Assume your company, which sells paper products, has 60 percent of the business at

your largest account. What factors would make it relatively easy for you to get a larger
share of that customer’s business, and what factors would make it harder?

Factors that would make it relatively easy
 Trust built due to long term
relationship
 Familiarity with the buying process
 Reduced Order Fulfilment Time
 Longer Payment Cycle
Factors that would make it relatively
difficult
 Capacity constraint on seller’s end
 Capacity limitations on buyers end
 Geographic Constraint
 Buyer’s reluctance to rely on a
single supplier

 Deep Discounting  Channel Conflict

 Long term contracts with price  Customer Dissatisfaction
security
 Easy Returns  Past Unresolved Disputes

Any seller supplier would like to have large accounts and favor such accounts because the
terms with that customer are known agreed and accepted and the parties deal with each other
in favorable terms. Having 60% of business with one customer it is always better to keep him
and expand his account because it is going to bring in greater ease of working with the
customer. The customer knows the seller and is very comfortable dealing with him. To get a
larger share it will be very beneficial to give them a longer payment period and discounts
This will allow the seller to get more business from the customer and it makes work simpler
and also receivable management easier. This will also strengthen trade receivables. The seller
will ensure that his sales are recovered. The factors that make it harder would be the fact that
the buyer neither would want all his supplies and raw materials from the same entity nor
would like to have multiple bases for his supplies. In such cases this would make it very
difficult for the seller to look at creating a bigger account. The buyer may be reassured but
not willing to source all his supplies from one entity or company. The buyer may also get
better terms from other sellers or competitors and so the buyer should look at others.

As, this is a case of B2B selling, it is well assumed that the buyer is a well-informed buyer.
There are
several factors which may help us increase our share of 60% of the customer’s business. Few
factors
are:
1) Maintain clear communication with the customer and provide superior customer service.

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 2) The company must make the effort to study the business of the customer and provide new
or products which would serve the purpose of the customer.
3) Keep the buyer updated about the latest products and communicate the benefits of the
same.
4) Provide superior after sales support services.
5) Fulfill orders on an urgent and priority basis
6) Assign the company a dedicated account manager for one-point contact for all
order/delivery related queries/grievances.
The factors which will contribute in losing business from the customer are:
1) Over-charging the customer and providing inferior products.
2) Not making timely deliveries and not providing right products at the right time.
3) Advocating products for the sake of profits and not to benefit the customer.
4) High lead time for solving queries/providing customer support.
5) Lack of effective after sales support/services.
6) Lack of proper communication. This can be in terms of communicating new/better
products,
the customer having to navigate through different people/departments to get their
query/grievance resolved.
Thus, in conclusion, having a good sales team which is motivated, dedicated and has good
communication skills will always help in gaining more business. The product knowledge
should be
immaculate and if the salesperson can understand the customer’s business, it is an added
bonus and
is sure to bring more business. Lastly, selling only is not enough as all customer’s today
expect a
good level of after sales service/support. Hence, it is of utmost importance that the company
solves
all customer related matters which is in the scope of the company, pre and post sales.

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