Sales Volume Expansion Tactics

Selling to ENT without changing your pricing model is like showing up to a black-tie event in flip flops. MM pricing models don’t survive in enterprise sales. Why? Because selling 1,000 licenses to an enterprise isn’t 20x harder than selling 50 - but if you don’t adjust your pricing strategy, it will be 20x more painful. Enterprise buyers don’t think in per user terms. They think in budgets, forecasts, and cost centers. They want predictability, not a CPQ nightmare where they’re adjusting seat counts every quarter. If you’re moving upmarket, here’s how to avoid looking like a tourist at the grown-ups’ table: 1. Kill per-user pricing for large accounts. Enterprise CFOs see per-user models as a ticking time bomb...every new hire adds cost. Instead, sell in committed tiers, annual volume contracts, or all-you-can-eat licenses. - Instead of “$50 per user, per month,” structure it as, “$X for up to 1,000 users.” - Price for usage, not headcount - think storage, API calls, transactions, etc. 2. Enterprise doesn’t “expand naturally.” Build in expansion from day one. For MM, you can land small and grow. Enterprise doesn’t work that way. - Ramp pricing: Year 1 at 60%, Year 2 at 80%, Year 3 at 100%. Predictable growth, no CFO freak-outs. - Auto-expansion clauses: If usage exceeds X%, licenses auto-scale. Protects you from procurement pulling a “we’ll just add seats later” stunt. 3. Enterprise buyers expect to “win.” Give them a win - without losing. These buyers are trained to negotiate. They want a lower per-unit cost, but they’ll commit bigger dollars to get it. - Introduce an ENT Rate...lower per-unit cost, but higher minimum commit. CFOs love “efficiency,” and you get more ARR locked in. - Structure custom packaging that makes them feel special. Limited access to beta features, priority support, or bundled services. Want to win in enterprise? Stop selling like an SMB rep. Price for scale, control the expansion, and let procurement “win” on terms that make your CFO smile.

7 proven ways to increase FMCG sales without discounts Discounts might seem like the easiest way to increase sales, but they’re also the fastest way to lose profits and damage your brand. There’s a better way. In 2013 when I started as a sales team lead in FMCG, I struggled. I relied on price discounts as the only way to increase my sales in stores, but this was unsustainable. Over time I learnt these 7 strategies and I’ve used them to double sales of established brands in retail outlets in 6 - 12 months. It is more sustainable for the company and your Bosses will love you. 1. Product visibility and placement. Shoppers buy what they see. Make sure your products are in the right place, such as eye-level shelves, hotspots, and checkout zones. 2. Strong retailer relationships. Retailers will champion your products if they feel valued and are incentivized. Offer quarterly rewards, better margins, or recognition programs to win their loyalty. 3. In-store communication. Your communication material in the store is your silent salesperson. Use clear, benefit-focused messages on materials like wobblers, banners, posters and shelf talkers to educate shoppers. 4. Right pricing. Help retailers stick to recommended prices. Educate them on their margins and how fair pricing improves volume and profits. 5. Product distribution. If it’s not on the shelf, it can’t sell. Fix stock outs, prioritize key outlets, and close distribution gaps to keep shelves full. 6. Shopper engagement through sampling. Sampling builds trust. Let shoppers experience your product firsthand through demos or activations in high-traffic stores. 7. Effective sales team execution. Your sales team is the engine. Train them, set clear KPIs, and give them juicy incentives to ensure great execution. Which strategy will you focus on first?

Adam Block is the former CRO at Motive, a sales org with 3,000+ reps. Here's how they successfully moved up-market to grow their enterprise segment... We recorded this right before Adam announced his departure from Motive. Three things he said hit hard. And they contradict the instinct of most sales leaders I talk to. ✅ 1. Cut book sizes. Always. Adam: "I don't recall a time that I've ever reduced book sizes and didn't see productivity go up." The instinct as a rep, and as a sales leader looking at TAM, is more accounts equals more opportunity. The opposite is true at enterprise. Sometimes it makes sense for a strategic AE to have 1-3 accounts. With entire teams supporting them. If your enterprise AEs are still carrying 50+ accounts, try cutting their books by a quarter to a half. Watch what happens. As a rep, disqualify a big chunk of your accounts. ✅ 2. Kill the three-pod model. Motive used to run new logo, expansion sales, and CSM as three separate roles. The classic pod. They collapsed it. Why: too many cooks, no single owner with a net number...etc. The fix. One account manager owns the customer forever (or one new-logo AE keeps the account on the largest deals). They become the quarterback. They pull in product, support, finance, or supply chain when needed. But there's one name on the account. Result: better retention AND more expansion revenue. Customers stopped getting passed around. If you're running the three-pod model and your expansion number isn't there, this might be your fix. ✅ 3. The 90-second test. Adam was a part of every new hire class. His ask before any rep touched a single account: Explain who Motive is, what we do, how we do it better, the impact, and where we've done it. In 90 to 120 seconds. To your parent. To a neighbor. To anyone. If a new SDR or AE can't do that, they can't have a real conversation with a buyer. Period. ~~~ If you're org is moving up-market, or struggling to do so, you'll love this episode. We talked about: 1) Adam's journey from VP of Sales to CRO at Motive 2) How Motive moved from down-market to enterprise in 3 years 3) Proven tactics for moving up-market Watch the full interview here:  https://lnkd.in/gRBCbpFw

