Account Penetration into Different Business Units & Offices

Before I start, I want to post a shout out to my twin daughters, Theresa & Annie. Today is their twelfth birthday! Happy Birthday Annie & Theresa!

Love

Daddy


Account Penetration into Different Business Units & Offices

So, if the scenario is similar to the last posting, but instead of being the secondary provider to the business unit using the bulk of your product, you are the sole or primary provider for this unit but there are other areas of the company that also use your product you have a similar approach. You still leverage your relationships.

You might have to help your source uncover the person you need to reach. You can help by looking on the Web Site. Sometimes the Branch Manager or the Division Manager's name is listed if you look on the offices or business group pages. Sometimes the information is readily available and your contact will have to dig out the information internally.

This is important, so please make a note. There is NO BETTER WAY to reach someone you don't know than through an introduction / referral! If you have an established relationship with people in this company, they will be happy to tell you who you need to speak with if they know, or in many cases, try to find out for you.

Why is this so crucial? Think about your own life. If a friend or a manager in your company came to you and said, "We're doing business with Alphabet City Widget. Joe, the Account Executive has done a great job, giving us good service. The orders ship quickly and they're right, so we're not doing a lot of returns and re-orders. Why don't you meet with him and see if he can help you out?" How likely are you to refuse to meet with or at least speak with Joe? It's highly likely you would at least speak to him is it? Why, because if a friend whose judgment you trust or a manager, who at some point in the future might be able to help you asks, you want to be accommodating if you can don't you? Of course you do, its human nature.

Even if your contact doesn't know the person in the other division, having the ability to refer to him/her as a happy client is helpful and the fact that you have the ability to confidently begin your conversation by saying, "I know we haven't spoken, but I have been working with Mary in your Flushing office for several months" is a great ice breaker. They might call Mary to see what her experience is, or they might not, but it will definitely relax the barriers of entry a bit for you.

Thanks for reading my post. If you enjoy this and get some useful information from it, please tell your friends & business associates to check it out!

Maximizing An Account's Potential

Maximizing An Account's Potential

Creating a relationship with a business so they begin to purchase your product or service is hopefully the start of a beautiful relationship. So the Purchase Orders begin to come in and life is good. Now, assuming (always dangerous) that your agreed upon pricing means the transactions are profitable for your company, you're ready to sit back and look through the new car catalog to decide if you want that convertible in silver or red, right? Maybe, or maybe not.

Before you start sipping that cold, well deserved, iced tea & head over to the car dealer, here are some questions you should have answered.

Are the orders being processed correctly and in a timely manner? Are your installations being completed in the agreed upon interval? And the big one... are they paying their bills? The corollary to the old saying "Nothing happens until a sale is made" is "It doesn't matter how much you sell until the money is in the till."

So you're not quite ready to put the top down on your new convertible and sip that iced tea yet. You need to check to make sure your customer's credit line has been approved or they are willing to accept things on a C.O.D. basis (not likely unless they're desperate). THEN, you need to make sure the Bill to & Ship to information is correct, as well as the pricing, and after that you need to make sure your Accounting Dept is sending out the correct bills. I have yet to have a client send my company a check BEFORE they received a bill.

OK, so now everything's good! The orders are coming in, they're being processed, shipped and installed correctly and the customer is paying in a timely manner. The current run rate shows you'll receive about $200,000 in new business for the year. High five? You can go out, put the top down on your new silver convertible, open that baby up and zoom down the LIE at 30 MPH (yes, 30, it's beautiful sunny summer Friday, and it's rush hour on Long Island!).

Sure, until Monday, ... when you go back to sit down to see what else you need to do to get more business from your new account. You'll need to do that because you've realized that $200,000 in new business annually is a good start, this firm spends $25 Million on the product you're providing. This means you have lots of upside and growth potential.

What now? As always, you follow the money! Is all $25 Million ordered by the people you're currently dealing with? If it is, it seems likely that they're using you as a secondary source. Then your mission is to convince them that you're company is the best and you should either be their only source, or at a minimum their primary supplier.

Are you getting all of the business from the team you deal with and there are other parts of the business that order from your competitor? If you need to probe and penetrate other areas of the business, you need to expand your presence in this account & establish relationships with the other decision makers to get the additional business from them.

How? We'll talk about that next time.

Thanks for reading. Questions, comments are always appreciated.