I doubt there’d be much argument that a B2B company’s long-term health and competitive success can be traced to its ability to acquire valuable customers, retain those customers, and sell more and more to them over time. And there’d be little debate that companies that are highly effective in just these few areas are in a much better position to survive and thrive well into the future.
But while most would agree that these things are mission critical, B2B companies are reporting a shocking lack of capability when it comes to driving sales growth with their existing customers.
A new SellingBrew Playbook research briefing entitled, “Closing the Gap on Growing Existing Customers,” focuses squarely on the topic of wallet-share expansion. Based on our most recent SalesPulse Survey, the briefing provides insight into the priorities, capabilities, and future plans of leading B2B sales operations.
Fair warning: The findings are not pretty.
It seems that while growing existing customers is readily acknowledged as being a top priority, most B2B sales operations are reporting that they lack the ability to understand and identify untapped sales potential at an account-level.
But wait, there’s more…
It also seems that this lack of capability around identifying sales opportunities with existing accounts is actually creating two additional capability gaps in the areas of account and territory planning. And of course, problems with account and territory planning will necessarily have follow-on implications for coverage-mapping, sales incentives, and so on.
It’s a vicious and costly chain-reaction—one that all starts at the account level.
But according to our research, B2B companies are not content to simply hope that the capability gaps will somehow correct themselves. Most are taking proactive steps to better understand account potential, knowing that it’s the lynchpin to a whole host of other problems and issues.
