Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

HR strategy

Need to know: company’s key customers

by Jan Hills 13 Feb 2009
by Jan Hills 13 Feb 2009

Who are the key customers of the company as a whole? How much revenue are the top three customers contributing?

You will probably already know who your key customers are, but it’s essential to have an understanding of what their relative contribution is. Knowing how much revenue they are bringing in is a key business lever, since it tells you how important these customers are to the company. For example, if the top three make up 80% of revenue, they are a different size of lever than if they had made up only 20% or 30%.

It’s also useful to know whether those customers’ contributions are growing or decreasing, and which areas of the business they are bringing revenue to.

For instance, are there certain products that they buy, or do they buy across the board? Do they use numerous suppliers, or are they loyal to your company?

Another significant area of knowledge involves knowing who looks after those customers within the company. If retaining their business is a key element of your company’s success, then this knowledge will be vital for succession and talent management.

It is also important to stay aware of any strategies your competitors are implementing to try to move those customers away from you. You can then consider how this might affect staff motivation and the numbers of people who work on those accounts. Competitor strategy is, of course, sometimes hard to find out, but the more questions you ask, the more you are likely to discover.

At this time of economic uncertainty, it’s also useful to keep an eye on how well key customers are doing, because if they are becoming less profitable, then regardless of their loyalty, this could prevent them from buying in the same volumes. This is important in terms of whether the company scales up or down. You can’t, as an HR practitioner, act to retain that business, but you should set up plans so that you know how to react in terms of staffing and positive HR attitudes, should a key customer’s business shrink or fail.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The other element to consider is whether your customer’s business strategy is changing in a way that might affect yours. Keeping an eye on changes is vital if you want to be fully engaged with your company, so this is something you should talk to your line clients about on a regular basis. And you can also use resources such as newspapers and trade press.

Jan Hills, partner, Orion Partners

Jan Hills

previous post
Bonus outrage as Financial Services Authority awards staff £33m
next post
Bonus blame game triggers financial services business fears

You may also like

University of Salford launches Better Working Lives cluster

14 May 2025

Why HR burnout is a strategic issue

12 May 2025

Succession planning now ‘more of a priority than...

24 Apr 2025

High performance is not the preserve of ‘superstar’...

3 Apr 2025

What do HR specialists enjoy most about their...

21 Mar 2025

Ben & Jerry’s accuses Unilever for sacking boss...

20 Mar 2025

Employee engagement: Growing disconnect between effort and recognition,...

13 Mar 2025

Mitie appoints Kathryn Dolan as chief people officer

6 Mar 2025

Return to the office: Gartner highlights the risks...

27 Feb 2025

Josh Bersin research: most HR leaders are now...

20 Feb 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+