Clients, customers, consumers, clientele – call them what you will, they are the life-blood of any commercial organisation. External clients, internal clients, stakeholders, shareholders – there are lots of people with an influence over our collective corporate futures.

We spend a lot of time, focus, marketing effort, cash and other resources chasing new customers –they pay the bills after all, fuel our growth, flatter our credentials and swell our brag-file. The right customers motivate our staff, some even say ‘thanks’ every now and again, and we develop relationships with them that can stretch from the boardroom to the bar. In business to business markets we try to build loyalty with our clients by working hard, going the extra mile, adding value at every turn, and being generally all-round heroic in an ongoing effort to win and retain business.  We rightly consider our client base as a key asset, but how often do we question, if ever, the integrity of the asset base. In other words, do we blindly assume that the perfect customer is one spending money to the exclusion of all else, and if not, do we have the bottle, foresight and strength of character to do anything about it?

There has been a lot of talk in the recent recession about toxic assets, an oxymoron if ever there was one – up there in the same league as military intelligence and giant shrimp. An asset that should be good for you, should strengthen your business, but has gone wrong and is now seriously detrimental. But I’d like to add a new classification of asset type for a creature that we all recognise but often deny exists – the toxic client.

Toxic clients are as dangerous and risky an asset as an Icelandic sub-prime mortgage. And whilst toxic clients have been around ever since our Neanderthal cousins traded furs for flints, the profligation of the breed during the recent economic squeeze has been significant. A toxic client is one who burns up resource without paying, who expects the moon on a stick but then queries everything, demotivates all around them, and limits your ability to grow. Thankfully, I haven’t had to deal with a toxic client in my business for over ten years, but I did have a lesson in toxicity first hand at the time. In the end, the relationship ended and although the following year our turnover halved, our profit for the year increased by 20%.

I see toxic clients in my customers customers every day, and my point to my clients is this. Strong brands have positive standards and are virtuous –hardly the characteristics of a toxic client. Thus you may recognise toxic clients in your own customer base and you may endure them or you may not. But my question is ‘are you a toxic client to your supply chain?’ And if you are, then forget all the marketing hyperbole, the brand book and the ad campaigns, because if you’re toxic think about what that is that saying about your brand.