As fans of the Challenger Sale methodology, we know that getting prospects to move off their status quo to make a change is paramount to winning a new deal.

But as Tim Riesterer Chief Visionary for B2B Decision Labs (and self-professed “research nerd”) talks about in his new book The Expansion Sale, growth for a vast majority of companies comes in retention and expansion.

Because most deals start out too small, underpriced, and overserviced, the question is how to keep and grow those customers when it comes to renewal time? (Oh, by the way, the price is going up.)

In many ways, renewing isn’t just renewing. And upselling isn’t just upselling. It’s all reselling.

Therefore, challenging their status quo won’t help you—you are the status quo, and you want to leverage that.

And there’s more commercial activities in that existing customer interaction and engagement that you need to be savvy about, such as:

• How to defend your position as the status quo bias
• Transitioning from the decider to the doer and setting up the business case
• The four must-win commercial moments of the client relationship
• The framework and content choreography for having the renewal conversation
• Documenting mutual investment so they view change as a loss and view the new vendor as “risky business.”

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.