A Tool to Target Growth
As you look at 2021 and forecast next year’s revenues, it’s important to know how to best identify your opportunities. Perhaps your market segment will bounce back, and you'll have some new products to sell. That should help your wallet share with existing companies. Some industries are forecast to remain relatively flat, so the real path to growth is still by taking market share from your competition.
I want to be careful to point out that a lot of energy is wasted debating the importance of net new customers and logos versus growing within your existing accounts. I really don’t see how it matters- revenue is revenue. I think two other factors are much more important to look at, and you’re probably ignoring them.
When it comes to targeting, two main concepts should outweigh all others. As you think about your current customers and prospects, ask yourself two questions:
1. How growable are they?
2. How accessible are they?
When it comes to targeting, two main concepts should outweigh all others. As you think about your current customers and prospects, ask yourself two questions:
How growable are they?
How accessible are they?
Using these two factors as filters will define your target list and go a long way toward helping you understand where you should be spending your time, energy, and resources. I’ve developed a simple tool to help you see these opportunities more clearly.
In the spirit of the Eisenhower Matrix, or what Stephen Covey called the Time Management Matrix, we can plot those factors on a graph. The vertical axis represents growability, and the horizontal axis represents accessibility (more on the left, less on the right).
Here’s how the quadrants break down
Growable and Accessible
Growable but Less Accessible
Less Growable but Accessible
Not Growable or Accessible
Quadrant One: Growable and Accessible
Targets in this space represent real opportunities. There is room for growth within these accounts, and you have access to them, meaning they’re willing to engage with you.
This is where your hottest prospects live, and opportunities within this quadrant should be your highest priorities. As a corollary to your pipeline, these customers are mid to late stage in the funnel. It took a lot of work to get them here. Honor those efforts and see your processes through. A majority of your selling time should be spent in this quadrant.
Quadrant Two: Growable but Less Accessible
Targets in this space don’t feel much like real opportunities, yet. You know they’re out there, you lick your chops at how growable they are, but you don’t yet have the access to build rapport and move them through your sales process.
That makes these prospects easy to ignore. I also see a lot of sellers making poor efforts here, with no coordinated long term plan.
But, these are your dream clients…
You need to have a long term plan of outreach. You need to put some thought into your messaging to them. Your strategy for delivering that message including channel and cadence. In the reactive, always-urgent world of selling, it’s difficult to block off the time to do nothing but think and strategize. But that’s exactly what needs to happen if you’re ever going to move these opportunities forward.
Quadrant Three: Less Growable but Accessible
This is a trap. Do not get caught in it.
These are often your best customers, the ones that you’ve taken from named accounts on a list to dear friends on occasion. You’ve invested so much energy and resources over the years that you want to make sure they’re doing well, and you check on them all the time.
The sweat equity you’ve poured into these accounts will easily betray you. You need to be honest with yourself. The accounts in this quadrant are, by definition, not very growable.
Time you spend here is plausible deniability at work. If you’re meeting with a customer, it’s work right? But if you don’t have anything to gain other than a quick pick-me-up or a pat on the back, then you have to be realistic about whether or not it’s going to help your business.
Before you raise your voice, I’m a step ahead of you. Losing revenue from an existing customer will definitely work against your growth in others. I have lived this and I understand.
In many cases you have to tempt yourself with these accounts, and they represent huge dopamine hits. You know that when you stop by your best account and take a huge order, you feel great and the day feels like a success. That’s what makes this quadrant a trap. You must remain disciplined and vigilant about where the value is and where it ends. That big order probably didn’t represent growth, it only got you back to baseline. You’ve still got work to do.
Be honest about how often you need to be in touch with these customers in order to keep their business (if that’s all you’re trying to do). You probably don’t need to do as much to keep it as you did to earn it.
That’s why it’s crucial to understand why they bought from you in the first place, as well as why they continue to do so. Understanding their real motives will help you focus your efforts where they need to be focused, keep you efficient with your time, and help you direct more efforts to growing your business. That’s your job.
Quadrant Four: Not Growable or Accessible
You shouldn’t spend time on prospects that are neither growable nor accessible. Don’t try to talk to people who aren’t worth talking to and don’t want to hear from you anyway. What is understood need not be discussed.
Take a look at where you spend your time. Be as objective as you can. Are you spending an overwhelming majority of time in the top half of the chart or are you spending too much time with customers that can’t help you grow? Do you have a coordinated effort to establish contact and gain access to your dream clients? Have you worked hard to develop leads into hot prospects, only to be distracted and leave them hanging out to dry?
Despite the fear of losing that ever-precious revenue, your job is to grow. If you’re not putting yourself in position to do that, you’re doing yourself, your company, and your prospects a great disservice. You all deserve better.
Does this tool resonate with you? Do you think you can use it? Need help applying it to your process? Shoot me a message and let's talk about it, or you can join the conversation in the Rethink The Way You Sell Community.
Jeff Bajorek
Real. Authentic. Experience.
There’s a big difference between knowing how to sell and being able to. Jeff Bajorek spent over a decade in the field as a top performer. He’s been in your shoes. He knows what it will take. He can help you succeed.
Join the Community
Related Posts
