According to Gartner, only 28% of sales leaders say their account managers regularly meet cross-sell and account growth goals. This is despite sales teams having twice as many products in their portfolio than before.
You’ll find most account managers are laser-focused on customer retention. But opportunities to increase wallet share with customers seem to continually slip through their fingers.
A large part of account growth relies on your familiarity with the evolving needs of your customers.
Why Focus on Account Growth
Why should you even be concerned with hitting account growth goals in the first place?
- It’s easier to sell to someone who knows you versus someone who doesn’t.
- You lower any risk of losing customers to competitors.
Your biggest fans are customers who are loving your products or services.
Happy customers are likely to listen when you say, “Hey, we’ve got a new product that can help you with X.”
Getting serious about account growth goals will put you on track to boosting revenue. Cross-sells and upsells will be easier to make, and competitors won’t find it as easy to steal away your accounts.
How LinkedIn Can be Used to Grow Accounts
LinkedIn has over 700 million users in 200 countries. Of these users, 180 million are senior influencers within their companies. So, how can LinkedIn be used to help you grow your accounts? CONNECTION!
LinkedIn allows you to connect with these influencers and start meaningful conversations without having to use cold outreach tactics. LinkedIn makes it easy to research and gather information about your customers. Through thoughtful engagement, you will be able to use this research to position yourself as a thought leader by sharing articles and blog posts relevant to your target audience.
3 Steps to Grow Your Account
As mentioned earlier, LinkedIn can be imperative to help you grow your accounts. But, before you start sending connection requests, here are 3 steps to help you get your account primed for success.
Step 1: Connect with Decision Makers
Start by choosing which accounts you want to grow; and map them using LinkedIn. Afterward, identify the decision-makers you want to connect with. Don’t ignore LinkedIn best practices, start by introducing yourself or making a positive comment about a post or article, people will find it annoying if you pitch your products and services immediately.
Also, your connection requests are more likely to be accepted if you include a personalized message – mention the work your company is already doing with their account.
Remember, LinkedIn won’t allow you to send another request to that person for three weeks in the first one isn’t accepted.
Step 2: Follow Up After Connecting
After a person connects with you on LinkedIn, send a follow-up message thanking them for accepting your request.
This is an opportunity to make a great impression. Introduce yourself again and let them know how appreciative you are that they joined your network. Mention that you’re the account manager and the existing work their organization is already doing with their company.
Try standing out by sending something other than a typed thank you message via text, opt for a brief video or audio message instead, which can be sent to people once you’re a first connection.
Step 3: Interact
There are a few different options when it comes to creating meaningful interactions with your new connections.
Comment
The easiest way to engage is by commenting on posts. Try to make the interaction genuine by avoiding generic comments like “great post.” Instead, be specific by mentioning what you liked about the post, and how it is pertinent to you.
Share Relevant Content
LinkedIn is a business-to-business platform whose users are actively looking for content related to their industry. Sharing relevant articles, how-to, and list-style posts, is a great way to increase your reach and spark engagement. Make sure you keep your business objectives in mind, and share content that is relative to your audience.
Share this relevant information directly to your contacts inbox. A note saying “saw this article and thought of you” can go a long way towards building an ongoing relationship and staying top of mind.
Note: Avoid spamming your network with posts about your company’s offering. Be patient, and take time to build relationships first
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
A critical first step is making sure all your account managers have LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This will allow you to easily track your clients and contacts.
LinkedIn sales navigator makes it easy to interact with your target audience. There are 3 plans to choose from based on the size of your company (Professional, Team, & Enterprise). The sales navigator gives you extended LinkedIn network access, advanced lead and company search options, saved leads, and inmail messaging privileges.
You can also create custom alerts to let you know when customers are in the news or receive a new round of funding. Sales Navigator also integrates with CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot.
If your team doesn’t have a LinkedIn strategy for existing accounts you are missing a huge opportunity. If you have any questions about using LinkedIn for targeting existing customers, contact us to learn more.
