Win the Expansion Growth Play
Leverage Relationships to Grow Revenue
Selling to existing customers should, theoretically, be easier than selling to brand-new prospects.
Existing customers know you. You have a history together. They’re more likely to pay attention to your marketing and meet with you to hear about new offerings.
But expansion conversations can be risky. If you succeed, you lay the groundwork for stronger, longer-lasting relationships. If you stumble, those relationships stagnate. Or worse—deteriorate.
Your customers face evolving pressures that continually change their requirements for success. On top of that, your competition will relentlessly challenge your position as your customers’ status quo.
If you aren’t offering new insights that help your customer stay competitive, you risk losing the relationship.
Identify Your Growth Levers
To win your expansion growth play, you need to use a unique approach that shows existing customers why they can stay with you and stay competitive. Your messages, skills, process, and teams must all be aligned to execute it effectively.
Messages
Inertia is powerful. To overcome it, your sellers need to tell a disruptive story that makes the prospect’s current situation seem unsafe and unsustainable.
Skills
Your sellers need to be able to articulate the unique value of your solution in every interaction with your prospects.
Process
If your teams aren’t following an acquisition process that aligns with your buyers’ behaviors and motivations, miscommunications and dropped handoffs can cost you deals.
Leadership
For your acquisition growth play to succeed, you need to pull your managers out of the day-to-day minutia and empower them to lead.
Technology
Your tech stack binds your messages, content, and seller skills to your process. You don’t need more tools, but rather the right tools to support your acquisition growth play.
Empower Your Teams for Customer Expansion
Every team that interacts with your customers needs to understand how to cement your value and offer ways to grow the customer relationship. Your sales, marketing, and customer success teams must all be telling the same story and following the same process to show your customers the value of your solution as they continue to evolve.
Close the Confidence Gap
When you execute your expansion growth play successfully, you solidify your position as your customer’s vendor of choice, bolstering the relationship and improving your chances to win more revenue. And when your expansion strategies are in sync with the psychology behind your buyers’ decisions, it closes the gap between strategy and results, leading to shorter sales cycles and outsized revenue growth.