Making “Land and Expand” Work for You | Sales Strategies

I want to highlight a sales strategy I’ve noticed perform incredibly well as of late. We started calling this the “land and expand” strategy.

What is the “Land and Expand” Strategy?

Simply put, it’s when a salesperson sells and starts with a small trial, a small test of the product, or just selling to a single line inside the organization with an objective of growing the business overtime.

My mentor—business strategist, Alan Weiss—characterizes this strategy as thinking of the fourth sale first. This is a remarkably smart strategy to implement because you start to gain trust with the client. Additionally, the client won’t see you as greedy, and you will have the chance to make sure things are working perfectly and that the customer is happy before you expand.

Concentrate in One Area First

A seller once told me, “We know we’ve got the opportunity to grow this 10x to what we are doing right now. And the customer has shown us all of these opportunities. However, I am purposefully staying in this one area right now until we perfect our solution and until everyone’s happy. We will then move forward with the next piece of business.”

They have it all mapped out over the next few years. The customer has prioritized how they want the growth to go, but they are working on it in a systematic way to ensure success. They are also measuring success based on the client’s supplied KPIs every step of the way and they’re growing the business together once the client is happy. 

Accomplishing a project—a large, complicated project especially—in that manner, will also help you fend off competitor attack. This is because you are constantly measuring, improving, and expanding. It forces you to stay engaged with the customer.

While I know it’s tempting to score the big deal all at once, sometimes this “landing and expanding” approach is not only the best way to get that customer, but it is also the best way to keep that customer for life.