How to Increase Your Customer’s Market Share

A Quick story…

On Wednesday morning July 11, I walked into the office of one my best customers and was met by one of their veteran sales people. After a short exchange he asked if I had a few minutes. I listened to his concern and have summarized below a few of our discussion points that I would like to pass along to you.

• You have the proven skills to increase your market share within any of your customers. You work both hard and smart.
• You are ahead of last years sales by double digit figures. Congratulations, you have not grown complacent.
• The concern is that one of your best customers offers a huge growth potential, but you have been unable to penetrate further and gain market share with additional products.

He agreed to all of the above and was sincerely looking for a helpful solution. After listening carefully, I suggested the following that is often overlooked by sales people; including me.

The How to…

I simply asked have you ‘adjusted to their buying pattern’ and have you asked the decision maker ‘how do you prefer to purchase these additional products’?

He agreed to implement the above. We left the conference room and I have not spoken with him until yesterday when I received an email with a copy of an order that he received earlier that afternoon from his best customer. To be more specific, this was the largest order written this year in his division. Needless to say, he was excited.

Success…

His success took just over two months. He altered his approach by adjusting to their buying pattern. He asked the simple question,”How do you prefer to purchase these additional products?” By doing so, he reached his goal in gaining additional market share with his best customer.

He achieved his goal by implementing these simple steps and by focusing on follow up. You can too!

To your success,