The biggest value of ABM over time isn’t new logo acquisition, it’s expansion (NRR). Here are the top 5 ways to use your Account Based GTM to cross-sell, upsell and retain your existing customer base: Most businesses start their Account-Based GTM by focusing on new logos. That makes sense, of course. That’s where early revenue growth comes from. Knowing what new accounts to target, with what message, and understanding account signals is vital to early growth, etc. However, eventually, if you keep growing, there will be more revenue in your customer base than in new logo sales and customer expansion becomes as important (and eventually more important) than new logo acquisition. It seems intuitive, but organizational awareness and willingness to apply the same rigor from new logos to the customer base takes time. I’ve seen many companies with strong new logo motions fail to align Sales and Marketing across their customer base. If you find yourself in that situation… Here are 5 ways to increase NRR by applying account-based GTM to the customer base: 1. Align Sales and Marketing on white space in your ICP Just as in new logo acquisition, account-based expansion starts with a map of what accounts to target across Sales and Marketing. This map should be based on a white space analysis of your customer base, the accounts that have the most potential upside in your ICP. These accounts should be used as the basis of territory and demand planning in the same way net new accounts are. 2. Score by propensity to buy by product Too often I see accounts have one overall propensity to buy score, while product level propensity scoring is critical to using an account-based approach to scale net retention. 3. Focus on buying group engagement Buying groups within accounts should be thought of as the fundamental units of revenue of expansion. Marketing and Sales should have a joint focus on engaging the key personas for every product opportunity. 4. Orchestrate expansion journeys Orchestration, the automation of Sales and Marketing actions based on journey stage, is another powerful tool that is too often limited to new logo acquisition. It’s incredibly effective to map expansion journeys, the actions an account needs to take to expand from product x to product y, and automate those actions as the account progresses. This is a huge unlock for net retention. 5. Use competitive intent to trigger retention plays You can’t expand an account if it churns. Running specific account level Sales and Marketing plays when a customer shows competitive intent is an effective way to get ahead of customers evaluating other solutions. Remember: An Account-Based GTM is not a tactic. If you sell a complex solution, it’s critical you align Sales and Marketing across accounts that have the greatest lifetime value potential. As you grow this means more alignment across your customer base. Not just new logos.

Expansion doesn’t happen by accident. Customers don’t just wake up wanting to buy more. Here’s the truth most people don’t say out loud: Customers give signals long before they ever ask for an upgrade,  most teams just don’t know how to see them. If you can spot these signals early, you close bigger deals, faster, and with zero pressure. Here are 7 signs your customer is ready for expansion: 1/ Rising Product Usage • Usage climbs every week • Limits get hit (seats, features, volume) • New users appear inside the account 2/ Exec-Level Engagement • Directors, VPs, C-suite join calls • The product starts showing up in strategic plans • Your KPIs map to their KPIs 3/ Documented Wins • Clear ROI proves value • Champions share impact stories • Wins turn into value-review moments 4/ New Internal Initiatives • New teams or markets are launched • Org changes create fresh needs • Your product fits naturally into their new workflow 5/ More “Good” Support Tickets • Not bugs, requests for more capability • Integrations. Advanced features. • Curiosity = expansion opportunity 6/ Multi-Team Adoption • One team becomes two, then three • Champions spread the product internally • Cross-team workflows start forming 7/ They Ask: “What Else Can You Do?” • The strongest signal • Bring 2–3 upgrade paths • Tie each to strategic goals + clear next steps Expansion isn’t luck. It’s pattern recognition. Which of these signals does your team track today? Follow Mark Mehok for more Business insight like this.

