Is the customer always right? Not necessarily. But the customer must always be taken seriously.

In this article series, I examine three familiar beliefs about sales and question whether they still help us build good customer relationships and sustainable growth. We begin with one of the most persistent: that the customer is always right.

A customer requests a particular solution.

The salesperson listens, explores the requirements, prepares a proposal and does their best to deliver exactly what the customer has asked for.

At first glance, this looks like good customer service.

But what if the customer has misunderstood the problem?

What if the desired solution creates new complications? Or if the customer's wishes directly conflict with what the company can professionally stand behind?

Should we still agree with the customer?

I believe one of the biggest misunderstandings in modern sales is confusing customer orientation with customer obedience.

They are not the same thing.

The customer knows their reality. But not necessarily the best solution.

In professional B2B sales, we often meet customers who have a clear picture of what they want to buy.

They request a particular technology, a specific service, more resources or a solution resembling something they already know.

This does not necessarily mean they have identified the best route to the desired outcome.

Imagine a company wanting to invest in a new CRM system because its sales organisation's performance is unsatisfactory.

It may be the right decision.

But the problem may also turn out to be unclear market positioning, inadequate qualification, poorly defined sales roles or a lack of sales leadership.

A new CRM system will not automatically solve any of these problems.

A salesperson who simply accepts the customer's description of the solution therefore risks delivering exactly what the customer requested — without creating the value the customer actually needs.

What does the research tell us?

A 2006 meta-analysis by Franke and Park brought together research from 155 samples involving more than 31,000 salespeople.

The analysis found that adaptive selling behaviour was positively associated with self-rated, manager-rated and objectively measured sales performance. In their model, customer orientation had a more limited direct association with performance.

This does not mean customer orientation is unimportant.

But it suggests that the ability to understand the situation and adapt one's approach matters.

More recent research into B2B customer centricity similarly points to the need for organisational collaboration, management support and an understanding that different customers have different needs.

Customer centricity is therefore about much more than doing what the customer says.

It is about organising the company around a genuine understanding of the customer and the value to be created.

Respect sometimes requires resistance

I believe salespeople and advisors sometimes become too focused on agreeing with the customer.

We want to preserve the relationship.

We want to be seen as helpful.

And naturally, we want to win the business.

But if our professional knowledge gives us reason to question the customer's plan, we also have a responsibility to bring that knowledge into the conversation.

Not by telling the customer they are wrong.

But by examining the assumptions.

A constructive approach could be:

"I understand why you are considering that solution. But before we move forward, I think we should investigate whether this is actually the challenge we need to solve."

That is not disregarding the customer.

It is taking the customer's business seriously.

At the same time, we must be careful not to overestimate our own insight. Customers often know internal circumstances, constraints and decision criteria that the supplier has not yet understood.

Challenging a customer therefore requires both expertise and humility.

The customer is not always right in their behaviour either

There is another side of this discussion that is often overlooked.

What happens when the principle that the customer is always right is used to legitimise unreasonable demands or poor treatment of employees?

Research published in Psychology & Marketing in 2023 shows how mistakes and problematic behaviour by customers can negatively affect service employees' well-being.

A 2025 study in BMC Psychology likewise found associations between uncivil customer behaviour, burnout and work-family conflict. The study also highlighted the importance of ethical leadership.

These studies primarily concern service settings and cannot simply be transferred directly to complex B2B sales relationships.

But the leadership principle is relevant:

A company cannot build a healthy customer culture on the assumption that employees' expertise, boundaries and judgement must always give way to customers' wishes.

The customer should be at the centre. Not necessarily have the final say on the solution.

I would therefore distinguish between three things:

The customer's experience must be taken seriously. Customers are entitled to their own experience of the problem and the relationship.

The customer's wishes must be examined. But wishes are not always a complete description of the need.

The solution must be defensible. The company must be able to stand behind the professional quality, commercial value and consequences of its recommendations.

This also means sometimes having the courage to say no.

No to a solution that does not seem appropriate.

No to expectations that cannot be fulfilled.

And sometimes no to a customer assignment that makes no sense for either party.

The commercial consequence

Companies should not reward salespeople solely for fulfilling customers' immediate wishes.

They should also develop and recognise the ability to understand problems, ask informed questions, challenge assumptions and create lasting results.

This requires professional skills and management support.

A salesperson cannot be expected to challenge customers' wishes if the company simultaneously penalises every decision that delays an order.

The customer is not always right. But the customer is entitled to expect us to make a genuine effort to understand what is actually right for them.

In my opinion, that is a much stronger definition of customer orientation.

Next article in the series

If good customer orientation sometimes requires us to challenge the customer, we enter an interesting area between sales and advisory work.

Article 2: Is a Trusted Advisor a hidden sales category?

Here I examine what separates a trusted advisor from a skilled salesperson — and whether the difference is actually smaller than we think.