Account Growth Drivers (ie: upsell, expansion)

Sylvia Yin

Hi all! I was wondering, what are some common drivers for account growth? In Sales, the number of meetings booked impact the number of deals closed and there's a conversion rate you can arrive at to determine how many meetings you need to close x revenue. Is there anything similar to this for account growth. What are some activities that can be taken to drive account growth? 

To put it in other way, I am wondering if for account growth if it makes sense to say "I need x number of y event occurrences for me to generate USD$x in revenue in growth". If so, what are the common activities/events? All these assumes the the product provides growth opportunity. 

Thanks everyone! 

Nick Maugeri

Hi  @Sylvia Yin! One of my favorite sayings is "customers buy on hope, and renew on results". The same mentality can generally be applied to upsells and expansions. I have found the best way to expand accounts is by hitting the goals the client has identified, understanding their organization and needs, and applying a consultative approach.  It's rare to upsell using a cookie cutter approach that you may see in new business processes (i.e. X meetings --> $Y New Biz Revenue) so it's difficult for me to give advice without understanding your business/product intimately. 

I'd spend some time answering the questions below to better set yourself up for success:

• Do you clearly identify the client's desired outcome at the start of the relationship? Are you able to achieve these goals and demonstrate ROI? Having wins under your belt makes expansion ten-fold easier.
• Are you setting expectations up front that if X goals are achieved, you'll expand (for getting new users)
• Are you identifying additional pain points that other features can resolve?
• Have you developed a strong relationship with your champion? Does she oversee additional departments/geographies that you can expand into?
• Do you build org maps/charts to map relationships and key stakeholders? This can be a great way to identify the influencers, the detractors, and those with the buying power 

I know this may have left you with more questions than answers but hopefully it helps you think further about your approach and strategy. Happy to chat further if you'd like!

Best,

Nick

Sylvia Yin

Hi Nick, 

Thanks for taking the time to reply my question! An idea that sprung to my mind is to adapt all the questions you've listed down into a checklist to help create some predictability of growth, looking at these as factors that leads to greater growth potential. This is definitely helping me think through the subject. Thanks again Nick! 

Jan Young

@Nick Maugeri makes some great suggestions-- it starts with understanding the customer's goals and focusing on outcomes. I would just add a communication plan to the mix-- make sure the customer knows they are receiving the value from your product. It's helpful to share internally as well. 

Sylvia Yin

Hi all! Thought I'll do a little update on since I last posed this question. 

What @Nick Maugeri said and echoed by @Jan Young remains absolutely fundamental. Focusing on the goals, delivering outcomes as well as some good old account management like org mapping and building strong relationship with champions is the foundation for account growth. 

It dawned on me that another way to pose the question I had initially was what activities or events that can be orchestrated proactively by the CS to create opportunities for expansion and upsell? As Nick pointed out, rare to upsell using a cookie cutter approach that you may see in new business processes  but I believe there must be actions on can take to create more opportunities for growth. 

So far I've identified 2 actions/activities that generate opportunities for upsell and expansion (again, assuming outcome and value is delivered and the CS is working on building strong relationship).

1. Running webinars and events. The attendance and touch point creates an opportunity to have a follow up conversation that can open doors. An opportunity card can be created in the CRM, the CS follows up with a call and if there's really an opportunity to pursue out of the follow up, great! 
2. New products and features. If there's no new product or features, one can experiment with running promotions/bundles etc. Combining the existing to make something new and share with the customer. 

Looking at the two, they are both generating the opportunity to spark a conversation with the customer. Are there any other tactical actions or activities that helps to generate more opportunities? I'd love to hear from the community!