All account-based expansion starts with a commitment to multi-threading. While this may seem obvious, implementing it effectively can be challenging.

“Too often account managers get overly focused on a single buyer,” says John Hope, CRO at Academic Analytics, “However, staying single-threaded and not expanding relationships and broadening your approach and delivering value broadly at key accounts will hurt both renewals and expansions.”

Academic Analytics provides universities with high-quality research intelligence on their research quality and productivity, as well as that of peer institutions. These tools help university leaders drive research excellence, strengthen institutional competitiveness, and optimize funding opportunities. “Provosts and Presidents are our ultimate decision-makers,” John explains, “but we also need Deans, VPs of Research, faculty leadership, and research teams to help identify needs and celebrate wins.”

Drawing from his revenue leadership experience at Academic Analytics, Ready Education, and other organizations, John has developed four key principles for account-based expansion through multi-threading.

Key #1 — A Strategic Mindset in Each Call

The first key is approaching every customer call with a strategic mindset.

“Customer goals are constantly evolving,” John notes. “We need to stay ahead of these changes, adapt, and be ready to respond. We always aim to be in discovery mode.”

John encourages his team to approach meeting preparation strategically—focusing on both current needs and identifying additional stakeholders to engage in the conversation:

• What’s working well? What’s not working as well? Who else at the account cares about these objectives?
• What can we help accomplish that they can’t do alone or with another vendor?
• How can we validate their successes to date and explore expansion opportunities?

Key #2 — Personalizing to each buyer

The second key is personalizing the value across the buying committee. Each buying committee member has distinct priorities, so they need to quickly understand “What’s in it for me?”

• Presidents, Provosts, and VPRs care about how Academic Analytics data supports research excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and targeted faculty retention and recruiting to elevate their institution’s profile.
• Deans and Faculty Leaders want to see how Academic Analytics’s data can aid in faculty recruitment, retention, and development, as well as identifying grant or award opportunities for underrecognized faculty.
• VPs of Research and Research Teams need to trust that Academic Analytic’s data is unique and more valuable than other sources, and that it integrates seamlessly into their existing workflows.

Key #3 —  Committing to Discovery

The third key is prioritizing discovery as the foundation for personalization.

“We all get excited about our product,” John says, “and there is a tendency to mention a product name as soon as any topic comes up that aligns with that product.”

However, effective discovery requires patience. You can’t learn anything when you’re the one speaking. John urges his team to resist the urge to pitch and instead focus on asking thoughtful discovery questions.

“Our product should only enter the conversation once we fully understand what the customer is trying to achieve and how Academic Analytics can specifically help. That requires a disciplined approach to asking discovery questions first,” John explains.

Key #4 —  Find a real change agent

The fourth key to account expansion through multi-threading is identifying real change agents.

That’s why finding a strong internal advocate, an actual “change agent”, is critical for accelerating expansion.

“It feels good to have one conversation after another at customer account,” says John, “but this can lead to a false sense of progress.  You might talk to many supporters, but that is different than a change agent who can drive your deal forward.”

Expansion sales are more straightforward than new sales in one way.  They involve existing relationships and account success that can be leveraged for new opportunities.

However, expansion sales face the same essential friction as net new sales.  They require a customer to pay to do something different. Both can be uncomfortable.

So, finding a change agent, someone with the authority, influence, and access to budget within a customer account, is key to expansion sales.

The Takeaway

Expansion revenue costs, on average, only one-quarter as much as acquiring new revenue. 

Realizing this potential becomes far more likely when sales teams and account teams approach each customer interaction strategically, use discovery to personalize value, and focus on engaging real change agents.