Expansion revenue costs just 27% of net new revenue, but it requires careful coordination across market-facing teams.
“Misaligned messaging and outreach leads to dissatisfaction and renewal risk,” says Michael Passanante, “The strongest approach is usually to keep account relationships clearly owned by sales, while marketing helps identify growth opportunities across the broader portfolio.”
From his CMO and marketing leadership roles at WCG Clinical, CapitalRx, and BESLER, Michael has seen the value of marketing building account-level messaging with clear alignment to customer priorities, relevant solutions, and stakeholder needs.
From there, teams can map whitespace opportunities and run expansion plays that connect back to the broader account story.
Michael outlines four practical ways that alignment shows up.
1️⃣ Account ownership that stays close to customer value
Expansion works best when account ownership remains closely tied to the customer relationship. The people closest to the account are usually in the best position to understand where there may be adjacent opportunities, new stakeholders, or evolving priorities.
Expansion is much more effective when it feels like a continuation of the relationship, not a shift away from the reason the customer engaged in the first place.
2️⃣ Shared expansion plays with direction from marketing
Expansion becomes harder when every team is running separate motions. Without a shared structure, outreach can quickly become inconsistent, fragmented, or disconnected from the broader story the company is trying to tell.
Marketing can help bring that structure by creating shared plays around priority offerings or strategic growth areas. When those plays are clearly defined, messaging becomes more consistent, teams spend less time reinventing the approach, and execution becomes easier to repeat across accounts.
3️⃣ Sales and SDR orchestration inside each account
Within an account, timing and coordination matter as much as the message itself. Even a strong expansion idea can lose momentum if outreach, follow-up, and stakeholder engagement are not aligned across the teams involved.
Business development and account-facing teams are most effective when roles are clearly understood, and the motion is coordinated around the account context. That alignment helps keep momentum moving while making sure the message reaches the right people in the right way.
4️⃣ White space expansion that protects renewal
Across accounts, the goal is to identify white space and expand deliberately, without creating dissatisfaction in the installed base. This requires account-based selling skills and a clear plan for who leads each touch. When marketing, sales, and SDRs stay aligned, expansion feels like a continuation of value, not a surprise pitch.
Expansion revenue is key to faster growth, but coordination requires work. Let sales own the account relationship. Let marketing guide the broader plays and messaging. Then align teams around timing, follow-up, and responsibilities so expansion supports customer value while reducing renewal risk.