Diversify Your Client Base: The Growth Strategy Most Companies Overlook

Forbes

4 hours ago

Jason Bahnak is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Abstrakt , where he leads omnichannel growth and sales enablement strategies.
Economic uncertainty isn't a matter of 'if,' it's a matter of 'when.' Nearly 60% of global executives expect economic volatility to persist through at least the end of the year, yet many B2B businesses remain over-reliant on a handful of major clients.
The problem isn't having big clients; it's building your business around them. A more resilient path forward is diversifying your client base now before volatility becomes disruption.
In the last two decades, we've seen disruption hit the economy like clockwork: The dot-com bust, the 2008 recession, the 2020 pandemic, and now, interest rates, layoffs and market hesitancy. While the variables change, one constant remains: Companies with revenue concentrated in just a few clients are disproportionately vulnerable when the next wave hits.
A 2023 study by Allianz Trade found that companies where a single customer accounts for 20% or more of revenue face significantly elevated risks to cash flow, profitability and operational continuity. Yet many B2B organizations continue to over-index on a small number of 'anchor clients,' assuming their size alone provides stability.
In my experience, it's the opposite.
Big clients are exciting. They create momentum and validate your place in the market. But they can also give your business a false sense of security.
Enterprise clients move slowly, and their priorities shift fast. One reorganization, leadership change or strategic pivot and suddenly your contract's under review. If they make up a large chunk of your revenue, it destabilizes.
What's more dangerous is how quietly that overreliance creeps in. When things are good, the risk hides in plain sight. But when one client drives your roadmap and eats up your bandwidth, your strategy stops being resilient and starts being reactive.
And it's not just revenue. It's resources. You throw your best people at the account. You over-service. You bend your process to fit theirs. You're not taking them to the family-owned Italian spot—you're booking the best steakhouse in town, because you can't afford to lose them.
It starts with good intentions, but over time, you stop scaling and start protecting.
So ask yourself: If your top client walked tomorrow, what would the next six months look like?
If that question makes you uncomfortable, good. That means it's time to fix it before you have to.
One of the more overlooked insights from the COVID-era economy is this: Small- and mid-sized clients proved far more resilient than expected.
While larger companies paused spending or entered procurement freezes, many small businesses continued buying—because they had to. They needed to sell to survive. And that urgency made them reliable partners.
In our work at Abstrakt, we've found that small- to mid-sized businesses are often:
• Faster to close
• Less bogged down by red tape
• More loyal when value is delivered
• Positioned to grow with the right partners
We've worked with hundreds of B2B firms navigating revenue concentration issues. Time and again, we've seen how building a broader client base mitigates risk and unlocks new growth channels.
That's not to say enterprise clients don't belong in your portfolio, but when they dominate, you're building your revenue on shifting sand.
Our company aims for an 80/20 balance: 80% small-to-midsize clients, 20% large enterprises.
This mix allows us to scale while protecting against unexpected attrition. If a single enterprise client trims spending, our business doesn't skip a beat because we're not dependent on any one customer to keep the lights on.
Here are a few ways any business can begin building a healthier mix:
• Run quarterly revenue concentration reports. Identify any clients exceeding 20%–25% of total revenue.
• Balance industry exposure. Diversify across sectors to avoid cascading impact from industry-specific downturns.
• Prioritize consistent small-client acquisition. Build systems (outbound sales, referrals, digital campaigns) that support pipeline volume.
• Right-size service models. Use account tiers to manage delivery efficiently across varied client sizes.
In early 2020, we were advised (like many others) to brace for the worst. Some businesses paused operations, and others waited to see how things would unfold.
We didn't.
We had a diversified client base across industries and sizes. That gave us confidence to move forward when others stalled. We continued hiring. We scaled outreach. And we gained market share while others pressed pause.
The lesson? Diversification isn't a crisis response; it's a preparedness strategy. You don't wait until you're exposed. You build protection into your model when times are good, so you can move fast when things get hard.
Revenue diversification isn't about refusing large clients; it's about building a business that can handle uncertainty without hesitation.
The companies that grow through market shifts aren't 'lucky,' but they are intentional. They design their business to be durable, spread risk across clients and build a revenue mix where no single decision, internal or external, can shake their foundation.
Because when the next downturn hits, it won't be the companies scrambling to adjust that come out ahead.
It will be the ones ready to grow.
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