ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Jeff Burgess built a $20 million customer relationship from the ground up, thought about them day and night, inserted branded sterile wipes into their server shipments during COVID, and then handed them a $5 million deal by honestly recommending their software over the competition. Three months later, he found out they had cut him out entirely by accident when their support team sent a return request to BCD out of muscle memory on a server BCD never built.
In this episode, Jeff tells the full story of what happens when passion in a customer relationship becomes a one-way street. From the early days of building customized surveillance servers that outperformed anything else in the market, to a contract, a voluntary concession, and an eventual betrayal that wasn't even delivered with the decency of a heads-up conversation.
This isn't a bitter episode. The passion had already been gone for a year by the time it ended. It's something sharper than that: a clear-eyed warning about what it costs to love a customer more than they'll ever love you back, and why no relationship, no matter how deep the history, is worth more than the integrity of the people on the other side of it.
To learn more about Jeff’s journey, pick up a copy of 𝙄𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚: 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙪𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 today! Now also available in audiobook format.
100% of all royalties go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project!
Wondrous Stories.... Words and music by Jon Anderson.
Copyright held by Atlantic Recording Corporation (℗ 1977, 2003, 2008)
