Account Size Matters for Sales Success

Sales Reps Must Gauge Technology Readiness

At many technology companies, sales reps have to work both small local accounts and large corporate accounts. In an ideal world, writes Ken Krogue, this would not be the case. Krogue suggests that when sales reps handle both types of accounts, “they fail to adapt to the differences in technology readiness of smaller accounts.”

Two ways that this issue usually reveals itself are:

• Sales reps overestimate a small accounts technical expertise. Many small and mid-sized businesses outsource to avoid costly IT expenses. “But the rep still approaches the sale as if the prospect has an IT department standing by to take care of their every technology whim.”

• Reps fail to conduct an “appropriate needs analysis, because they don’t recognize how many other touch points their technology solution requires.”

Reps cannot assume that a small business has the same technical expertise as a larger account. They must properly assess a small accounts’ IT infrastructure in order to make the sale.