Making the first sale to a customer is just the beginning of your business relationship with them. This three-step series shows you how to use this ‘platform’ to grow sales (after that first sale), with medium and large sized companies.

Step 1 - Understand how your customer buys
In mid-2006 after a few months of ‘pursuit’, I met with the Category Procurement Manager of a large state-based government organisation. Their total number of employees was 17,000. I wanted to understand their buying process better and assess opportunities for growing our share of business from this customer. The Procurement Manager explained that relevant employees did not need multiple quotations for orders valued less than $30,000! Furthermore, the products we sold were not going to be on their priority list for at least the next few years. He said that we were welcome to go ahead and contact the relevant people and sell directly to them. So we did!

I dedicated one sales person to call all 45 of our contacts within the organisation on a cyclical basis to generate repeat business as well as create referrals. Within one year, we grew sales from that organisation by 200%.

There are factors that contribute to the way your customers buy. Understanding these better means you will be able to sell more! The four main ones are:

Buying units
Think of a business as a mosaic made up of many interrelated parts, each with its individual needs. Explore as much as you can about specific positions, departments or business units within your customer’s company.

Buying frequency
Each buying unit can have different needs through the year or if you have longer sales cycles, over a few years. Find out how often they need your products and services.

Buying policy
Some organisations have clearly defined buying policies whereas others don’t. Subtly ask whether people actually follow the process. Selling to people within companies that have a centralised process, differs greatly from selling to those where individuals are empowered to make decisions for themselves or their business unit. If there are agreements in place, ensure that you know when they are due for renewal and who will be responsible for them.

Competitive forces
Unless you are selling a new invention, it is likely that your customer also buys products or services you sell, from your competitors. Find out who they are, how they got there and how satisfied your customer is with them. As you understand each of these factors, you will have more clarity about the next logical step(s) to take with the company.

In Step 2 of this series, we will look at how to identify ‘Incremental revenue opportunities’ within buying units.

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