How to Find “Good Customers”

How to Find “Good Customers”

"So how can a seller recognize a good customer? If you set out to land good customers as a segment, how do you find them? Here are some of my suggestions for identifying good customers in advance of selling to them, but I’m open to yours, also:

• A good customer will want to be trustable in the eyes of the seller. That is, the customer will proactively work to protect a seller’s interest – helping the seller avoid making mistakes or overlooking opportunities. So look for companies that already have strong cultures based on trust, such as Toyota. A company that bases its success on earning the trust of its customers will also be concerned with the trust it enjoys from other members of its ecosystem, including not just employees and distributors, but probably suppliers as well.
• A good customer tries to partner with the sellers it buys from in order to maximize the value it receives from them. Successful partnerships will grow more valuable with tenure, so try to prospect for companies that already have long-term vendor relationships. Such relationships will be harder to dislodge, but once you gain a place at the table it will be worth every penny of sales effort you put into it.
• A good customer will participate in surveys or studies run by sellers, and offer constructive criticism when appropriate, advising them in advance of improvements, upgrades, or service enhancements that would help them run their own business better, or deliver better value to the customer.
• And, a good customer will allow a seller to promote best practices or successful policies, agreeing to serve as a reference for a seller to use in acquiring other customers. So if a customer has allowed itself to be featured as a case study by other vendors, that's a good sign."