Yesterday I talked to two companies that were - at the surface level - in similar situations. A huge potential customer is knocking on the door, far bigger than any existing one. There’s a mixture of excitement and nervousness and everyone is wondering, will we be able to pull it off.
An important question to ask before committing is, do you want the customer? Not the cash, but the actual customer. Everyone who’s dealt with more than a few understands that not all customers are created equal, and some will just be more worth working with than others.
What makes them worth it differs by business. Common good reasons include: they’re in the same industry as other customers we want. They have a recognisable logo. They use the product as we intended (though they might stretch it at the seams).
Common bad reasons include: they will pay lots, or there’s a project plan that looks like we won’t have to do much work, or they will pay for the features they want.
(You should come up with your own criteria! Don’t copy someone else’s, no matter how much you love their blog.)
The reason these are bad reasons is that they don’t use the customer as a springboard for future success. If you’re bringing on a whale of customer, someone who might contribute 50% of your revenue the day they sign, they’re gonna own your mind for a while - maybe for years.
If they’re a customer you want, that’s great; you’ll move heaven and earth to make your product work for them, and in the process it’ll get better for your current customers and future customers you want. Growth will accelerate.
If they’re not a customer you want, all the work you do for them is work you only did for them. Once you get out of the trenches you won’t have made much progress on the core customers that you should be winning lots of. This leads to bitterness. You didn’t go into business to resent your customers (or have them resent you).
All of this is hard to be objective about when there’s big money dangling in front of you. But keep it in mind. And if you take the money and it doesn’t work out… some things you can only learn the hard way!