back to article What 80/20 really means: One big failed customer will kill you

Once again small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are being held up as the saviour of the economy in general and the IT industry in particular. But once again, I expect our industry to ignore what's staring them in the face. Why is it that vendors, big business, governments and Uncle Tom Cobley are talking about the value …

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  1. ALKM0712

    This is very true most business use the 20% comes from 80% in terms of revenue but they tend to forget the 80% tend to be the ones where the money is made. The larger the revenues the more squeeze on price.

    Surely it is better to move away from this old method and start to split the business to maximise the profit which can be made.

  2. Intractable Potsherd

    I have never understood why "loyalty" is such a dirty word to big companies (unless they are talking about loyalty given to them). Loyalty is one of those things that tends to magnify effort, but it seems to be something that, as soon as idiot bean-counters reach a certain critical mass, goes straight out of the window.

  3. The Godfather
    Angel

    This is not by any means solely a bean-counter forced move. It is sadly a generalized movement to where volume is and not necessarily profit. In the SMB space, vanity in having a major client to talk about, as though it will raise their own profile or cause others insane jealousy is at fault.

    A critical factor too is the loss of traditional salesmanship and sales or account management where most time today time is spent producing excel spreadsheets instead of selling or managing teams. Historically, while revenue growth streams were there, it was less of a problem but more recently, it carries a terrible sting in the tail.

    Increasing customer breadth delivers greater stability and consistency and opens up new avenues of business activity. Using your clients to tell you what to sell is absolutely critical today.

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