In preparing to create and/or update your strategic plan, a good place to start is with one of the five key Planning Objective Categories: Strategic Growth.

Growing your company’s account list should be done by plan and directed and monitored by the Senior Leadership Team. Growing with intention is of critical importance and not to be delegated to members of the sales team. Building long-term relationships with key accounts begins by creating and delivering unique value. The best way to identify prospects for growth is by examining your existing customer base and identifying your best relationships. What is it that you are doing for these key relationships that keep them loyal? What outcomes are they getting; how are your products and services making what they do better, easier, more convenient? That done, you begin to examine other industries, professions, and organizations who are trying to accomplish the same things.

Not all customers are your best customers.

It seems counter intuitive to suggest that a good way to grow is by pairing down your customer list. We teach our team members to provide world class service to our customers. Which customers? All of them and paradoxically, that is part of the problem.

Consider your most significant, strategic, and profitable customers. Of the total number of active clients you serve, what percentage of your total revenue comes from these key accounts? More to the point, how many of your active customers deliver a modest amount of revenue? Most likely a significant majority of accounts. Here are some numbers to consider.

It’s common for businesses to have up to ninety percent of their sales volume come from the top twenty-five percent of their customers (by volume). This means of course that the remaining seventy-five percent of your customers bring you about ten percent of your total sales volume. If you treat most customers the same way (and most businesses do) consider the amount of staff time, energy and organizational resources that are invested in serving customers who, in total, bring you so little business.

By rationalizing your customer list and analyzing where you are placing organizational effort, you set the stage for a re-allocation of time, attention and resources which can bring about better outcomes.

For more information getting started on your strategic growth plans, contact me at joe@ajstrategy or visit my website at ajstrategy.com.