Of all places you’d want to find your sales opportunities, seemingly a pit would be one of the last, you’d think? Tales of the pit from Greek mythology (hello Tartarus, located in the underworld) or even a more endearing pit (we see you Andy Dwyer’s pit from Parks and Rec), never conjure visions of places you want to be. However, “pit” can be a great way to think of strategy when it comes to landing and expanding into customer accounts that are even harder to win in today’s economy. So what is this “pit” that we speak of when it comes to revenue?
Perceived Value, Incentive, and Timing (PIT). All of these elements have a specific and strategic component to play when it comes to harnessing new potential in expanding into your current accounts. By leveraging the power of these components, you can unlock new horizons of opportunity and deepen your customer engagements, further avoiding any other pitfalls that may come your way.
To help bring our precious PIT to life, let’s use a product we’re all familiar with: sunscreen.
Perceived Value: Captivating the Hearts and Minds of Your Customer
Building a foundation of trust and loyalty begins with your customers perceiving the value they receive from your product. Seems simple, right? Perception may not always be reality, so it’s imperative to ensure that you and your customer are aligned on what value truly is for them.
Start by isolating the unique problems they face, carefully considering factors such as cost, skin tone, typical outdoor activities, and desired outcomes (i.e., are we getting a sun-kissed glow or not?). With this in-depth understanding, harness the collective good of your product and people to address these challenges effectively. However, delivering tangible results is just the beginning.
To truly win over your customers, it is vital to ensure that they perceive the value they derive from your solution. So when it comes to our lovely sunscreen, while some customers may readily comprehend the benefits of protection from UV rays, others may require a more nuanced explanation regarding the long-term advantages for skin health. Enlighten them on how your product influences their health outcomes, steadily cultivating a vision of value that spans beyond the immediate.
The question is: now, are they ready to buy? Not yet. Here’s where we move into the “I.”
Incentive: Crafting Win-Win Scenarios
Perceived value alone is not sufficient to fuel upsells and expansions. To inspire customers to invest further in your product or services, you must deliver on your buyer’s personal incentives.
This requires a deep understanding of their motivations. Explore the various types of motivations your customers may have—whether it be financial gains, recognition, career advancement, and beyond—it’s key to pinpoint the most resonant thread that will drive their action. Back to the concept of our helpful sunscreen. Suppose you have successfully communicated the perceived value of your sunscreen.
For our sun-kissed (or potentially sunburned) prospective sunscreen users, it’s not entirely hard to think about what incentivizes customers to use the product. Perhaps they’re looking to protect their skin from UV rays and increase their overall skin health. Or on the opposite end of the spectrum, they’re looking to earn the tan of a summer. Now that you’ve considered how your customers can benefit from using more sunscreen (or suntail oil), you have to tailor your incentive strategy to users' unique needs and aspirations of using it, nurturing a win-win scenario that propels both parties towards success.
Back to the question we asked previously: are they ready to buy? Darn, not yet. The final element of successful land-and-expand strategies lies in the “T”: timing.
Timing: Seizing the Best Moment
Timing drives your buyer’s urgency to make a buying decision within the most successful land-and-expand strategies. It is vital to engage customers precisely when the pain to change is greater than the pain to stay the same.
In a world overrun with countless challenges, capturing your customer’s attention and securing their commitment to buy more or expand their product usage can be a significant task. However, by identifying those crucial moments when the pain is most immediate and urgent, you increase the likelihood of success.
Our final sunscreen scenario: Don’t reach out to customers in the thick of winter, instead target a sale just before their eagerly anticipated spring break vacation to a sun-soaked destination, where the necessity for dependable sunscreen becomes critical. By strategically leveraging these moments or opportunities, you can ignite a sense of urgency that moves your customers and advocates to action more quickly.
Finding Success in the PIT
To achieve true success in any land-and-expand strategy, the secret lies in skillfully navigating the PIT: perceived value, incentive, and timing. By enabling customers to perceive the value derived from your products or services, aligning with their motivations, and expertly seizing the ideal moments for engagement, you can maximize your upselling and expansion opportunities. Remember, it is not solely about selling more; it is about constantly communicating value and ensuring that your customers see value in every interaction with your product and your people. If you’re not sure how to measure, TheySaid’s Customer Perception Engine ensures that you can understand the key pillars of customer experience: problem, product, people, and price.
Interested in talking more about actionable land-and-expand strategies and how TheySaid can help you measure the actionable customer voice along the way? Schedule a demo to learn more.