Bill CanadyCEO & Founder, The 80/20 Institute · Be a Great CEO: Learn how to Fix it, Grow it, & Sell it.

STOPPING Bad Products & Facing HUGE Orders: The REAL Challenge #shorts

28 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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0:39

In this short, Bill Canady recounts a leadership dilemma he faced after deciding to stop selling a set of low‑value products (the "kill list"). He sent a note to his leadership team announcing that, starting the next day, those products and associated accounts would be discontinued. The following morning, one of the company’s largest distributors emailed requesting expanded terms, a larger stocking commitment, and an 18‑month price hold for a massive order. The order came from the exact customer segment (B‑only, bottom‑of‑the‑line buyers) that Bill’s team had just been instructed to exit. The story highlights the tension between a strategic decision to prune unprofitable product lines and the immediate revenue opportunity presented by a big order from the same segment, forcing the leadership team to decide how to respond.

Chapters

We had the quads, we had the kill list, and on a Sunday night I sent the note to the leadership team that said, starting tomorrow, here's what we're going to stop doing. Monday morning, 7:40, an email lands from one of our largest distributors, and of course they asked for expanded terms, expanded stocking commitment, a price hold for 18 months. The customer mix underneath it was a B only, the bottom of our customer base buying the bottom of our product line. It was almost line for line the exact set of accounts my team had been told the previous evening we were exiting that week, and here we got a big order on our hands. What are we going to do?