Selling Boldly

27Tell Your Customers What Else They Can Buy from You

I know you sell to a lot of customers.

I know they buy a lot of different products.

But my research with more than 100 corporate clients and thousands of their salespeople shows that your customers know only about 20 percent of what they can buy from you.

Even if they have been buying from you for many years.

Even if they are some of your best and happiest customers.

Even if you've told them about your products and services.

Customers still only know about a small fraction of what they can buy from you. Which is pretty tragic, isn't it?

They would like to buy more from you. They love buying from you; that's why they've been with you for years.

You would like to sell more to them. You enjoy these customers, and it's certainly easier to help existing customers more than to go searching for new ones, isn't it?

But none of that is possible, because they don't know what else they can buy.

I repeat: even if you told them, they do not know.

How do I know they don't know?

How many times have you heard this terrible but honest statement from customers: “I didn't know you did that!”

And you say to them, “That's what you said a month ago when I told you about it the last time!”

Right?

Why is this?

Why don't customers know?

We tell them. They should know!

But they don't.

They don't know because they're busy.

They don't spend their days thinking about your stuff like you do. They think about their stuff. They have their own fires and ...