A founder I once mentored was thrilled. He had landed a new client after four months of meetings, three custom proposals, and a pricing structure so generous it qualified as charity.
“We finally won them!” he beamed.
I asked what the account would actually earn him. He did the math on a napkin, went quiet, and then turned the napkin face down — as if it had personally betrayed him.
The truth had arrived: he had spent his most expensive months chasing his least profitable client.
Here is what experience teaches and enthusiasm forgets. Winning a small account and winning a large one cost roughly the same. The same pursuit, the same patience, the same late emails, the same dignified begging dressed up as “relationship building.” The effort is identical.
The margins are not.
Stop chasing equal effort for unequal profit.
Small org or big org, the effort’s the same. The returns are not. So aim your finest energy where the ROI actually wins — and resist the quiet romance of the hard-won deal that pays in exposure and exhaustion.
Effort is the one resource leaders give away most freely and value least. Spend it like it’s expensive. Because it is.
Where is your team pouring its best effort — and is the margin returning the affection? Aim your best energy where the ROI