Smart Ideas For One Customer Being 70% Of Sales!

November 06, 2025

by a searcher in London, UK

I've found a great tree surgeon business###-###-#### but the one issue is that one customer is 70% of sales, via three different offices and commissioners. I'm trying to negotiate an annual payment for each of the first 5 years if they are still a customer as the business is dead without them. The seller obviously hates it but doesn't have any ideas to bridge the gap and says they won't leave ..... Does anyone have any smart ideas for structuring round this? Separately if anyone has experience with the tree surgeon business in the UK would be great to chat further.

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Reply by a searcher
from Harvard University in Toronto, ON, Canada

I have been on the "other side" of property management and corporate vendor spend reduction and deal renegotiation efforts, and my 2 cents would be to just pass on this business. It's unclear whether the client behind the concentration is a private corporation, institution like hospital/university, or a government entity - but all of these can easily swap or consolidate vendors, especially if there's some new procurement or ops leader in corporate. Especially since tree care is pretty fungible with usually plenty of alternative vendor options. Ideally you can get an MSA (master services agreement) with the main corporate entity where the target business is specified as a sole or primary vendor for offices that opt in, and offer a fixed fee schedule (eg locked in maximum annual increases) in exchange for 2-3 year commitment.

Reply by a searcher
in London, UK

Hi Pran, Thanks. Losing the client is a company killer and the work is lots of small, quick jobs rather than larger, longer term projects could happen pretty much overnight and if one office drops them there's no reason to think the other two will be secure. The revenue could definitely be replaced but I won't know how long it would take until I've been in the business for a while so it's an unknown. The current owner probably won't go for it but I can't see anyway to avoid making the vast majority of his payment contingent on the customer sticking around

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