10 customer red flags

They have no intention of doing any business. They might be curious, might not have the means to pay you, might be there to feel important, etc.

They want are doing comparison shopping, or they might be a competitor to gather intel on the operational process, prices, terms, contract, etc.

They want to get a slide of free services or products that they can use and have no intention of paying for it in perpetuity. This could include free consulting services to answer an immediate issue with no goal of continuing business.

If they are negotiating hard on price and not looking at the overall value of your product or service.

If you are spending an inordinate amount of time, money and resources with clients, they are detracting you from serving you good customers.

You have to give multiple iterations of deliverables with minute nitpicking details that don't matter.

If they are rude and demanding. You loathe taking their call or answering their email. You need to press the eject button.

If they want to try to nudge the goal post with services that were not initially agreed upon but they repeatedly pushing boundaries on the initial requirements.

They will ask you to run miracles. Unrealistic deadlines, unrealistic standards for delivery and asking for things your company should not be doing.

If they are consistently asking for discounts and free services as a courtesy you might be flexible to agree. Special requests can turn into demands that can twist into entitlements.

They seem to pop up from now again. That's not a bad thing. However, if you run a business that requires a recurring subscription to many phasers, this may impact your sales forecasting. Or it could add more to your fixed onboarding costs for larger companies.