20 Top Sales Strategies For Attracting And Retaining Large Clients
Landing a large client can significantly improve your business’s visibility and bottom line. To do so, business development professionals need to implement sales strategies tailored to these larger accounts.
Below, 20 members of Forbes Business Development Council share their tried-and-true processes for attracting and retaining large clients. From conducting thorough research to assigning dedicated account leads, these strategies can help you land—and keep—your biggest clients yet.
1. Embrace An Outcome-Based Process
You have to understand the business problems these large organizations are facing—ones of scale and complexity that often must be addressed on an aggressive timeline. This requires embracing an outcome-based selling process that focuses on the customers’ desired quantifiable and defendable business metrics to help them deliver meaningful outcomes through transformational business models. – Jonathan Nikols, Verizon Business
2. Offer Customized Solutions
The best sales process to attract large clients involves thorough research, relationship building, offering customized solutions and maintaining a long-term commitment to the client’s success. This approach works because it shows genuine understanding, addresses specific needs and fosters trust, which is crucial for attracting and retaining such clients. – Jim O’Brien, The Raymond Corporation
3. Practice Deep Requirements Analysis
Practice deep requirements analysis before pitching solutions. Large clients demand tailored approaches demonstrating a thorough understanding of their pain points and strategic goals. This consultative process builds trust and positions you as a long-term partner, not just a tech vendor. Once you have a deal, perform a follow-up with a cutting-edge customer experience to ensure all the scope is done. – Ahmed Ammar, LABS – Logical Applications for Business Solutions
4. Leverage AI For Efficiency And Personalization
The best sales process to attract and retain large clients is to leverage AI tools to enhance efficiency and personalization. AI-powered CRM systems analyze client data for tailored interactions. This approach works well because it combines data-driven decision-making with personalized client experiences, optimizing resource allocation and increasing conversion rates. – Maziar Rajabi, Sharp Mind Global Ventures Inc.
5. Ask Meaningful Questions—And Listen
Listening to your clients is key. Ask deep, meaningful questions to understand their challenges. This allows you to provide tailored solutions. More than solving problems, it shows you care about their success, not just sales. When clients feel valued, they trust you more, transforming you from a vendor to a trusted partner. This builds strong, lasting relationships. – Ashu Goel, WinWire
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6. Start With A Needs Assessment
The initial meeting is more about listening than selling. Use this opportunity to ask insightful questions that help you understand the client’s business objectives, pain points and what they value in a solution. Using the information gathered, present your product or service as the solution to their specific problems. – Saurabh Choudhuri, SAP
7. Adopt An Iterative Approach
When developing a mobile app to attain more clients, it is too risky to set up the sale process in the initial planning phase without changes to understand dynamic markets all at once. An iterative approach, which is trying different ideas to clarify the scopes, approach and requirements, helps capture ideas that might change. This can take adaptability and resiliency. – Gyehyon Andrea Jo, MVLASF
8. Be ‘Customer-Obsessed’
Attracting and retaining large clients hinges on a customer-obsessed sales process that prioritizes trust and loyalty. This approach focuses on deeply understanding and addressing their unique needs, proving to be effective by aligning closely with what clients value most: personalized, reliable partnership. – Nathan Rice, Energy CX
9. Invest In Client Engagement And Relationships
Retaining and expanding large clients is what strategic farming sales are all about. Proactive investments in the client engagement layer play a very important role. Creating multiple touchpoints with the client organization and building more stakeholders across functions is also important. Impeccable delivery of contracted services, along with a proactive approach to nurturing relationships, keeps clients. – Anuj Srivastava, Beyondsoft
10. Prioritize Problem-Solving And Communication
Retention battles are fought and won on the collaboration battleground. High-performing sales teams win by deeply engaging with customer success, marketing and product. This ensures solutions perfectly match client needs, fostering trust through proactive problem-solving and effective communication. It’s a win-win: Clients feel valued, leading to lasting loyalty. – Ashleigh Stanford, PracticeTek
11. Take A Consultative Approach
The best sales process for attracting and retaining large clients is a consultative approach. It emphasizes building trust-based relationships, understanding specific needs and tailoring solutions. This method aligns your goals with the client’s, fostering long-term partnerships and loyalty by continually adapting to their evolving needs. – Rahul Saluja, Cyient
12. Conduct Thorough Research
To attract and retain large clients, focus on thorough research to understand their specific needs, tailor your pitches, build strong relationships and consistently demonstrate clear ROI. This approach ensures long-term partnerships by aligning solutions directly with client goals. – Tomer Warschauer Nuni, Kima Network
13. Prioritize The Customer Experience
Providing an exceptional customer experience throughout the sales process is very critical. It can be achieved by customer centricity that covers exceptional value, experiences and outcomes that exceed client expectations. Then, be responsive, tailor solutions to their needs, provide a feedback loop and provide continuous improvement. These certainly build trust, loyalty and reliance for a win-win relationship. – Salice Thomas, Wipro Limited
14. Assign Dedicated Account Leads
In my experience, approximately 80% of your revenue is driven by 20% of your largest strategic clients. Ensuring you maintain, grow and retain marquee clients by assigning dedicated account executives and post-sales technical experts and partnering on conferences for innovation and success metrics is a key strategy to employ. Showcasing a strategic thought partnership, building trust and problem-solving drives client rev and business. – Archana Rao, Innova Solutions
15. Demonstrate Expertise And Adaptability
Successful sales processes prioritize understanding client needs, tailoring solutions and demonstrating expertise. Building long-term relationships and delivering ongoing value is key. Effective approaches are adaptable, evolving to meet specific requirements, target markets and unique offerings. This fosters trust, delivers results and drives long-term client loyalty. – Quyen Pham, Releady
16. Consult With Leads And Customers
Consultative selling is hands down the best sales approach. The reason is simple: It’s about creating and maintaining relationships and, in the process, understanding customers’ needs. When leads and customers are consulted, trust and personalized solutions to their issues occur, which leads to long-term relationships. – Wayne Elsey, The Funds2Orgs Group
17. Identify Strategic Target Accounts
Drive account-based marketing with a list of set target accounts who have a high propensity to buy your solution based on your history (industry, target persona and win rates). An effective sales methodology like MEDDPIC helps your account manager align with the client to ensure it solves their problems and drives value on investment, not just return on investment. – Pradeepa Kolli, LHH (The Adecco Group)
18. Look At The Bigger Picture And Stay One Step Ahead Of It
Keep a careful watch on their bigger picture; put yourself in their position and ask yourself the questions they’re asking. But also go further: Stay one step ahead and take responsibility by being a guardian of this shared journey, alert to every opportunity and challenge. And remember, there are human beings behind even the biggest player in the market, and they should be treated with respect. – Anna Jankowska, RTB House
19. Understand The Prospect’s Issues And Determine What’s Truly Important
The best process is one that facilitates how people buy. No one wants to be “sold” or manipulated into buying. Ask well-researched questions and listen intently to understand your prospect’s urgent business issues. Although the prospect may have a problem your solution solves, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a problem worth solving. Use your business acumen to determine what is truly important. – Julie Thomas, ValueSelling Associates
20. Combine Referrals With A Multi-Touch Sales Strategy
The best sales process for attracting and retaining large clients combines referrals and a multi-touch strategy. Referrals build trust and credibility, while multi-touch sales demonstrate consistent value by focusing on increased productivity and revenue. This method aligns with client business goals while fostering long-term relationships and ensuring repeated business success. – Raviraj Hegde, Donorbox
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