07 Feb 4 Principles to Sell More to Existing Customers
It can cost a lot more to win a new customer than it does to sell to an existing customer. By using existing relationships as a springboard, we can gain access to other divisions or departments within each account. However despite these opportunities for sales growth, many times we fail to achieve a deep level of account penetration.
Why is Account Penetration Difficult?
There are many barriers to cross-selling. Lack of access to new contacts, low product knowledge, and poorly aligned incentive systems are just a few of the reasons why cross-selling initiatives fail. However, our mindset plays a major role as well…
Fear is one of the biggest obstacles to cross-selling success. Why? Well think about it… It takes a lot of work to win a new account. It takes a lot of work to nurture the relationship and gain a deep level of trust. Therefore, we are extremely careful not to damage that relationship. This makes us more hesitant to ask for referrals inside the account and more hesitant in who we let into the account to help us sell more. This leads us to focus more on defending the account, rather than growing the account.
4 Strategies for Effective Cross-Selling
Adopting the right mindset to cross-selling is the first key to success. Once the right mindset is in place, you can begin to adopt strategies to drive customer growth. Here are 4 of them:
1. Inform your Team about Potential Opportunities. Account penetration is a team effort. This means that service and support teams need to be equipped with knowledge about the account and where opportunities may lie. They need to know how to position your company, what situations to look for, and the right questions to ask to help uncover potential opportunities within each account.
2. Use your Specialists. One of the reasons why we fail to expand the product offering inside the account is because of not having enough product knowledge. The solution? Bring in the product specialists! Utilize specialists at the right time in the process to help generate interest, determine future needs, or help present new products or services.
3. Use your Champions & Coaches to Navigate the Company. Once you have a good level of trust inside the account, ask your current contacts to introduce you to other contacts within the organization. Do some research beforehand so you have a good idea of where potential opportunities may lie. Have a value proposition geared up and ready to go as to why a new contact would benefit from meeting with you. Add value to each new interaction by presenting insights, ideas, or new ways of thinking about things.
4. Increase Awareness through Seminars / Lunch & Learns. Sometimes, we’re not positioned as effectively as we’d like to be within the account, in terms of our capabilities and how we’d like the customer to see us. One of the best ways to alter this perception is by conducting internal seminars on various topics such as industry trends or best practices. Conduct a small stakeholder analysis beforehand to determine who you’d like to invite. During the seminar, present insights on industry issues or key business challenges and how your company has helped other companies overcome those challenges.
These are just several strategies to help you broaden your product line and achieve deeper levels of account penetration. What actions are you currently taking to develop your existing customers? More importantly, how do your customers perceive you? Do customers see you as just another vendor? Or instead, do they see you as a trusted business partner?