Killer Customers: Tell the Good from the Bad--and Dominate Your Competitors

by Larry Selden, Geoff Colvin

One of the oldest myths in business is that every customer is a valuable customer. Even now, many businesses don't realize that some of their customers are deeply unprofitable, and that simply doing business with them is costing them money. Often the top 20 percent of customers generate almost all of a company's profit, while the bottom 20 percent are actually destroying value.

The cutting-edge companies featured in Killer Customers, in industries ranging from retail to manufacturing to financial services, are taking a fundamentally new look at how they treat their best and worst customers. More importantly, they are re-conceiving their companies as portfolios of customers.

For corporate leaders, business managers, or small business owners, Killer Customers offers a breakthrough plan to delight their best customers and drive consistently superior results.

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2004

About the author

Larry Selden is a professor emeritus of finance and economics at Columbia University Graduate School of Business, a prominent consultant, and an adviser to senior executives in many industries.

Reviews

[Jake Filloramo · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think all of your customers are created equal, you're wrong. You can get the main points from this book by skimming through some of the main chapters. It gets a little drawn out with all the case studies but definitely worth picking up for entrepreneurs.

[Glenn Younger · Rating 5 out of 5]

The important art of divining the good from the toxic customers so that you can end cross-subsidization of your customers and turbo charge you business.