Two classic approaches define the field of technology sales: “hunting” and “farming.” Hunters are sales representatives who focus on landing big, new deals. Farmers, on the other hand, nurture and grow existing accounts, working to expand revenue from an established customer base. While both roles are essential, one approach offers a more sustainable path to revenue growth.

Expanding relationships with your current customers—farming—emerges as a highly efficient and cost-effective strategy for sustained growth. Here, we’ll explore why farming transforms revenue potential in tech and how you can shift to a more process-driven, technology-enabled sales approach.

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The Limitations of Sales Hunting: A High-Cost Strategy

For many companies, hunting for new business is critical but resource-intensive. New customer acquisition typically requires extensive efforts across multiple teams—sales, finance, services—and each deal often comes with high commissions and hours of work.

Why Hunting Is Inefficient:

• Higher costs: Acquiring a new customer costs 8–10 times more than retaining an existing one.
• Team resources: Landing an enterprise client often involves more than ten people making purchasing decisions, leading to a lengthy and complex sales cycle.
• Lower win rates: According to research from TSIA, win rates for new customers hover around 1 in 3, leading to extensive resource investment for each closed deal.

If your organization relies solely on hunting, scaling growth becomes an uphill battle that requires substantial financial resources and an expansive sales team. To ensure sustainable revenue, it’s time to shift your focus to building “home-grown” business with your existing customer base.

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The Power of Sales Farming: Leveraging Technology for Install-Base Growth

Advancements in technology have significantly increased agricultural productivity. Between 1950 and 2000, average crop yields and livestock productivity rose by hundreds of percentage points. Technology and process optimization turned farming into an efficient, low-cost means of food production. This same principle can be applied to sales farming, where data and processes can unlock growth from existing customers.

Why Sales Farming Is Overlooked

Many companies still apply a hunting mentality to farming, treating every sale with an existing customer as new. For instance, account executives are often responsible for all sales activities, but may only focus on deals exceeding $250,000. While smaller opportunities with long-time customers can be left untouched. A dedicated farming process and technology infrastructure are essential to capitalize on the potential of existing accounts.

Boosting Efficiency in Sales Farming With Data and Process

Transitioning to a farming-centric approach involves leveraging data, technology, and processes to identify and nurture revenue growth within your install base. Here’s how to start optimizing your sales farming efforts.

Implement Data-Driven Sales Insights

• Utilize consumption data: Companies that tap into customer usage data for upselling or cross-selling see service revenue growth more than double compared to those that don’t.
• Engage services and customer success teams: Services teams interact closely with customers, making them ideal sources for identifying potential leads. Companies utilizing services teams for lead generation gain nearly three times more revenue from their existing customer base.

Develop Upsell-Optimized Offerings

• Tailored products for existing customers: Design offers specifically crafted for upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Tailored offerings meet customer needs and streamline purchasing, enhancing efficiency and conversion rates.

Turn On Your Listening Engines

• Customer success and service interactions: Every interaction with your customers is an opportunity to gather insights and learn about their needs. Leveraging feedback from these touchpoints can inform strategic upselling and customer retention.

Using these strategies, you can develop a structured, data-driven approach to sales farming that builds on the foundation you already have—your existing customers.

Related: Harnessing Technology and AI for Revenue Growth: Strategies and Insights

Getting Started With Sales Farming for Cost-Effective Growth

Now that you know the value of cultivating existing customer relationships, here are actionable steps to integrate sales farming into your organization.

Value the Role of the Farmer

• Foster a supportive culture: Sales teams sometimes undervalue farming roles, viewing them as less critical than the hunters landing new deals. This mindset needs to shift. Embrace the importance of farming and acknowledge that maintaining and growing existing accounts is a powerful revenue driver.
• Respect the customer success path: Recognize that farming roles in Customer Success and Account Management are vital to nurturing customer relationships and reducing churn.

Embrace Data, Technology, and Process

• Actionable insights from multiple touchpoints: With frequent interactions across sales, services, and digital platforms, your organization collects valuable insights into your customer’s needs and preferences. Yet, often, these insights are underutilized.
• Leverage data-driven selling: Consider implementing data-driven selling practices that turn customer insights into actionable account intelligence. For instance, use analytics to prioritize customers based on renewal likelihood, upsell potential, and engagement levels.

With these practices, you can build a process that “grows your food” by nurturing customer relationships, driving growth at a lower cost, and creating a sustainable revenue pipeline.

Related: 2024 CGR Data and Technology Capabilities for Revenue Growth

The Future of Revenue Growth Is Farming

As companies look to scale, sustainable revenue growth will depend increasingly on farming rather than hunting. When your organization values and optimizes customer relationships, you can drive revenue growth with greater predictability and efficiency, providing security and confidence in your business's future.

Use data and insights to maximize the value of every existing relationship, helping your business grow without the heavy cost of constant customer acquisition. Embrace the farming mindset, and watch your business flourish.

Related: The State of Customer Growth and Renewal

Your Key Takeaways

• Farming drives cost-effective growth: Retaining and growing existing customer accounts costs significantly less than acquiring new ones. Shifting the focus to your current customer base can unlock substantial revenue potential with less resource-intensive efforts.
• Data and technology fuel farming success: Utilizing customer data and insights—such as consumption patterns and feedback from service interactions—enables your teams to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities, leading to a more efficient and impactful approach to revenue growth.‍
• Cultural value of farming roles: Sales organizations should value the contributions of customer success and account management teams. These roles are essential for cultivating long-term customer relationships that reduce churn and support sustainable growth. Prioritizing these roles and their data-driven insights can foster a supportive culture for continued expansion.