Your A+ Clients Are Just Like Your A+ Employees
High-performing organizations grow the same way teams do: by investing disproportionate energy in their best people. The same principle applies to clients.
Most leaders intuitively understand the difference between A+, B, and C employees. A+ employees ask for more responsibility, stay engaged regardless of compensation, solve problems proactively, and can be trusted with the organization’s most important work. C employees, by contrast, drain organizations through constant friction, missed deadlines, marginal quality, and the need for continual oversight. Leaders often believe they can coach C players into A players through sheer effort. In reality, this almost never happens.
What does happen is more damaging: A+ employees begin to resent the time and attention diverted to low performers. The return on time invested in C players is incremental at best, while the return on time invested in A+ talent is multiplicative, not additive. The opportunity cost is enormous.
This insight mirrors the philosophy behind StrengthsFinder. The premise is simple: investing in strengths yields exponentially higher returns than investing in weaknesses. Early in my career building gap intelligence, I learned this lesson firsthand. I am naturally poor at bookkeeping. Years of effort would have made me marginally better. Instead, focusing on my strengths—optimism, influence, and relationship-building—generated returns many times greater for the business.
Leaders should apply the same logic to talent:
Invest heavily in A players
Coach B players toward A status
And decisively move C players out
The same framework applies directly to clients.
The A+ Client Principle
A+ clients are easy to work with. They pay on time, respect scope, communicate clearly, and consistently bring new opportunities. When they call, your reaction is anticipation, not anxiety. These clients typically represent 20% of your work and 80% of your profits.
C clients are the inverse. They demand constant attention, push back on pricing, pay late, communicate poorly, and often create last-minute emergencies. They represent 80% of the effort and 20% of the profit.
Saying no to revenue is difficult. Many leaders, myself included, have learned this lesson the hard way. But as organizations mature, discipline replaces desperation. The most successful firms intentionally design their businesses around their ideal clients, not whoever is willing to sign a contract.
Identifying Your A+ Clients: A Four-Step Framework
The Esteemed School of Selling teaches a simple, repeatable process to identify and replicate A+ clients.
Step 1: Define the Profile
For B2B firms, identify the firmographics: company size, industry, geography, business model, and competitive environment. For B2C businesses, clarify demographics, income levels, purchasing behavior, and lifestyle patterns.
Step 2: Understand the Personality
Who is the primary point of contact? How do they communicate? Are they collaborative or directive? Curious or closed? Transparent or guarded? A+ clients share behavioral traits as much as structural ones.
Equally important: identify non-negotiables. Which behaviors are unacceptable, chronic lateness, disrespect, poor communication, late payments? These are the red flags that define your C clients.
Step 3: Identify the Trigger Moment
What situation causes your A+ client to reach out? Dissatisfaction with an incumbent? A growth inflection point? A time-sensitive problem? Understanding this moment shortens your sales cycle and sharpens your messaging.
Step 4: Clarify the Vitamin and the Painkiller
Every offering delivers value (a vitamin) and removes pain (a painkiller). Ask your A+ clients why they work with you. Their answers will be concise, often expressible in three to five words. This clarity becomes the foundation of your positioning.
Turning Insight Into Growth
Once you understand who your A+ clients are, how they behave, when they engage, and what value you deliver, your pipeline improves immediately. Your outbound messaging becomes precise, relevant, and human. And importantly, your A+ clients become your most powerful referral engine.
A+ clients know other A+ clients. Shared values travel in networks. The most effective referral ask is simple, confident, and respectful:
“We do great work together by providing X. If you know anyone else who would benefit from that, I’d appreciate an introduction. If not, no problem, I just wanted to ask.”
That question works.
So give it a spin. Identify your A+ clients. Build around them. Ask them for help finding others like them.
Be disciplined. Be intentional. Be Esteemed.
