Sales revenue growth is a priority for management. Focus on strategic customers is a proven method to accomplish the objective.

Strategic customer are those customers which are both volume important and profitable to the organization. They are the source of predictable sales revenue.  Predictability means their purchasing or supply chain expectations are consistent.  And they value quality , service, and value over low price.

What one company calls a strategic customer is often different than another like company. The expectations of a strategic customer change as the company timeline evolves. Sometimes a company needs significant volume to keep manufacturing production lines at capacity.

Higher volumes do not necessarily result in greater profit margins. There is a fine balance between volume and profit. Although greater efficiencies are generally achieved through volume for most companies.

Reviewing customer loyalty, volume, and profit margins allow companies and sales managers to modify their expectations. This information allows management to modify the definition of a strategic account. It’s always interesting in the review process to factually measure the significance of a customer. What was significant last year may not be so today.

The review process also asks the questions,

  • Is the sales force pursuing and engaging the right potential customers?
  • What is the customer retention/attrition rate and why?

High Performance Sales and Innovation

High performance sales staff are generally focused on securing new strategic accounts. They continuously review and upgrade their customer expectations. They are self-managed with respect to understanding the relationship of new business and existing business. They also understand customer retention is based on consistently delivering quality, service and value.

Most importantly, customer satisfaction and loyalty is the opportunity to present innovation. Highly satisfied and loyal strategic customers are certainly more willing to invest in your innovation. They allow you to penetrate them with new products and services because your performance is predictable. There is a high level of trust.

Where the Challenges Begin

And that’s where the challenges begin. Many companies have a limited number of high-performance sales team members.

Consider this,

“Most customers don’t leave a supplier because price, they leave because of business practices. This also applies to high performance sales employees.“

Excessive customer attrition is a reflection of substandard quality, service, value, or relationships. Organizations faced with excessive customer attrition struggle to attract and retain high performance salespeople.

It’s the endless loop of the leaky bucket. High-performance employees settle to the lowest common denominator of the organization. Customers simply find another supplier. Neither are attracted to the organization.

Revenue Predictability

When companies accept average performance without boundaries, they self-determine their revenue destiny. The reality is average is inconsistent performance.

Strategic companies, strategic customers, and high-performance sales teams migrate toward each other. They create revenue predictability and trust.

This is the Cornerstone approach.

Contact Points

 

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