Selling to middle-market B2B customers is a challenge for many large, multinational companies. While midsize enterprises are the core of their supplier base, when it comes to selling to them, large enterprises are far less capable. Unlocking the potential of these middle-market customers can open new avenues and options for growth during and after the current economic slowdown.
One media company we worked with, for example, got approximately 80% of its revenue and 10% of its profits from the top 1,000 accounts — all fellow multinational giants. Another 20% of revenue and around 5% of profits came from 10,000 small-to-midsize customers. Among them, 3,000 midsize clients produced just around 3% of the media company’s overall sales — far less than you’d expect given the media company’s success with other customers.
That’s typical and widespread across industries, with many large companies failing to reach and profit from middle-market customers. In our…
This article was written by Yale Kwon and originally published on hbr.org