[zug_zug]

Yeah, it can really seem like "We closed a x-million dollar contract, we nailed it." But when you really take a step back, anybody can sell an x-million dollar contract. (reducto-ad-absurdem: I can find somebody tomorrow who would a ton of gold for 1-million dollars). The question to the salesman/ceo is --- did you sell a promise that can realistically and cheaply be made and maintained for under the sales price? If not, a huge sale may ultimately be a net negative.

This isn't just some philosophical thing, I've worked at tons of places that have gone out doing ridiculous partnership attempts (e.g. an Italian telecom company) based on this misunderstanding.

[jamra]

This is very true. We had a $1m/year customer that dragged us down. I went over the development costs that were exclusive to that client. It was not worth the money. We were developing custom features. They since had to dump a lot of their locations which were picked up by another of our clients but maintained the entitlement.