Land & Expand: Why Most Fail

'Land and expand' sounds simple. Execution is where most teams fail. Let's look at what actually drives sustainable growth.

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If you prefer to read - here is the transcript:

So I have a lot of clients who have land and expand sales methodologies. And I think land and expand methodologies are great. We bring a customer in, even if it's with a small deal, and then we have lots of other things to sell to them so we can expand that opportunity over time. That strategy, when used correctly, helps you to close smaller deals more quickly and then close subsequent deals more quickly and at higher profit because you're selling to an existing customer. It's a great strategy.

Yeah, I would say that that a sales team uses land and expand, they actually have a land and stick or a land and stay program. Meaning salespeople land on the deal and then they move on to something else really quickly, or they land the deal and pass it over the fence to a client success or account management team who don't have the relationship and the skills to expand it so they maintain it. And that is a huge waste. I was looking at a client's, client list the other day and noted that, wow, they have the who's who of fortune 500 companies in this list, but each of those fortune are spending, you know, $100 with them. They haven't expanded through the organization Distraction or lack of training; so this is where an account planning process is critical.

Couple of pieces of advice here. If you're a sales rep, every single month, you should be making plans to spend time with your biggest opportunities within your existing customers. Don't think about your pipeline ass always net new, think about your pipeline as where can I add value?

Remember as well that expanding a current client is not just a growth exercise, it's also a retention exercise. And so by adding more products and services that you can sell to your existing client base, you actually improve the retention of those customers as well.

So make a plan on a monthly basis which customers are you going to target this month and who do you need to talk to? Start by expanding your relationship scope.

I believe that the number one reason why sales reps don't expand when they have the opportunity to is because they're trying to do it on the back of a single relationship, instead of expanding through the organization. And if you have a client success team before you toss that new deal over to that team, make sure you personally introduce that client success or account manager to your customer so that you extend trust. In doing so, you will dramatically improve their ability to close more business.