You have customers. Why do they buy the rest elsewhere?

It is important for us to increase revenue. We have customers who order regularly, but they buy the same things. Salespeople send the latest price list and suggest looking at other products — yet the next invoice has the usual items again.

To examine this, let us imagine a purchase of office supplies. An employee at the customer's company confirms another order of paper with a supplier, then opens a different invoice — for cartridges. The first supplier stocks cartridges too. But their salesperson only knows the customer's paper usage: how much to deliver and when to repeat the order.

This is an illustrative example. No one has left, there are no complaints, and the next delivery will go ahead. The customer simply spends some of their money elsewhere each time.

It is tempting to demand that salespeople offer the full range. I would first find out: which order with another supplier could we actually win, and why would it make sense for the customer to place it with us? Our catalogue does not tell us that.

The salesperson in the example handles the regular order well. They know which paper is needed, get the address right and follow up on time. This is convenient for the customer. A demand to sell more does not take away the value of this work.

But open the communication history: has the salesperson asked which printers the office has, who orders supplies and how they are delivered? Without that information, identical invoices cannot tell us that the buyer needs nothing else. These invoices show only what they are already used to buying from us.

The opposite conclusion is also premature. Having printers does not mean we can sell cartridges: the company that services the equipment may handle them. In that case, the customer buys servicing together with supplies, while we offer a separate product. Comparing only the price of a cartridge makes no sense — first we need to understand what work the current supplier does.

Here is what the team does not yet know: whether the customer does not need our product, whether the offer is unsuitable, or whether no one has yet discussed this purchase with them. Each reason calls for a different next step.

The price list has already been sent. The purchase has yet to be discussed

Suppose, in our illustrative example, the salesperson has clarified how the customer buys. The customer orders cartridges as needed; they are happy with the current supplier, who confirms that the required model is in stock and when it will be delivered. The customer plans paper purchases in advance. So the two purchases remain separate, even though they go to the same address.

It is now clear what is missing from a general offer to buy everything from us. The customer needs to check whether they will get the right cartridge on time. A discount across the whole catalogue does not answer that question. Reliable paper deliveries give us a reason to talk, but do not prove that the company can handle a different order just as well.

The salesperson needs to find out exactly which model the customer buys and when they need it. Then they must check with those responsible for stock and delivery whether we can fulfil the order. If we can, suggest that the customer compare offers for a specific next purchase. If we cannot, do not make promises on behalf of the warehouse and delivery teams.

The buyer is entitled to leave things as they are. Even a suitable offer does not oblige them to change suppliers. But after a conversation like this, the team at least understands which requirement it checked and what the customer responded to.

Sending out a price list can start this conversation. A record that it was sent should not end the conversation.

Different reasons can lie behind the same order

I would give the head of sales one task: choose a product the company knows how to supply and find out whether it has a place in what selected existing customers buy. Starting with the entire catalogue at once is difficult: the salesperson will go back to a general suggestion to look at the range.

After the conversation, different answers call for different actions:

The customer does not use this product — stop offering it to them. The office may not print documents at all. Do not turn a lack of need into an objection.
They use it, but the purchase is part of another service — find out what that service includes. A separate product may not replace what the customer currently pays for.
They buy it separately, but we do not meet their requirement — identify the specific mismatch: model, availability or delivery. The head of sales passes the confirmed limitation on to the business owner if it is worth discussing, and does not promise the buyer a change that has not yet been approved.
They buy it separately, we can meet the requirements, and they are ready to compare — agree what to compare and the next purchase for which it makes sense. The salesperson then prepares a proposal specifically for that purchase.
There is no answer — leave the question open. Neither a need nor a lack of interest has been established yet.

The information does not necessarily have to be gathered again. If correspondence already shows what the purchase includes and the requirements, the head of sales asks the salesperson to clarify only what has changed. There is no reason for a regular customer to explain a second time what they have already told the company.

A sales plan based on the number of items can teach the team to add small extras

Suppose that, after being told to expand orders, the salesperson added a pack of pens to the paper. There are now more items. The customer still buys cartridges from someone else.

Selling pens can make sense. But the number of lines on an invoice does not tell us whether we have won the order we set out to win. If we assess only the lines, it is easier to add readily available small items than to work through the requirements for an order that matters to the customer.

So at the review, I would ask to see the sequence: which order we identified, what stood in the way of winning it, what we checked and what the customer agreed to. A new item on a paid invoice is a result. An agreement to compare still leaves work to do. Sending a price list is only a completed action. Combining them into one figure is convenient until the owner asks where the money is supposed to come from.

There is also the cost of fulfilling the order. If a small additional item requires a separate urgent delivery, the head of sales must present the terms and calculations to those authorised to approve them. Selling more products and securing a worthwhile order are different tasks. The decision on price and acceptable costs remains with the owner.

The next review needs to show what happened to the selected purchase

One group of existing customers and one product are enough to start with. The head of sales tells salespeople what to find out, then returns to the same buyers a week later. The question is already more precise than “did you offer anything else?”

For each customer, it should be clear:

whether they buy this kind of product and what confirms it;
which requirement keeps the purchase with the current supplier;
whether our company has checked that it can meet that requirement;
what action the customer agreed to and what the salesperson did by the deadline;
why the work is continuing, being postponed until an agreed event, or being stopped.

An order may not come within a week. But the head of sales will see where a salesperson discovered a new need, where they found that a product was unsuitable, and where they did no more than forward the catalogue. If the buyer is ready to compare but the salesperson has not confirmed availability by the promised day, the head of sales brings them back to that task. If availability has been confirmed but the timing does not suit the customer, another call with the same offer will not fix anything.

And I would not call an early payment sustained growth, either. Perhaps the usual supplier did not have the required cartridge on one occasion, and that was the only reason the customer bought it from us. After delivery, it is worth finding out which next purchases they are ready to discuss. One-off revenue is real; expecting regular orders requires a separate basis.

The owner needs a choice about where to direct the team's efforts

After these checks, the head of sales may have a short list of buyers for whom the offer is suitable. This is more useful than promising to sell the entire catalogue to the whole customer base. The owner can see where the salespeople's efforts are enough, where the company will need to change its terms, and where no opportunities have been found for now.

At RENTROP, this work is part of “turnkey sales management”. The head of sales oversees it from assigning a task to a salesperson to getting the buyer's response and fulfilling the agreement. The business development director checks the head of sales' own decisions: why these customers were chosen, what shows that another order is possible, and whether a mailing has been passed off as a result. The owner decides the product range, prices and costs of fulfilling orders; the head of sales brings them the facts for those decisions.

You can start with a regular customer whom the team has invoiced for their usual order again. Ask the head of sales to show what is known about a related purchase and how our offer could be useful for that particular purchase.

A repeat order confirms the customer's choice for one product. They need a separate reason to come to you for the next product.