The Fastest Way to Drive Profitable Growth
With a finite amount of time (526,000 minutes in a year) and a finite amount of capital (fill in the blank), too many sales people and companies alike continue to spend a significant amount of time and money chasing new accounts, developing unqualified proposals and responding to cold RFPs in an effort to make their quota/budget. The fact is, the fastest way to profitable growth is right under their nose. Here are a few facts to consider:
It costs 6-7X more to sell a new customer than sell into an existing customer (Bain & Co.)
Service and support is the most important buying factor: twice as important as price. (McKinsey)
The probability of selling to an existing customer is 65-70% while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% (CSO Insights)
Do you wear a Fitbit or an Apple Watch? Do you measure your steps, mileage, heart rate or calorie burn? Obviously, they are key performance indicators that help you understand your health, your ability to improve and your ability to thrive.
When it comes to client retention, expansion and cross-selling your clients, the same principles apply.
Does your company have a Key Account Management Program (a client wellness program) and a Fitbit or Apple Watch-like tool to measure client retention, risk and expansion opportunities in real time?
If not, leadership needs to do these four things to optimize your success:
Improve your account teams' capabilities around sales and account management and cross-selling by focusing on your client's operating reality
Align with your client's strategic initiatives to ensure the actions of your team are driving a positive ROI for both
Adopt a structured process designed to advance and strengthen client relationships, increase share of wallet and reduce client risk/churn of your most important customers
Create a collaborative partnership with contacts at all levels with your accounts
Easier said than done, right? When you don't have a defined key account management program including the appropriate tools and technology, this may seem like an insurmountable hurdle. it doesn't have to be.
Imagine: What if...
You were able to measure loyalty of your key account relationships so you could align your cross-selling initiatives accordingly?
You were able to align with your client's strategic initiatives so that you could optimize your resources to help your clients achieve their goals?
You were able to clearly understand your share of wallet relative to the competition?
You were able to measure your performance against key service level agreements (SLAs) that matter most to your clients?
You were able to create alerts for key decision maker turnover to ensure your team takes exactly the right actions at the right time to prevent risk??
You were effectively able to measure client risk, both qualitatively and quantitatively and know what steps to take to prevent revenue churn or client loss?
On September 1st, Butler Street released ClientFit® 2.0. This "Fitbit for client retention and expansion" will provide you with everything you need to drive profitable growth by aligning with the needs and wants of your existing customers. Grow your business by investing in the people who invested in you. Register for your personal webinar/demo.