Expand Existing Accounts without Pushing

Ian Altman 0:02

Ian, welcome to the Same Side Selling podcast. I am your host. Ian Altman, this is episode 376 it's season whatever it is. I don't even know what season we're in, but today's topic is how to expand existing accounts without pushing I work with a lot of organizations who they just acquired a new company, they launched a new product, they have new capabilities or offerings, and they want to expand their existing account, but it always kind of comes off like a pushy deal, and usually sounds something like and these are the mistakes that we often hear. Well, I want to talk to you about this other stuff that we're selling. Or when can we find a time to give you a briefing about our capabilities? Oh, a briefing about your capabilities. Let me clear my calendar. There's nothing more exciting for me as a customer than to get a capabilities briefing from somebody trying to sell me stuff. Oh, my goodness, this is incredible. It doesn't happen. They're not thinking that. Or we just acquired this new thing. I want to tell you about it. Okay, I don't get these approaches. They're pathetic ways that just sound like somebody is begging for business. We need a better way to approach this. See, in each of these cases, the salesperson is suffering from Access displacement disorder. They somehow believe the axis of the Earth has shifted and now the world revolves around them, but that's not the case. So we need to take an approach that piques our customers interest with things that we do uniquely for them, that maybe we haven't shared with them. So the first thing we have to understand is, what is it that we could be doing for them versus what we're doing for our best client? Why should they care about those other products and service? Ultimately, we want to share our client vision pyramid. So for example, let's say you offered two services right now to your existing clients, but you didn't do additional things for them. You could say, I want to talk to you about these three of the things that we sell. Or you could say, you know, our clients who report the most dramatic return on investment, they have us help them with X, Y and Z, all three of these things, and I was thinking about it the other day, because they were raving about how, what kind of impact it's had for them. And I feel like I've kind of messed up, because I don't think I've ever talked to you about anything beyond X that we've been doing for you, and you probably don't even know about Y and Z. Is that something we should be talking about, and now you're getting them to invite you in to talk about these other things. So they might say, Well, why do I need those other things? Well, you know what? The only reason you need those other capabilities is if you were facing this problem, this problem, or that problem. And if you are, those things might help. But you know, if you aren't, there's not much for us to talk about that way. You're not fishing like you have to get that other business. You're just saying, Look, if these things are important to you, I'm happy to talk about them. But if they aren't, we're totally content having the business that we have with you. If you want to get top results for your team, take a look at these Same Side Selling Academy. Just visit same side, selling.com, to learn more. Now the other side of this is the client vision pyramid. It's something that we talk about a lot in Same Side Selling, in our monthly Same Side Selling Academy coaching sessions. We use this client vision pyramid concept all the time. What that might sound like is this, gee, when people, when our clients, typically come to us, they're usually looking for help at one of three levels. See, our industry is kind of shaped like a pyramid. At the base of the pyramid is the effective level. This is where they're looking for a vendor to do these basic things for them and solve those needs. Next level up is the enhanced level. Then you describe what they get at the enhanced level. The highest level is the engaged level. This is where you would uniquely describe what your organization does for your most strategic client, you would say, so which level best fits for you? And oftentimes the client might say, Oh, well, you know what that engaged level? So you know what? I feel badly because I think we're delivering for you right now between the effective and enhanced level. Would it be worth it for us to talk about, or how open would you be for us to talk about these other capabilities that I don't think I've ever brought up to you before? See, the idea is that you're taking responsibility for not having talked about this. You're sharing that your other clients and prospects get great value from those things. And by doing this, you're now showing up as someone who's there to solve, not sell. See if we show up as just someone who's a peddler, just trying to sell additional services that's looking out for us. But if we say, maybe we haven't been serving you at the level we could be, and there are additional things we could be doing for you that we're doing for other clients. Now, your client can say, oh, you know what? That's a really good point, right? We could use that. I wish you had talked to us about it. Yeah, let's go through that now. There's interesting research over the years that says more than 85% of the time when a client goes to another vendor for services that they don't believe their existing vendor could deliver. 85% of the time the existing vendor does do those things, they just don't know it. So we want to make sure that we're picking their interest, talking about what we're doing for other clients, and let them welcome us in to talk about where we might be able to help them more. My clients who do this tend to accelerate sales, grow the average deal size, and create a more sticky connection between them and their client. If there are topics you'd like me to address, just drop me a note to Ian at Ian altman.com We'll see you on the next episode of the Same Side Selling podcast. So long you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai