Your best source of business is your existing customers

Jimmy and Amelia came in to talk with me the other day.  They own a very successful printing business that has been around a long time.    This was their story.    We sat down with one of our largest customers last week and came away totally excited, yet totally shocked.  We do about $100,000 a year with this customer.  They pay well and they are good to work with.  Just out of curiosity Amelia asked them how much their organization actually spent last year on printing.  The customers say, “let me find out for you”.  She picked up the phone and called her CFO, he told her $1.3 million.  I know my face dropped  but I recovered quickly.    Here was a customer who loved us, who we did a good amount of work for, and yet, they were spending 12 times as much on printing with other companies.   How you could say, that sucks.   But Jimmy said “Halleluiah.  Look at the opportunity we now have.”   The first question he asks is “how do we get the opportunity to work some of the business we don’t have?”   Their customers answer, “connect with Henry at 2891.  He was just telling me the other day about how he was very unhappy about his printing results.   I would have recommended you, but I didn’t know you were looking for more business?”     Are you are out there trying to get new customers? Are you spending a great deal of your time prospecting new business? Are you working harder and harder to get new clients? Most of you would answer all these questions with a resounding YES. However, what did you learn from the above story? Could you be in the same space as Jimmy and Amelia?