Listen instead on your Monday Morning Drive:

Last week, I explained the difference between clients and customers: Clients bring you all their work; customers make you earn it every time.

This week, let’s talk about the mechanics. How do we actually price and sell to each?

Get your notepad out.

Where Value Lives

For clients, value lives in the entire book of business. For customers, value lives in the job at hand.

This distinction changes how you price.

When a client brings you a $50,000 project, you don’t look at that project in isolation. You look at it as part of a million-dollar relationship. Your margin might be lower on this particular job, but you’re optimizing for total revenue over time.

When a customer brings you a $50,000 project, that’s the whole picture. You optimize for margin on that job because there’s no guarantee of a next one.

The “Make It Up Next Time” Trap

We’ve all heard it: “I’d really like you to do this job, but I need it at this price. I’ll make it up to you on the next one.”

If a client says this, it’s no problem. They’ve earned that consideration through a track record of bringing you work. You can absorb a lower margin because the relationship delivers consistent revenue.

If a customer says this, remind them of all the times they didn’t hire you or didn’t even let you know about the opportunity.

Customers don’t get to use a long-term relationship they haven’t actually built. Every job gets renegotiated. That’s the deal they’ve chosen.

Two Pricing Strategies

For Customers

Look at your resources and decide if the project is worth it. Calculate your costs, add your target margin, and put your best number out there. You’re optimizing for gross profit on this opportunity.

Maybe you look at your warehouse and see equipment sitting idle. You can afford to be more flexible this time. But that flexibility resets with every new request.

For Clients

Take the revenue and make it work.

Don’t turn their business down because you’re busy. Find a way. Subcontract if you have to, even if it costs you an extra $5,000 to have somebody else handle it.

You’re optimizing for total revenue over years of a relationship. Not every job is a winner, but the aggregate is.

The Budget Question

When a client asks for a quote, ask them, “What’s your budget?”

Try to understand how to make their money go as far as possible. You’ll stretch to meet their number because the relationship justifies it.

When a customer asks for a quote, and you ask about their budget, they’ll often say, “I don’t know. You haven’t written me a proposal yet.”

Now you know where you stand. Assess your resources, put your best number forward, and create room to negotiate. But don’t bend over backwards to hit an arbitrary target.

Customers look for that weak moment in your schedule where they get more bang for their buck. Recognize it for what it is.

Different Roles for Different Relationships

Clients need account executives: someone with continuity who helps them work with your organization and makes sure they’re taken care of.

When an account executive’s portfolio grows too large, either peel off some clients to another AE or get them customer service support. But the relationship stays intact.

Customers need account managers. Account managers handle buyers who know that every job starts from zero. They still nurture relationships, but they do so one job at a time instead of one relationship at a time.

Account managers aren’t order takers. Order takers just build quotes and send emails asking if they got the job. Account managers still build rapport and add value. They just do it project by project.

Depending on your organization, you might need both roles or multiples of each.

Business Development: Two Approaches

If you’re seeking clients, business development plays a long game.

Developing a client starting point takes years of nurturing. You might wait two or three years before you get a chance to quote on that multi-year association contract.

In the meantime, BD gathers market intelligence, builds relationships, and positions you for when the opportunity finally opens. The goal is to make switching suppliers so painful that you become the default choice.

If you’re chasing customers, business development is simpler: keep in touch until the RFP drops. When’s the next time you can bid? Stay visible. Stay ready.

Here’s the difference in your pipeline:

• A customer goes back into your sales funnel as a prospect. You have to win them again.
• A client goes back into your funnel as an opportunity. Their next job is already on your radar, and you’re already expected to be involved.

Match the Approach to the Relationship

Clients get revenue optimization. Customers get margin optimization.

Clients get account executives. Customers get account managers.

Clients get years of relationship investment from business development. Customers get consistent follow-up until the next RFP.

Neither approach is wrong. But using the wrong approach for the wrong relationship will cost you every time.