Volume recovery isn't one playbook. It's five. Three years of price increases bought time. Now the volume fight begins. 20-30% cumulative price increases since 2020. Elasticity is back. Consumers are trading down. 2026 is the year of volume. But there's no single playbook. Which approach matters most depends on your portfolio. The five RGM levers: 1. Pack architecture Smaller packs at lower absolute price points. Coca-Cola mini-cans under $1. Entry without discounting. Protects price per unit while lowering barrier to purchase. 2. Surgical pricing Selective rollbacks on high-elasticity SKUs. Not blanket cuts. Targeted where share is bleeding. Protect margin where you can, compete where you must. 3. Innovation that justifies premiums Functional benefits. Format innovation. New occasions. L'Oreal and Unilever use newness to escape comparison. Premium without justification is just price. 4. Trade promotion reallocation Shift spend from deep discounts to frequency drivers. Stop subsidising pantry-loading. A food company drove 2% volume growth by reshuffling trade promotions into less dilutive investments. Same budget, better allocation. Build repeat purchase, not one-time spikes. 5. Channel-specific plays Discounter strategy. Convenience pricing. E-commerce tactics. Each channel has different price sensitivity. AB InBev's BEES platform operates in 29 markets with 6 million users, giving real-time pricing and promotion control at the outlet level. One price architecture doesn't fit all. The 3 moves for 2026: First: Run the elasticity diagnostic before picking a lever. PepsiCo's volume losses in salty snacks came from ignoring where price sensitivity had shifted. Know where you're bleeding before you act. Second: Protect entry price points, not just margins. Nestle's affordable range extensions in emerging markets held share while competitors chased premium. Accessibility keeps consumers in the franchise. Third: Align trade spend to the channel where you're losing. Mondelez shifted promotion weight toward discounters in Europe when Aldi and Lidl took share. Spend where the fight is, not where it was. Which RGM lever is your priority for 2026? ___________ I help FMCG brands fix growth. 28 years. 30+ markets. No filler. Save this post and thank me later!

Here’s the exact playbook we used to turn support tickets into $150K of expansion revenue: CS teams are always wondering: what do customers need that we're not providing? It's important for two reasons: if someone else is providing it and we’re not, that's a churn risk. If they want it and we have it (or can build it), that's expansion. So here's what we do to find those opportunities: Step 1: Search for patterns We use our AI to search all support tickets for feature requests from our ICP. Every support team tracks feature requests, but we’re not just looking for loud or one-off customers. We want companies that fit our ideal profile. We ask: what features are they requesting? How much ARR is associated with those requests (both churn risk if we don’t build it and expansion potential if we do)? Step 2: Track to critical mass When a CSM says "we need to build X, I keep hearing about it," I tell them: “create a parent ticket, let everyone know, and start tracking every request or mention of that feature. Come back when it hits critical mass.” Once there's significant ARR tied to a request (churn or expansion), I go to product and make the pitch with data. Step 3: Proactively sell it After we build the feature, we go through our customer base and proactively reach out to everyone in that ICP segment to sell it. Example: Customers started asking for onboarding playbooks (task management for their new customers). We hit critical mass, built it, and rolled it out. This wasn't a huge revenue driver itself (~$20K), but it enabled us to expand horizontally from Support into other departments like Onboarding, Proservices and CS. We've added about $150K since July from those new seats. The playbook feature made us stickier because we're now in multiple departments. Here’s what I’ve learned: don't build random things for random people, no matter how loud they are. But if you've got a significant need backed by data, bring it to product. Then work hard to turn it into revenue. Are you using support data to drive product decisions? What's worked for you?

Most people think more outreach = more sales. They send 100 cold DMs. Chase lukewarm leads. Hope something sticks. There's a better way. Here's what I learned after testing both: Stop spraying. Start systematizing. Same effort. Completely different results. With volume? You're exhausted. Hundreds of messages. No response rate. Constant hustle. With systems? You're precise. One warm signal matters. Conversations convert. Sales without spam. I spent years doing outreach the hard way. Then I built a 6-step system that tracks warm triggers. The result? Fewer chats. 2x the closes. Zero burnout. Here's the exact system: 1. Pick one warm trigger Stop guessing who's interested. A comment. A save. A reply. Only start conversations from real signals. 2. Open with value, not a pitch Send one line that proves you read their content. Add something useful. No link. No pitch. Just one helpful idea. 3. Capture before you continue Log it immediately. Name. Topic. Next step. One row in a sheet or Notion. Done before the next message. 4. Use three purposeful follow-ups Each one adds value. First: Send a resource. Second: Share a short case. Third: Offer a clear next step. No pressure. Just progression. 5. Move to a low-friction offer fast If they respond positively? Offer one tiny next step. 15-minute call. Quick audit. Simple template. Keep the ask clear and small. 6. Review weekly and cut noise Once a week, review your triggers. Remove what doesn't convert. Double down on what does. Your outreach isn't broken. Your system is. Build one that tracks warm signals, captures context, and follows up with value. You'll close more deals by starting fewer conversations. --- If this helped: - Follow me for more systems like this - Share this post so others can learn too - Hit the bell 🔔 so you don't miss a thing Tell someone you appreciate them. 🤙

