In the development of a company, certain contracts can represent up to 40 % of turnover. These strategic customers are often considered untouchable, even when they imbalance the organization, monopolize resources or impose constraints incompatible with long -term orientation. However, several French leaders have made the radical decision to put an end to a major commercial relationship – not by rupture, but by strategic alignment. This short -term risky choice has sometimes been decisive to restore a more coherent and sustainable growth course.
A captive economic model
In 2021, the Digital Agency Octave & Octave, based in Lille, put an end to a long -standing contract with a major player in large distribution. The customer alone represented almost 35 % of turnover. For several years, this collaboration had provided financial stability and allowed to structure the teams. But as the partnership evolved, requests became more specific, tighter deadlines, more restrictive contractual clauses. The founding team begins to perceive a gap between the agency’s initial mission – to design creative experiences – and the role of provider that the customer imposes.
The decision to stop collaboration does not take place on a dispute, but after a strategic reflection on the identity of the agency. By freeing himself from this dependence, Octave & Octave redefines its positioning, concentrates its development on innovative SMEs, and restructures around shorter missions, with high added value. Less volume, but more impact. The following year, profitability climbed despite a turnover down. Growth resumes, more aligned with the values and know-how of the team.
When the load becomes a brake on innovation
At Spendesk, fintech specializing in the management of professional expenses, a large -scale international customer absorbs in 2020 a significant part of the product and support resources. To meet its specific needs, the company develops tailor-made modules, moving away from its initial roadmap. Internally, tensions go up: paralyzed roadmap, deprival of the needs of other customers, fatigue of technical teams.
The management then decides to refuse the extension of the preferential contract, at the risk of seeing this customer leave the platform. This choice causes questions, including some investors. But six months later, the results speak: the team finds latitude, the speed of development is accelerating, and the requests of historic customers are again taken into account. By refocusing the product on its first target – European SMEs – Spendesk reaffirms its positioning, which opens the way to a new healthier phase of expansion.
Regain control of the rhythm
In the strategy consulting sector, the company in Principo, founded in Paris, faces a similar dilemma. An industrial group requests the team on long, very lucrative support, but with a strong hold on methods, tools and even the method of restitution. Over the months, the customer ends up dictating the pace and format of interventions. The cabinet, recognized for its participatory approaches, finds itself to chain classic deliverables without differentiating added value.
The founder contrasts: breach of the current contract, with proposal for redeployment to better aligned customers on the philosophy of the firm. This decision causes a temporary slowdown, but it starts a revaluation of the advisory posture. In Principo reposition its offer around short, collaborative formats, and strengthens its legitimacy with public actors and NGOs. By agreeing to give up a stable income, the cabinet returns to free, visibility, and impact.
Free yourself from a customer who has become a prescriber
In some cases, the weight of a customer is not only measured in figures, but in influence. At Qonto, neo-bank for very small businesses and independent partnerships with a network of accountants gradually becomes a strategic lock. Personalization requests are multiplied, communication is supervised, and the sales teams spend more and more time negotiating specific developments to satisfy this single actor.
In 2021, Qonto decided to get out of this exclusive partnership, despite the media exhibition he guaranteed. The team then redeployed its resources on user communities closer to its natural target: freelancers, managers of small structures, associations. This reorientation is accompanied by clearer, more direct, more autonomous marketing marketing. This strategic refocusing coincides with an acceleration of organic uses and a clear increase in customer satisfaction.
A choice that redefines the role of the leader
Behind these decisions, it is also a leadership posture that asserts itself. Breaking with a key customer not only requires sufficient financial solidity, but above all a clear vision of the business trajectory. At Shine, this question arose in 2020 when one of the very first customers of the platform required technical adaptations incompatible with the standardization strategy. Rather than yielding to pressure, the co -founders have opposed an argued refusal, preferring to risk an immediate loss of income than to compromise the scalability of the product.
This type of choice requires publicly assuming a CAP, to communicate internally on the reasons for the rupture, and to strengthen the teams around a readable direction. The customer is no longer a power center, but one partner among others, whose influence must not compromise the consistency of the global project.
Align an operational criterion
At Equify, software publisher for financial directions, the decision to interrupt a collaboration with a large industrial group in 2022 prompted the company to review its entire customer onboarding process. Now, each new contract is the subject of a cross validation between the sales teams, product and support, on the basis of functional and cultural alignment criteria. This approach reduced internal tensions, avoiding projects that mobilize certain teams disproportionately from the first weeks.
The impact is also measured in commercial discourse: the Sales are encouraged to explain the limits of the product from the first exchanges, to set a firm framework, and to favor customers ready to evolve with the solution rather than to adapt to any price. This posture, which seemed to be risky at the start, strengthened the credibility of the company with its prospects. Ultimately, it is the teams themselves who become the guarantors of customer consistency, far beyond the leader’s decision alone.
