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. Here is step 3 of 3.

Step 3 - Approach internal prospects through relationships and referrals

Once you have assessed the Incremental Revenue Opportunity (IRO), map this against the existing tiers of customer spend. Focus a good part of your time on those accounts which have the highest potential for increase (H1 to H3 in the table below), regardless of the size of current spend. This approach also helps you avoid ‘over-servicing’ large customers from who you already enjoy maximum ‘share-of-wallet’.

In 2008, James began a new role (as an Account Executive) on the team which reported, through his Manager, to me. In his portfolio of medium and large corporates, one of the inactive clients was Australian Consolidated Press in Sydney CBD. Within the first six weeks, he secured an opportunity to meet with the Brand Manager of one of the publications. At that meeting, he built good rapport as well as developed a clear value proposition for his target buyers. He was invited back in a fortnight to present to a team of 14 Brand Managers. That led to the developing of new relationships with individual decision makers in business units and getting a clear understanding of their needs. Within six months, this account went from being inactive to being a highly active relationship.

In a world that is increasingly aware of the power of social media and networking, it is imperative to maximise leverage from our existing relationships. They enable us to establish trust quickly and build new relationships to develop new opportunities.

Here’s to your continued success!

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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. In Step 1 we spoke about how to better understand the ways your customer buys. Here is step 2 of 3.

Step 2 - Assess Incremental Revenue Opportunities

Assessing the Incremental Revenue Opportunities (IRO) in your existing relationships is a critical, on-going process and must be prioritised. If you map how much revenue you are currently generating in a 12-month period, for an individual product or service offering against each target business unit, you will see opportunities for incremental revenue.

In 2006, I met with the Manager for Automobile Associations in NSW for a major account. Our sales from this account had been on the decline and we were looking at ways to turn the tide within this relationship. We soon built a strong relationship and when we asked, we were told about other areas in the Company that might have a need but where we were not the supplier of choice. Our sponsor agreed, at our request, to hold a lunch-and-learn session about our product range, in their board room. He also sent out invitations by email out to the relevant people.

On the day, we had 26 people from various departments in the Company, visit the lunch-and-learn session, meet with the key members of our Account Management team and discuss their needs. A number of them said, “We didn’t know that you could do that!” Within three months from that event, as a result of good opportunity management, relationship building and follow up, we grew the account revenues by 40%.

While the method of engagement to assess IRO will vary, the process of gaining this knowledge is key to future growth of your business relationship.

In Step 3 of this series, we will look at how to approach internal prospects through relationships and referrals.

Have an opinion, question or story? Please click the Comments link below and share it. We would love to hear from you!