Relationships Take Work
CFOs have to be extra-careful too, monitoring the performance of the company's "portfolio of customers" on a regular basis, says Selden. If that sounds like a lot of work — well, it is. "This is not a trivial undertaking," warns Selden. "But the fact that it's really, really hard is great. Segmentation becomes a competitive weapon." It just takes time. "This is a fundamental rethinking of a business," says David Reibstein, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. "We're going to see more companies investing in this, finding out the value of their customers and paying more attention to some of them." The ultimate goal: to have more value-laden relationships with fewer customers. Not that any company will execute with 100 percent accuracy. "The truth is," says Bund, "you never know as much as you want to know."

But you may soon come to know a lot more than your competitors do.

Josh Hyatt is a contributing editor of CFO.

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