How To Adjust Your Selling Focus For Larger Accounts

Is your company in a rut selling small accounts? Are you tired of dialing for dollars when you know bigger accounts are out there? Here are some ideas to get a more balanced selling portfolio that includes large commercial contracts.

Jill Konrath fields a question from Alex, who works for a company selling small accounts. In "Dealing With The 'Close a Deal a Week' Manager" she addresses the fact larger accounts take more time and addresses management expectations. I'd like to add a few points from our prospective here.

There are two reasons a company may focus on small easy to close accounts:

1. The smaller accounts have a shorter time to close and may provide a more consistent cash flow due to volume. Using the cultivating profitable customers approach, these accounts may also be profitable for the business.
2. Management is unsure about their own selling skills and haven't pursued anything but small accounts. They are stuck on what they have always done and haven't tried to sell larger accounts in the past.

I show these two contrasts because I believe that selling a blend of customer volumes is a stable way to stay in business. This means in your combined sales funnel small, medium, and large businesses need to be represented.

You may find that some large companies are unprofitable to sell. They have longer time to close, often are slow to pay, and require more attention to maintain over time. On the plus side is they often have more consistent purchases, better access to capital, and purchase in volume.

However, small businesses also can be unprofitable because of stability issues, access to capital, and volume purchased. Each business size has it's own benefits and risk, yet complement each other when blending into your selling approach.

Very often a managers expectations contrast the better interest of the company. They focus on small accounts so they can show something happening. Not knowing that blending in various sized accounts help stabilize your business, allowing grow in all economies.

If your company hasn't tried to sell large accounts before, I recommend peppering in a few middle sized accounts and work your way up. Never stop selling small accounts, instead expand your market prospective reaching out to a percentage of medium and smaller percentage of large accounts.

By pursuing a balanced spectrum of small, medium, and large accounts you provide your organization selling stability. A mix of accounts provides a greater understanding of buying interests, and provides a stable foundation for future growth.

© 2008 JWH Consolidated Inc, All rights reserved.

Justin Hitt helps business-to-business firms create sustainable selling approaches that create profit in any economy. Contact him at http://JustinHitt.com/

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