I need advocates who carry our name from one department across my key account.

I need advocates who carry our name from one department across my key account.

Many enterprise partnerships start in one department. They grow when the trust you earn there travels with your team into the next group, and the next.

Five questions to see if your team can do this job today:

1. Does your team know what your brand means inside this account, in the client's words?
2. Does every new department get the same experience that earned your first referral?
3. Do your best users share your success stories with their peers?
4. Does your team track which departments have experienced your work and which haven't?
5. When your performance earns it, does your team ask for preferred or top-vendor status?

Two or more no's, and your best work may stay inside one department.

We were establishing ourselves inside a large life sciences organization with one user in a highly specialized area. The work was difficult. The previous vendors had struggled with it. We focused on delivering at a level that made hard things look easy.

She started referring us to other managers in other departments. She said things like, "You can trust them," or, "This one is good." She would email case studies she wrote and bring us up at team meetings. As we received new opportunities across their matrix, we delivered the same experience, the same quality, the same level of support that had earned the first referral. That consistency was the system.

Each new manager who experienced our work became another advocate. One became three. Three became ten. Ten became twenty. We tracked where our brand was strong and where it hadn't reached yet.

Within two years, we had over 50 new business users across all locations. Not one of those opportunities came from a cold call. Eventually, they crowned us their top vendor.

Deliver the same experience every time, and your clients become your sales force.

Our system, the Vitality Index, shows your key account teams where they stand today, the work it takes to level up, and how to do it, until they reach a vital partnership that lasts.

Which department in your key account would refer you to the next one?

We built a free, 4-minute Key Account Risk Assessment. It gives you a risk score for your key accounts across team alignment, account planning, account transitions, and visibility. Link in the comments.