How to Identify the Best Customers for Your Business

Frank V. Cespedes; James P. Dougherty; Ben S. Skinner III

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Article | MIT Sloan Management Review | Winter 2013

How to Identify the Best Customers for Your Business

by Frank V. Cespedes, James P. Dougherty and Ben S. Skinner III

Abstract

How can businesses achieve profitable growth so that their costs don’t grow faster than sales? This article focuses on scaling a venture’s sales process and provides a methodology for identifying core customers and some implications for governance criteria and potential product changes as well as sales management.

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Growth Management; Sales;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Cespedes, Frank V., James P. Dougherty, and Ben S. Skinner III. "How to Identify the Best Customers for Your Business ." MIT Sloan Management Review 54, no. 2 (Winter 2013): 53–59.

About the Author

Frank V. Cespedes

MBA Class of 1973 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

Entrepreneurial Management

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How to Identify the Best Customers for Your Business

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