---
id: "action-categorize-customers"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Organize Categories", "§ Work Off the Debt"]
tags: ["portfolio-management", "customer-success"]
related: ["framework-grow"]
speakers: ["Eric Janssen", "Brian Denenberg", "Benson P. Shapiro"]
action: "Sort customers into Thriving, Striving, Transform, and Terminate tiers to focus resources strategically."
outcome: "A healthier, more scalable foundation for future growth by eliminating resource-draining accounts."
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-tier1-03-sales-debt-grow"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/the-risks-of-prioritizing-short-term-revenue-over-customer-fit"
sourceTitle: "The Risks of Prioritizing Short-Term Revenue Over Customer Fit"
---
# Categorize Existing Customers Into Four Tiers

**Action:** Use both **objective data** (CRM metrics, support costs) and **subjective internal feedback** to sort all current customers into four categories:
- **Thriving** — double down.
- **Striving** — invest selectively.
- **Transform** — develop turnaround plans.
- **Terminate** — part ways (with grace).

**Critical guardrail:** Ensure you are *actually differentiating*. If every customer is rated "pretty good," the exercise has failed.

This is the hands-on execution of the *Organize* and *Work Off the Debt* steps of the [[framework-grow|GROW framework]]; one founder's reaction to it is captured in [[quote-putting-names-to-feelings]].

**Outcome:** A healthier, more scalable foundation for future growth by eliminating resource-draining accounts.


## Related across articles
- [[framework-consumer-inertia-typology]]
- [[action-map-workaround-signals]]