You're leaving 50% revenue growth on the table | 2 Commas by Josh Comrie

So let me get something out of the way up front so that you know that this is actually hard to do.

I understand that.

You are doing the thing that you personally excel at.

So account planning sits on a list of things you'll just probably never get to.

And it never becomes the most urgent item on that particular list.

So this isn't laziness and it's not neglect.

It's just two very strong forces working on you and both of them feel like virtue.

The first force is one I call reciprocity debt.

When someone's been a good customer for years, you start to feel like you owe them something through their loyalty of yours for years.

You start to feel like you owe them something due to their long-term loyalty.

They backed you, they've paid on time, they've probably even referred you other customers.

And so the idea of turning up and selling them something else could feel a little bit grubby.

And it feels a bit like maybe cashing in on a friendship.

The second thing getting in the way is loss aversion.

Chasing a new logo risks nothing you already own.

If you lose the pitch, you're exactly where you started.

But trying to expand an existing account feels like it puts the existing revenue that you have at risk.

You've got something already and you don't want to look greedy and risk it.

So you do the rational thing.

You pick the option with no downside.

And I reckon it's the expensive one.

Underneath both of these things sits a much simpler problem.

And this is probably the killer.

We assume our customers know everything about us.

We've been in their building for years.