Sell Smarter, Not Harder: Tapping Into Your Known Network to Grow Revenue

Learn how you can operationalize your firm’s existing relationships to identify and win both net-new and expansion revenue.

Customer acquisition is already 5X more expensive than customer retention or expansion. And, when challenging economic times make new business acquisition even more difficult and costly than usual, shifting your focus to growing current customer accounts is a great way to both deepen existing relationships and meet revenue targets. Plus, studies have shown your efforts are far more likely to pay off with current customers versus prospects. While the chances of selling to new prospects are between 5 and 20%, the chances of closing a sale with a current customer are far greater—between 60 and 70%. 

Moreover, B2B buyers are 5X more likely to engage with sales professionals via warm introduction versus cold outreach, and nearly 3 out of 4 executives (73%) prefer to work with sales professionals who have been referred to them by someone they know. The challenge is companies tend to lack true visibility into “who-knows-who.” What’s more, traditional CRM systems are one-dimensional and don’t provide a proper line of sight into this key relationship data on their own. 

The good news is Introhive can fill in the gaps and take the guesswork out of identifying these revenue opportunities. In fact, leveraging existing relationship networks to drive revenue is what we do best, and there are various ways to go about it.

Introhive’s robust “who-knows-who” capabilities can be used to fuel both net new revenue growth as well as expansion revenue. Instead of pouring a majority of your time and money into new cold prospect list building and outreach, Introhive empowers firms to leverage existing relationships to make warm intros with key contacts and speed up sales velocity for both growing customer accounts and establishing new logos or business with existing customers. 

Let’s walk through how Introhive can be used to pull each of these growth levers. 

Leveraging Relationship Networks for Growing Accounts

Whitespace Analysis

With Introhive’s Whitespace Analysis, you can identify new opportunities in the customer data you already have in the form of untapped revenue in accounts, industries, or regions where you have established relationships. These hidden opportunities in your data are “the white space” where you will find gaps in customer needs that can be filled with your products or services. Use it to identify growth opportunities within accounts where only one product or service has been introduced.

This eliminates your reliance on cold outreach which often translates into long and drawn out sales cycles and low productivity. Because the truth is while you take time establishing credibility and building influence from scratch, your competitors are sweeping up market share. 

Instead, by using Introhive’s Whitespace Analysis dashboard, you can seamlessly spot opportunities for expansion revenue by harnessing existing relationships to expand into existing accounts by cross-selling and upselling your products or services.

Briefing Intelligence 

Introhive’s briefing intelligence is another great way to find new opportunities in existing relationships. This feature helps you stay tuned in to your customers’ news and evolving business needs which can represent revenue opportunities for your firm. 

Here’s a perfect example of the power briefing intelligence can hold for your business:

John Roberts, Managing Growth Partner at Dixon Hughes Goodman (DHG)—a leading professional services firm offering assurance, tax, and advisory services to clients nationwide and internationally—was able to turn a $100K client into a $400K client all because of one pre-meeting brief from Introhive that enabled him to ask the right questions at just the right time during a client meeting. 

Just two hours before said meeting, John received an email from Introhive alerting him to a sudden change in leadership for the client—the firm’s CFO had just abruptly resigned. An expert in the client’s industry, John was able to step up for the client in their time of need and fill in with additional services, effectively quadrupling the client’s account and creating good will and deeper relationships for future opportunities.  

Loyalty Insights

Loyalty continues to become more elusive and harder to identify, but tapping into Introhive’s Loyalty Insights can change the game. Use Introhive’s Loyalty Insights to turn data into actionable customer intelligence that keeps your funnel full by helping you:

• Identify candidates for your advisory boards and loyalty programs
• Increase access to word of mouth and references, i.e., marketing gold! 
• Grow top-line revenue and improve profit margins through increased referrals and improved retention

Remember, acquisition is 5X more expensive than retention, and loyal customers contribute upwards of 80% of a company’s revenue. Introhive gives you the ability to measure the relationship capital you’ve established to identify and harness your loyal customers to drive more growth.

Video: Leveraging Relationships to Drive Revenue

Leveraging Relationship Networks for New Logos

Similarly to growing accounts, you can leverage existing relationship networks to establish new logos as well. 

Whitespace Analysis, Relationship Portal & Champion Tracking

Again here, you can use Whitespace Analysis to easily identify untapped accounts, industries, or regions where established relationships exist and represent your best path into net-new revenue opportunities. 

Then, once you’ve identified ripe ideal customer profile (ICP) organizations, use Introhive’s Relationship Portal to uncover the path of least resistance by finding warm introductions within your firm’s existing relationship networks. Essentially, Introhive transforms your system of record into a system of intelligence with complete visibility into “who knows who”. 

Use our Relationship Portal and Relationship Search (available via Introhive Portal, CRM, Inbox, and Calendar) to unify and tap into your collective network to identify revenue opportunities. Quickly navigate your entire organization’s collective relationships to pinpoint the best path to revenue opportunities and build hyper-targeted marketing lists that meet your needs. 

Finally, use our Champion tracking to mitigate risks to accounts or deals in-flight by identifying when your key contacts change roles, leave their company, or join a new one. Leverage these changes to pursue and win new business and/or accounts faster. Champion tracking can also help you develop stronger roots and new relationships tied to open opportunities in order to move deals forward. 

The Future of B2B Selling is Here and it’s Data-driven 

With the advent of automation, AI-powered data enrichment, relationship insights and related actionable intelligence, the firms that opt to utilize these capabilities will rapidly outpace those who neglect to put them into practice. The data-driven prospecting and account management capabilities offered by Customer Intelligence are enabling the most effective and efficient way to grow your business, be a stronger partner to your clients, and set your business up for long-term success.
Connect with us to learn more about how Introhive can lead the way.