“I just got an aggressive expansion quota… but I don’t want to ruin my customer relationships.” I heard this multiple times last week from CSMs. And it’s a valid concern. On one side, there’s pressure from leadership: “We need more growth from the base.” On the other side, there’s the reality of the role: You’ve built trust with your customers. You don’t want to jeopardize that by pushing product. But this isn’t a binary choice. The best companies don’t choose between growth and customer trust. They align the two. The top 1% of SaaS companies generate 80%+ of their revenue growth from existing customers. That doesn’t happen by accident. And it definitely doesn’t happen by randomly pushing products. It happens because: They deeply understand what their customers are trying to achieve… And they build additional solutions that help them go further. 👉 Product A → Outcome A 👉 Product B → Helps them get more from Outcome A or unlock Outcome B 👉 Product C → Expands into new areas of value Expansion, when done right, is not selling. It’s deepening the relationship through value. The mistake is thinking the alternative is to “not rock the boat.” That’s not a strategy either. If you’re only reactive… If you never introduce new ideas… You’re not strengthening the relationship. You’re stalling it. If you’ve been handed an aggressive expansion target, here’s how to approach it without damaging trust: 1️⃣ Map your customers by outcomes and use cases What are they actually trying to achieve? What are they using today? Start there, not with products. 2️⃣ Look for vertical expansion (same outcome, better results) They already care about this outcome. How can you help them improve it? Example: “We’ve helped customers like you go from 80% → 90% compliance by adding this.” That’s not pushing product. That’s improving something they already value. 3️⃣ Look for horizontal expansion (adjacent outcomes) What do your best customers do next? “You’re focused on Outcome A. Most customers like you also focus on Outcome B for these reasons…” Now you’re teaching, not selling. 4️⃣ Define expansion readiness signals When is a customer actually ready? • After a key integration is complete • After hitting a performance benchmark • After standing up core workflows This gives you confidence to recommend at the right time. Because here’s what does ruin relationships: “Here are 10 products we offer. Anything interesting?” That’s product pushing. That’s when trust erodes. The best CSMs don’t sell more. They identify where more value exists… And help the customer capture it. When you do that: Expansion feels natural. Retention strengthens automatically. And growth becomes a byproduct of success.

I had a revealing conversation with a marketing team last week. They proudly showed me their ABM stack, TAL, and SQL data. Then I asked: 'Where is the majority of revenue coming from in 2025?’ The answer: Customer expansion and upsell. But when they shared their ABM strategy… it was 100% focused on net new logos. Wait... what? This is common. I've seen 70-80% of the annual revenue coming from existing customers. Yet, most companies allot only 10-20% of their sales and marketing budgets toward customer expansion. ABMers are not immune to this trend. Here's a few ways I would incorporate customer expansion into your 2025 marketing strategy: Audit your ABM tech — Most ABM tools are great at net new, terrible at expansion — Map current capabilities vs. expansion needs — Identify critical customer data gaps Redefine "Target Account" — Include expansion potential signals and scoring capabilities — Understand customer health metrics from CS team — Create "expansion readiness" triggers based on signals — Set up account growth progression tracking Evolve Your content strategy — Stop treating customers like prospects — Create content that enhances the onboarding experience — Double down on customer stories in all kinds of formats — Invite customers into your short-form content creation strategy Align the GTM (marketing, sales, CS) on expansion — Share expansion metrics ownership and accountability — Define clear handoff points and SLAs — Create multi-channel, cross-functional account growth plans — Build customer advocacy programs Measure in terms of lifetime value — Track product or solution adoption velocity — Monitor expansion signals from behavioral data — Calculate net revenue retention — Measure customer engagement depth Think about it. Your best (and most efficient) source of future revenue is sitting in your current customer base. You just need to harvest the data. I think in 2025 marketers will build ABM programs that balance acquisition AND expansion. ********** 👋🏼 I'm Steve. I left 16 years in corporate marketing including brands like HP, IBM, Google, and DigitalOcean to start a boutique marketing agency. We specialize in the future of ABM and I would love to talk with you.