One Is the Most Dangerous Number in Sales

If you are the only person at your company who can call your best customer, you are not protecting that account. You are the single biggest risk to it.

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If you prefer to read - here is the transcript:

I am sick of sellers and account managers claiming that they're protecting their customers by being the only person who can talk to them, or the only person who has access to the account or that stakeholder.

Because in reality, you're not protecting the customer. You're certainly not protecting your company or your own book of business. You're putting everyone at risk.

One is the most dangerous number in sales.

I want you to think about it like this. Take that relationship you have with the one person and build deeper and broader relationships in the organization, to multiple people. Clearly you love to build relationships, because you have a good one with your current buyer or stakeholder.

But also think about it from your customer's perspective. They love the access and they feel honored by it. They will reward you with more opportunities if they also have access to other people in your organization.

I'm not asking you to give up control. You're going to create the plan and control the access. But you have to go wider and deeper, both in your own company and inside your existing customers, so you can spot the most opportunities to grow and have a fresh set of eyes looking for the red flags.

And that's what's really critical. We want your customers to feel like they have multiple people to reach out to should you go on vacation or leave the organization. It's critical for managers to have that second look to make sure you're not missing opportunities or missing red flags. That fresh set of eyes can make the difference between keeping a customer and losing one.

Those growth opportunities are critical to spot, because growth isn't good just for growth's sake. It's also great for retention. The more the customer is buying from you, and the more often, the more likely you are to keep them.

So open up your network. Go wide and deep inside the company you're working with, and inside your own organization. Bring in your managers, your specialists, your tech support, your customer service and your colleagues to help build a defense from the inside of your customers.