Insights — Channel Creation & New Revenue Streams — 4 min read
How to Reduce Dependence on One Customer Type
Dependence on one customer type rarely feels urgent until the moment it becomes a crisis. By then, there usually isn't time to build an alternative from a standing start.
In short
Reducing dependence on one customer type means deliberately building a second, genuinely different route to revenue — a new customer segment, a new channel, or a new commercial model — using existing products, expertise or capacity, rather than simply trying to win more of the same type of customer. It should be approached as a planned, resourced programme, not an opportunistic side project.
A business that sells almost exclusively to one customer type — one sector, one buyer profile, or in the most acute cases one or two customers — can look perfectly healthy right up until something changes on the customer's side. A contract ends, a buyer moves on, a sector slows down, and revenue that felt stable turns out to have been borrowed from a single source all along.
Reducing that dependence doesn't usually mean abandoning the core customer base — it means building a genuine second route to revenue alongside it, using strengths the business already has, so the concentration risk falls over time without the core relationship being put at risk in the process.
Why winning 'more of the same' doesn't reduce the risk
A natural response to over-reliance on one customer type is to try to win more customers of that same type. That can genuinely help — more customers within the same segment spreads risk across accounts — but it doesn't address dependence on the segment itself. If the whole sector slows down, or the buying pattern that defines that customer type changes, a business with twenty similar customers is still exposed to the same underlying risk as one with five.
Identify what a genuinely different customer type would look like
A genuinely different customer type usually differs in at least one of: who buys (consumer versus business, a different sector, a different size of organisation), how they buy (direct versus through an intermediary, project-based versus recurring), or why they buy (a different use case for the same underlying product or expertise). The strongest options use the same products or capability but reach a customer type that isn't exposed to the same risks as the current base.
| Current dependence | Possible second route |
|---|---|
| Reliant on one large commercial customer | A parallel channel to smaller commercial accounts or a different sector |
| Reliant on a single sector (e.g. one construction segment) | The same products or skills applied to an adjacent sector |
| Reliant on one or two major distributors | A direct channel to a segment of end users the distributor doesn't prioritise |
| Reliant on project-based work from a narrow client base | A recurring service or maintenance offer sold more broadly |
Treat it as a resourced programme, not a side project
Diversifying the customer base is sometimes approached as something to fit in around the core relationship — a few hours a week, whenever someone has capacity. That pace rarely produces a meaningful second channel before it's actually needed. Because this is a risk-management decision as much as a growth one, it deserves a defined budget, a named owner and a realistic timeline, agreed as deliberately as any other significant investment.
Protect the core relationship while you do it
Reducing dependence on a major customer or sector doesn't mean treating that relationship as less important while a new channel is built — quite the opposite, since it's still funding the business during the transition. Any new channel work should be planned so it doesn't visibly compete for the same senior attention or capacity the core relationship currently relies on.
- 01Recognise that winning more of the same customer type reduces account risk, not segment risk.
- 02Identify a genuinely different customer type, channel or commercial model using existing strengths.
- 03Resource the second channel properly, with budget, ownership and a realistic timeline.
- 04Protect the core customer relationship while the second channel is being built.
- 05Measure progress by how much the dependence has actually reduced, not just by new revenue generated.
When the honest answer is to manage the risk, not remove it
For some businesses, a second genuine channel isn't realistically achievable in the short term, and the more honest position is to manage the existing dependence as well as possible — stronger contractual terms, closer relationship management, and early warning systems for change — while working toward diversification over a longer horizon. Pretending a quick fix exists when it doesn't tends to produce a poorly resourced channel that fails and wastes the time that could have gone into proper risk management.
Building a genuine second route to revenue, sized and paced to protect the core business while it's established, is the specific focus of the Channel Creation Programme, from £1,995 + VAT/month over six months. Where the concentration risk sits with one or two large customers rather than a whole segment, the Customer Expansion Engine can also help by identifying growth within the existing base in parallel.
Could your business support another route to revenue?
Evans Channel Creation identifies, validates and builds additional revenue channels from capabilities a business already has — B2B to D2C, D2C to B2B, product to service, recurring revenue or partners — and says so plainly when a channel should not be built. Programme from £1,995 + VAT per month over six months.
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