Before you chase another cold account, find out how much of your best one you actually own.
By Brian Sullivan, CSP
Last spring I spent a day riding with a rep named Dale. Fifteen years in, he knew everybody – the kind of guy who gets waved past the front desk without breaking stride.
He told me about his best account, a multi-site clinic group he’d had for eight years. I asked what the group spent annually across all the categories he sells. He guessed. Then I asked what he sold them last year. That number he knew cold, down to the dollar.
The two numbers weren’t close.
That’s when I said something I’ve repeated ever since: You won some business. That doesn’t mean you won the account.
The competitor inside “your” account
A clinic may buy exam gloves from you and wound care from somebody else. A surgery center may use your disposables while another company owns the equipment business. In a hospital system, you may have a fantastic relationship in one department while a competitor three floors away is quietly building a much bigger one. That doesn’t make the account disloyal. It means you never owned the whole account in the first place.
And this is where longtime relationships can actually work against salespeople. Once we feel secure, we stop looking. We know our contact, know the ordering pattern, know when they like to meet, and eventually we start confusing familiarity with market share. Meanwhile, somebody else is prospecting the customer you think you already won. That should bother you.
Find out what you don’t own
Here’s the exercise I want every rep to do this month. Take your 10 best accounts and make two lists. On the left, write everything they currently buy from you. On the right, write everything they could buy from you. Don’t guess. Pull the numbers, look at your product categories, talk with the specialists inside your own company. Then look at the empty space.
That’s your white space, and in some accounts it may be bigger than the business you already have.
Now start learning who owns it. Which competitors are in there? Which departments make those decisions? Where are contracts involved? Where has nobody from your company ever built a relationship? Where are you assuming the customer is happy because nobody has told you otherwise?
You don’t need 14 brochures and a product dump. Pick one piece of white space worth pursuing and learn enough about it to earn the conversation.
You already paid the admission price
Think about how hard you work to get five minutes with a cold prospect. Calls. Emails. Voicemails. LinkedIn. Maybe a drop-in if you can get through the door. Then think about your existing customer. They know your number, they recognize your face, and in many cases you’ve already proven that your company delivers. That access has value, yet plenty of reps spend it discussing last week’s order and then leave.
I’m all for prospecting. You should absolutely keep opening new doors. But it makes very little sense to spend three hours trying to crack a cold account while ignoring six figures of realistic opportunity inside a building where they already know your name.
Someone else wants your share
The danger isn’t simply that you’re missing upside. It’s that white space works both directions. Every product your customer buys from a competitor is an opportunity for you. Every product they buy from you is an opportunity for them.
The competitor doesn’t look at your eight-year relationship and say, “Well, I guess Dale owns that account. Better leave it alone.” They’re looking for an opening. A service problem. A new decision-maker. A category you’ve taken for granted.
So stop measuring account strength by how long you’ve had the customer. Measure how deeply you know the business, how broadly you’re connected, and how much of the available opportunity you’ve actually earned. Because “my account” can be one of the most dangerous phrases in sales. It makes something sound finished that never is.
Eight years of history doesn’t automatically protect year nine.
Brian Sullivan, CSP, is the founder of PRECISE Selling and author of PRECISE Selling: 20 Days to the Top. With 35 years of experience in healthcare and medical distribution sales, he delivers keynotes, bootcamps, and outsourced sales development for companies nationwide. Contact him at preciseselling.com.
Key Takeaways
- Knowing a customer for years doesn’t mean you own the account.
- Identify the products, departments and opportunities competitors currently control.
- Use existing relationships to pursue untapped business before chasing cold prospects.
- Measure account strength by depth, breadth and share of opportunity – not tenure.