I was consulting with a client helping them create their strategic sales plan.  The concept and notion of 'the customer is always right' was brought up as a stop gap between sales and operations.

The management team stated that repeatedly the sales team seemed to drop this "bomb" on the entire enterprise causing internal strife and sub-optimizing profits.

The client sighted the typical mantra from Sales:

if we don't do it now someone else will the customers pay the bills don't blame me if we lose the business ok you tell the boss we can't do it etc., etc.  A book could be written on the ever present tactic sales professionals use and customer's consciously or unconsciously reinforce to get what they want.

The problem is played out in two lethal insidious ways.

Internal tension and mistrust is created between sales and the rest of the organization...