There are many strategies you can use to boost sales revenue. To choose the best path forward, you need to work out the most effective use of your time and resources. This means a laser focus on a particular type of customer. But do you seek to win new customers, or place all your attention on squeezing more revenue from existing ones?
For many organisations, the best way to grow sales is to focus on their most profitable customers. These are the accounts that will contribute the most to your profit margin. And when you crunch the numbers on ROI, this kind of focused client growth strategy pays off far more than marketing to a new audience.
Here’s how to get started with this particular sales strategy:
Step 1 – Identify your ‘golden’ accounts
To compile your list of targets, you’ll need to get into the data. Dig into the analytics for previous sales, segmenting the results based on volume of sales and the profit margin for each account.
Focus on customers who score well for high sales and high profit, although you can also include those which provide high profit on low sales. This is your list of profitable customers to target. It can also be useful to take note of what the accounts on this list buy, the timing of sales and any other key info that could help shape your strategy.
Step 2 – Draw up a plan for upselling and cross-selling
The first methods to try for boosting revenue from key accounts are upselling and cross-selling. You can tailor your approach depending on the client, but it’s all about selling more to your best customers. This could be a line of premium products, the next step up from what the customer has already bought from you, or it could be a complementary product range. The first option gives you a higher profit margin, while the latter increases the sales volume for that particular account.
Step 3 – Develop new products/services tailored to these customers
Run out of products to up or cross-sell to your best customers? There’s one more avenue to try, and this is to develop new products or services specifically geared towards these key accounts. Your sales team will need to put some time into talking to your customers and identifying their needs, then you can develop ideal solutions just for them.
Step 4 – Find new profitable customers
If your client growth strategy is paying off, it makes sense to replicate the formula. There’s perhaps only so far you can sell to these accounts, so the next step to keep growing revenue is to find more of these golden customers. You’ll have enough data by now to develop a customer profile, so you can go out and target new customers who fit the mould.
Targeted account-based marketing can be a huge drain on your time and resources, even if it delivers impressive results in the end. So why not consider outsourcing? Our experts at IT Focus can develop a long-term strategic approach, identify and approach accounts, and even nurture them for you. Get in touch to find out more.
