Why marketers need to accelerate sales in existing accounts

Agility in sales and marketing is essential, but the ability to pivot and change direction is even more important amid the COVID-19 crisis. Following the global hiatus and in a world that has simply ground to a halt, the pressure is at an all-time high for those in sales and marketing.

In sales and marketing, we are not able to pause or to wait and see what happens next. We are measured by our numbers and the revenue we generate. As the UK starts to move towards recovery, I believe the time for action is now with a focus on existing accounts and those start early will get ahead of the competition.

Looking to grow existing accounts? Contact us now!

Ability to ‘listen’ is critical in sales and marketing roles.

Although I and my team predominately use the telephone to raise the profile of our clients and ultimately generate more sales, listening is an important skill for our role. As a business we had already been researching how marketing is changing and what is likely to change in marketing across this decade. We have been connecting with our clients, listening to their key challenges, to establish how best we can help them to respond.

We hear that engagement is low. Return on investment is not as high and traditional marketing methods just aren’t having the same impact. How can we increase engagement and deliver a more solid return? What is next for marketing? How will we do business moving forward? Our clients have spoken, and we are reacting to their needs and steering our services to meet their ongoing requirements.

Reacting to needs of today

We are being more commercially agile, but also reconsidering what and how we deliver as establish services to support our clients. We recognise that the focus for a number of our clients has been internal marketing to staff and also existing clients. Recognising the latter as a highly profitable strategy we had already been supporting our clients in helping them to grow existing accounts. Account-based marketing, in and of itself, is not a new concept.  However, we have adopted a very direct and focused approach that dramatically speeds up the sales cycles and is increasing both visibility and revenue.

All too often, even when there is an established relationship in a large account it is easy to focus on project delivery in a specific business unit, but then miss out on potential opportunities elsewhere in the business.  Meanwhile, your competition is targeting every area of your client to open up opportunities and close sales. A more direct approach with well thought out messaging, delivered using more engaging methods is vital to ensure business continuity and growth.

An approach that delivers greater visibility and results

Adapting to new ways of thinking and smarter ways of marketing is key. A more direct approach to growing existing customers will increase engagement, find new opportunities and deliver results. Breaking into new areas in existing accounts is easier than you might think as you will have a success story to share, proving your credibility in adding value to the organisation. You will naturally increase brand awareness and visibility across the business. And as an existing supplier you can create more personalised messaging to gain traction much faster.

One of our clients is a long-standing trusted supplier to two leading UK organisations one in banking and the other utilities yet they had only focused on one specific area of the business.  By focusing on these key accounts, we have helped them to grow visibility and opportunities in both, by creating clear concise messaging and using direct email and calling to identify several new opportunities.

A long and winding road to recovery

The road from this crisis is going to be perhaps longer, harder, and almost certainly littered with tough decisions and uncertainty. Yet one thing is certain, while previously competition has been intense, I believe it’s about to step up a gear.

In recent times some companies have increased marketing activity and are busy engaging with prospects keen to accelerate their digital transformation projects. However, there are more who are uncertain, unsure, indecisive as to what to do next. Now is the time to act. Now is the time to do something different. Growing business in existing accounts cans secure longer term and more profitable relationships and help to accelerate your growth. In sales and marketing we can’t afford to stop and wait, we need to press ahead and act in the confidence that our efforts will be rewarded.

At Incognate we provide a full range of B2B services helping companies to increase their revenue through delivering the right message, in the right context, to achieve the right sales result.

If you would like to find out how we can help you to rapidly expand existing accounts contact us now.

By Helen Fox, Client Success Director, Incognate