---
title: "\"Any Client Is a Win\" Is a Lie. Here's What to Do Instead."
description: New business? Stop taking every client. The Sales Whisperer® on why bad-fit clients drain your time, money, and will to live—and how to pick the right ones.
image: https://thesaleswhisperer.com/hubfs/tsw-blog/2026-10/tsw-any-client-is-a-win-og.png
---

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[Get The Daily](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/daily)

 Oct 17, 2026

# "Any Client Is a Win" Is a Lie. Here's What to Do Instead.

![Picture of Wes Schaeffer](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Wes%20Schaeffer%2c%20The%20Sales%20Whisperer%20black%20white.png?width=50&name=Wes%20Schaeffer%2c%20The%20Sales%20Whisperer%20black%20white.png) [Wes Schaeffer](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/author/wes-schaeffer)

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A 20-year-old posted on Reddit recently asking how to get more clients.

He runs a printing business. Mostly labels, plus stickers and signage. Smart kid. He likes labels because consumable products mean recurring orders.

He's been walking local farmers markets, pitching the hot sauce guys and the honey ladies. Problem is, most of them don't order anywhere near his ideal 200 labels a month.

Then he said something that made me wince:

**"Any client is a win."**

**No. They. Are. Not.**

## Why Small Local Clients Will Eat You Alive

Here's what nobody tells you when you're starting out.

**The smallest clients are almost always the most expensive ones.**

They'll nitpick everything. They'll want revision after revision. They'll place tiny orders. And they'll ask for a discount on all of it.

Meanwhile, the client who wants 20,000 labels? They usually want it done right, done on time, and they pay the invoice.

**It's easier to sell 2,000 or 20,000 labels than 200.**

Same sales conversation. Same follow-up. Ten or a hundred times the order.

## "Buy Local" Is Mostly Talk

Everybody *talks* about buying local. Buy American. Buy from veterans. Buy from women-owned and minority-owned businesses.

Then they order from Amazon.

Maybe 12 years ago, my local chamber of commerce needed help with their website. I was a member for a decade. I went to the mixers. I heard every speech about "buy local."

They hired a company in Illinois.

**I'm in California.**

(I'd have been less offended if they'd hired a Marine. At least he'd have shown up early and saluted the logo.)

But I digress...

The point is, **you can't build a business on people who might buy from you because you're nearby.** Build it on people who need what you sell, in volume, over and over.

---

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---

## I've Been There

In 20 years of running my own show, I've taken on plenty of clients I regret.

Every time, I knew in my gut they weren't a fit. Every time, I told myself the money was the money.

**It never was.** Those clients cost me more in time, stress, and missed opportunities than they ever paid me.

A bad client doesn't just waste their own hours. **They steal the hours you should've spent finding your next great client.**

## What You Should Do Instead

**1. Define your ideal client—in writing.**  
How big are they? What do they buy? How often? What do they *not* do (haggle, micromanage, pay late)? If you can't describe them in a paragraph, you can't find them.

**2. Go where the volume is.**  
For our label printer, that's not the Saturday market. It's the regional brands already on grocery shelves. The co-packers. The breweries, wineries, and supplement companies reordering every month.

**3. Go at them hard.**  
Make them an offer they can't refuse. Be bold. Be impossible to ignore. One great prospect deserves ten times the effort you'd spend on ten lukewarm ones.

**4. Make everyone else beg.**  
If someone isn't ideal, you don't have to say no. Raise your minimums. Raise your prices. Make them earn a spot. If they still want in, fine—now they're worth it.

## The Bottom Line

Delete "any client is a win" from your mind. Forever.

**The right clients build your business. The wrong ones bury it.**

Pick on purpose.

---

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---

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- [To Sell Is to Serve: Stop Hiding From Your Sales Title](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/to-sell-is-to-serve-stop-hiding-from-the-word-sales)
- [Don't Sound Like Everyone Else | The Sales Factory with Coach Carroll](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/dont-sound-like-everyone-else-the-sales-factory-with-coach-carroll)
- [7 Reasons Social Media Marketing GooRoos Are Broke](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/7-reasons-social-media-marketing-experts-are-broke)
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[Small Business Marketing](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/small-business-marketing), [Entrepreneur](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/entrepreneur)

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