems to me that the same logic would apply IF you know that B2B customers network and talk among themselves and that you are at risk of a dissatisfied customer “de-recommending” you to other customers and prospects. Of course, the best approach is to understand their issues and work to address them successfully. Failing this, at some point you have to ask whether the incremental financial contribution from the customer outweighs the brand erosion thru negative word of mouth as the “detract” from your brand. Reichold provides a framework for how to do this calculation in his book “The Ultimate Question.” Your point is an excellent one and I’d love to hear from any other B2B marketers as to how they think about this.
Randall

]]> By: Andrea Levine http://randallbeard.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/pruning-business-builds-brands/#comment-115 Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:30:13 +0000 http://randallbeard.wordpress.com/?p=944#comment-115 you have to be smart about when to prune. Have you given it enough time to hy-grade your unprofitable customers, and/or sell them another product/service to deepen that relationship before you take that final action.

Firing 1 of MM’s of B2C customers is one thing, but one of Ms of M2B customers is another. The principles remain true, but the discipline on true net profit per customer on a B2B side will never be as clean, so getting to that leap of faith on the undisputable truths (ie using sensitivites to find your challenging customers) is key. Would love to know from other B2B marketers how they are approaching this topic.

]]>