18 questions to answer to grow existing business

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Do you want to grow your existing accounts? There are 18 basic questions you should answer to begin crafting your action plan to do that.

1. Do you and your team have regular conversations with your primary contact’s boss?
2. Do you know and occasionally speak with your primary contact’s boss’s boss?
3. Do you know the most influential, most outspoken users of your product or service?
4. Are they anticipating aggressive growth, moderate growth, stability or a
   decline in sales and profits in the coming year?
5. Will they have: more people doing more, fewer people doing more, or fewer people doing less, over the next 12 months?
6. What products or services could you offer that would help them more easily capitalize or be prepared for the situation over the next 12 months?
7. Is your customer fully utilizing your product or service?
8. Is there another department that could also use your product or service, or a “lite” version of it?
9. Are there companion/similar products or services that your customer is not taking advantage of at all?
10. Are there companion/similar products or services that your customer is using, but not through you?
11. Is your product presented professionally and confidently at the customer’s facility–is it clean, organized, well lit, in an intelligent location and easy to read?
12. Are customers able to contact you easily and instantly in the event of product failures based on your contact info being posted?
13. Do you proactively service or maintain the product–or would more regular preventative maintenance or replenishment be helpful?
14. Do you have an established frequency for proactive calls or visits with the customer?
15. Do you check in with all key decision-makers and influencers on arrival?
16. Do you leave easily observed notification of your next scheduled visit?
17. Do you use language that would cause decision-makers and influencers to feel confident in what you offer?
18. Do you have targeted items or categories of items to sell that would add value to what you already do for the customer?

Questions 1-3 deal with you and your people; questions 4-6 deal with your customer’s situation; 7-10 deal with your specific product or service selection; 11-13 deal with your customer’s experience with your product or service; and 14-18 deal with your customer’s service experience.

After you’ve evaluated your present position with the account, you can then target your specific products or services that will help them solve additional challenges they face as a company.

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