Client Management Archives

How To Get More Business From Your Client Base

by Bill Poole | Mar 17, 2022 | Sales

Originally published on April 19, 2019. Since we know a lot has changed since 2019, we’ve updated the article in 2022.

One of the best ways to grow revenue is to sell more to your current clients. My friend Mark Hunter likes to say, “You don’t close a sale, you open a relationship.” Once you get a new client (especially a new Ideal Client) the selling and marketing shouldn’t stop. With the right marketing and sales processes in place, your new clients can now become a source of additional revenue.

In order to get additional revenue from your current clients, you must earn the right. In this article, you’ll learn several ways you can do this.

ETR – Earn the Right!

This week I learned a great acronym: ETR! Earn the Right!

As sales professionals we must Earn the Right to further engage with our current clients.

On the Selling From the Heart Podcast, Larry Levine and I frequently discuss the difference between sales reps and sales professionals.

Sales reps close deals and move on. Sales professionals open relationships and follow through.
Sales reps suffer from low customer retention. Sales professionals enjoy long-term relationships with their clients.

How do you ETR? Here are a few ideas.

Know The Client’s Business Goals

If you’re smart, you’ll open every sales conversation by asking about the prospect’s business goals and challenges. These goals will form the basis for the value that you present. Not only will this help you win the deal, it will set the stage for adding additional value and thus selling more products and services. If you understand your client’s business goals and challenges, you can recommend additional products and services to help them achieve their goals. Every business has multiple goals and challenges. I’m willing to bet that you have additional ways you could help.

Regular Business Reviews

The vast majority of salespeople close a deal and then move on. The true sales professional goes back after the deal to review the progress. A Regular (I recommend Quarterly) Business Review provides a regular touchpoint where you can:

Reconnect with the client’s goals and challenges
Review your progress in helping them achieve their goals
Resolve any issues (there are always issues!)
Recommend additional ways you could help
Request references

All of this begins with connecting to their business goals. As you earn the right to move from being a vendor to a partner you not only protect your base, you uncover additional opportunities in the account. As a bonus, you can ask for referrals.

Consistent Communication

Your clients know, like, and trust you for the core products you sell. They may not know about your additional solutions and services. You can certainly discuss these during QBR’s, but smart professionals take it a step further by making sure to always share new ideas. This can happen on your social profiles. It can also happen by sending helpful ideas to your clients.

For example, the other day, I saw an article that I knew would be interesting to one of my long-term clients. I took 2 minutes and emailed it to him. That article helped his business and also opened up a conversation about his net-new business development strategy. I now have an appointment tomorrow to talk to him and his VP of sales about implementing a Strategic Prospecting System!

Get Busy

Are you taking your current client base for granted? Stop! Your top ten clients are your competitions’ top 10 prospects. If you don’t take care of them, someone else will! If you do take care of them, taking the time to understand their business goals and challenges, there is a good chance you’ll earn the right to sell them more!
*This article originally appeared on LinkedIn Pulse on February 21, 2019. The article was updated on March 18, 2022.

Why You Probably Need a Marketing Automation System

by Bill Poole | May 2, 2019 | Marketing

With today’s decision makers and influencers scouring the web for information during the buying process, digital marketing has become an undeniably important partner in revenue generation. While I will always be the first to affirm that salespeople create, build, and sustain the relationships that drive business, marketing plays a huge role in supporting them.

Now that the bulk of marketing has shifted to digital channels like search engines and social media, you need to consider what’s tying it all together and linking it to your sales process. This is where marketing automation comes in. (more…)

Sales Discipline Equals Financial Freedom

by Bill Poole | Mar 5, 2019 | Sales

As sales professionals, your team can integrate discipline to improve their freedom - financially and otherwise.

“Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom.”
– Jocko Willink

Jocko provides helpful insight for sales professionals and leaders in the final chapter of Extreme Ownership : Discipline Equals Freedom.

If you want the freedom of excellent outcomes, you need discipline. In sales, this means that if you want financial freedom, you need to establish discipline.

The extent to which you embrace discipline will determine your level of financial freedom – avoid discipline and you’ll cause frustration.

Let’s explore some ways that sales professionals and teams can integrate discipline to improve their freedom. (more…)

Consistent Execution: The Secret To Revenue Growth

by Bill Poole | Feb 26, 2019 | EOS

“Execution is the single greatest market differentiator. Great companies and successful individuals execute better than the competition.”
– Brian P. Moran, The 12 Week Year

If you want to be successful in growing a company as a business owner, or growing a territory as a sales rep, you need to execute consistently. You can have a great vision, amazing products, and all kinds of great intentions. But the marketplace only rewards ideas that get implemented.

Execution needs to happen in the three core areas of your business that touch your clients and prospects. Let’s consider each of these in turn. (more…)

Geometric Growth By Mining the Gold From Your Client Base

by Bill Poole | Jan 29, 2019 | Sales

Every smart business knows getting more customers is a must - but if you're looking to increase profit margins, cross selling current clients is the way to go. Every (smart) business and sales professional wants to sell more to their current clients.

In my favorite marketing book, Getting Everything You Can From All You’ve Got, Jay Abraham shares the geometric principle of business growth. He says there are only three ways to grow a business.

Get more customers
Sell more things to current customers
Increase the frequency of purchase

The problem is that most businesses only focus on #1. When it comes to #2 and #3, cross selling to current clients usually gets lip service, a page buried on the website, and maybe a specialist. Unfortunately, that’s where the gold lies.

If you only do #1, focusing all your effort on new logos, your business will grow linearly. From a sales perspective, 15% growth requires 15% more new customers. It’s important work and hard work, but 15% growth won’t get anyone too excited — especially if you had to discount products to convince new customers to buy into your business.

The profitable and dramatic growth happens inside your current customer base by cross-selling additional products and services. This is especially true in mature industries where profit margins on the core offering are dropping. In this scenario, the question we should be asking is, “How can I sell more things to current clients where I have a trusted relationship?” (more…)