Most companies spend big dollars attempting to secure new business when their best opportunities to grow the company often exist with current clients. It is rare that an existing client is using all services, or products available from the current supplier. There also may be other subsidiaries, or divisions using a different supplier. Yet, companies very often fail to see the gold that is right in front of them. Why is that?
The answer is simple. So much time and effort goes into providing great service, on a day to day basis, that often very little time is spent developing more business, to the detriment of both the existing client and the supplier. Clients benefit from global contracting and providing the supplier with more volume by getting lower pricing overall. Generally, the more business a client does with a supplier, the more valuable that client is to the supplier warranting better pricing and even more attention.
As such, every so often, it is critical to do a big picture evaluation to get a better understanding of the real business potential of an existing client. It drives this CEO Blogger crazy because I often discover that potential with just a few questions when meeting with a client. When that it happens, it does not reflect well on our Account Management, or Sales Team. Woe with them when that happens because it is at that point that I tend to reassign sales responsibility.
Sales is a never ending process that should be like breathing; requiring no special, additional thinking process. Signing a client is the beginning of the sales process, not the end. Wider and deeper selling is in the mutual interest of both the client and the supplier. Besides, it is really fun and mutually rewarding to offer additional solutions that meet a client's needs.
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