[Jeff Alton]

Originally Posted by Norm K

That's a strong possibility. Either that or the larger company in the merger (probably more like a purchase, actually) is simply invoking their own long-standing practice in order to protect their existing large customers.

Here's a scenario and question I've put before many smarter-than-thou college boys:

In comparing two customers, both of which you've been doing business with a long time, both of which are very solvent and are likely to remain around for a long time, both of which pay their bills on time and both of which are generally very easy to do business with.

Customer X sends you $1M per year in business, spreading his other $9M among other vendors.

Customer Y sends you $500K per year in business, typically spending a tenth or so of that elsewhere, and then only because for one reason or another you can't get him what he needs as quickly as he needs it.

If you must rank these two, who's your "A" customer and who's your "B" customer?

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Norm, Customer Y is the A client, but the sales rep needs to find out why they are only getting 10% of customer X's business. Customer Y is marrying his success with the vendor's ability to provide useful pricing, just in time deliver and quality service/products. Hey is loyal.