The Customer Trap: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake in Business

Preface

American business is dysfunctional. Small and medium-sized companies, the backbone of capitalism, have been lured into a misconceived and dangerous operational model. It works like this:

• Step 1: Invest blood, sweat, tears, and money to start a new business or to innovate a new product or service.
• Step 2: Sell to the biggest customer possible.
• Step 3: Maximize the volume of sales to that big customer.
• Step 4: Deal with the inevitable customer demands that are sure to follow.
• Step 5: Try to keep quality and service at a high level while earning less and less.
• Step 6: Lose money.
• Step 7: Wonder what went wrong while trying to keep your head above water.

Much of what drives the high failure rates of businesses, along with the lack of success ...