Growth – McBride Connect

Growth

When growth didn't require more boots on the ground

The barrier wasn’t geographic coverage. It was understanding how the right customers chose who they did business with.

A client wanted to expand its sales presence into new geographic markets. The obvious approach was to hire salespeople in additional territories.

But through the market research and industry relationships I’d developed on my client’s behalf, I knew that simply placing someone in a territory wouldn’t necessarily create access to the customers we wanted.

We could have visited one of our highest-value prospects every week for two years and still never earned the business. The barrier wasn’t geographic coverage. It was how these organizations chose who they did business with.

The Outside-In Strategy

Instead of immediately adding salespeople, I focused on understanding the customer’s decision-making process. Through national industry events, I developed relationships with owners and leaders of the multi-location organizations my client wanted to reach.

Rather than immediately selling to them, I learned how their businesses operated, how purchasing decisions were made and what they would require from a supplier.

At the same time, I worked to prepare my client for the customers we wanted to attract. Without disrupting the existing business, we created a flexible foundation for larger multi-location accounts: online ordering with manager approvals, customizable purchasing limits, access to the products each organization required and processes that could accommodate centralized purchasing without creating internal chaos.

Eventually, I found myself sitting beside the owner of one of the multi-location organizations my client wanted to reach.

He asked, “Your client sells everything we buy, right?”

I said, “Yes.”

He asked, “Then why haven’t you asked me to buy from them?”

My answer was, “Because I was waiting for you to ask.”

Within approximately one month, all 26 locations were purchasing through my client.

All 26

LOCATIONS

Purchasing through the client

≈ 1

MONTH

From conversation to multi-location adoption

1 Key

RELATIONSHIP

Opened through understanding and readiness

Focused small team reviewing streamlined project deliverables in an airy workspace

Prepared for Growth

Growth Strategy Shift

The difference between geographic activity and strategic market access.

DEFAULT APPROACH

Hire salespeople in additional territories and rely on repeated calls and visits to create access.

STRATEGIC APPROACH

Understand how customers make decisions, build the right relationships and prepare the business to deliver before the opportunity arrives.

Growth Begins Before the Opportunity Arrives

Sometimes growth doesn’t require more people. It requires better market intelligence, the right relationships and a business prepared to deliver when the opportunity arrives.

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