Retaining only 5% of your existing customers can increase your revenue from 25 to 95% and it’s why customer account expansion is a game changer. This is because you can double revenue earnings with the same number of customers. 

While several customer success leaders focus on this already, to get results you need a proper strategy. In this article, you’ll learn the essentials of account expansion, why it matters, and actionable strategies with examples to drive growth from your existing customer accounts.

What is Account Expansion?

Account expansion is the process of increasing the revenue generated from your existing customers. This can involve offering additional products or services, upgrading current plans, or introducing new features that increase value for your clients. With this increased value, they are open to paying more for these products or services.

For example, if your SaaS platform offers a basic analytics dashboard with limited features or data points, upselling customers to an advanced analytics suite is a form of account expansion. It could also involve promoting complementary products like a data visualisation tool to customers already using your analytics software.

Types of Account Expansion Tactics

There are three main types of account expansion strategies that sales and customer success teams use to drive revenue. To grow existing accounts, they use these tactics;

1. Upselling

Here you encourage customers to upgrade to higher-tier plans or more advanced versions of their current offerings. A great example of this is when a SaaS company upsells additional features or upgrades customers from a basic to a premium plan. 

Slack, the messaging tool does this excellently. This way, to get access to previous conversations, you’d have to accept the upgrade offer. a

2. Cross-Selling

The other most popular method is cross-selling, This involves offering related products or services that complement the customer’s existing purchases. For example, if you offer project management software, you could suggest complementary collaboration tools to your customers.

3. Add-ons

Similar to cross-sells, add-ons provide optional features or services that enhance the core product. For example, a cloud storage provider could offer additional security features as an add-on. 

Why Prioritise Account Expansion Over Customer Acquisition?

Did you know that acquiring a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one? So while acquiring new customers is essential for growth, it often comes with higher costs and longer sales cycles. 

Account expansion, on the other hand:

• Leverages existing relationships, reducing the need for extensive marketing efforts.
• Increases your customer lifetime value (CLTV).
• Strengthens customer loyalty by addressing their ever-evolving needs.

When you prioritise account expansion ensures you’re maximising the potential of your existing customer base. 

Who is Responsible for Account Expansion?

Effective account expansion requires a collaborative effort between sales and customer success teams. Not just one team alone. 

Sales teams are known for their strength in customer acquisition which is why they need to work with the customer success teams to truly connect with these existing customers. 

Customer success maintains regular contact with customers to understand their goals and needs. This makes them the perfect team to know what additional products and features will add value. 

With this information, the sales team can have effective renewal discussions or pitch the right upsell or cross-sell opportunities during contract negotiations. But, when there’s a disconnect between these two teams, it is unlikely that customers will be more receptive to any recommendations.

4 Ways to Identify Opportunities for Account Expansion

The key to driving customer account expansion is to approach these customers with timely relevant offers that provide real value. So you need to time it right. Here are a few ways to discover opportunities for an upsell, cross-sell or add-on;

1. Segment Your Users

You want to start by grouping your users based on specific attributes. For example, you could have sole traders or freelancers, SMEs and then enterprise customers. 

Based on these three segments, you can focus more on enterprise customers because they will require more robust solutions compared to smaller businesses. So segmenting your customer base helps you identify those that are most likely to benefit from an upsell or cross-sell. 

2. Use Client Feedback

When your customer success team or account manager checks in with a customer, it’s an opportunity to get insights into their progress. During these calls or asynchronous meetings, you can get insights into their challenges and needs your other offerings can fulfil. 

For example, a quarterly business review that reveals your client’s struggle with productivity is a great opportunity to introduce a collaboration or automation tool. They’d be more receptive to it as it directly solves a problem they are experiencing. 

3. Analyse Usage Data 

Data in this context means how your customers interact with your product or features. Identifying patterns or gaps in product usage could indicate a need for additional features or services. 

For example, if a customer is close to their storage limit, they would benefit from purchasing extra capacity. So that would be the perfect time to upsell that. 

4. Benchmark Against Industry Standards

Understanding where your customers stand compared to their peers can highlight opportunities for growth. 

Every company doesn’t want to be left behind so if similar companies in the industry are leveraging advanced automation tools, this can be an opportunity to position your product.

Account Expansion Strategies that Drive Revenue

Whether you’re looking to map out an account expansion plan or just researching, here are some proven strategies that have helped in driving growth and revenue;

1. Align Your Sales and Customer Success Teams

The most important strategy is aligning your sales and customer success team to have a unified approach. If your sales team promises what you can’t deliver, the customer success team cannot manage expectations. 

What happens is that the customer ends up being dissatisfied which makes it unlikely that they’d be willing to expand accounts. 

So ensure both teams have a shared document and regular meetings to share customer insights and product updates. This can also be a great way to discuss top accounts and potential opportunities. 

If you’re not sure where to start with this or need some extra guidance, book a free call with one of our coaches here and we’ll help you figure this out.

2. Actually Listen to Your Customers

One mistake teams make is having these calls just to check a box and your clients can smell it from a mile away. Instead, conduct regular check-ins to understand their evolving needs and changes. This could be during a call or even via a survey form.

You can collate feedback on new features if you’re a SAAS product or get a satisfaction score for services. Then after looking through this feedback, identify the problem and provide value through your other offerings.

3. Use Case Studies to Your Advantage

Like sales demos and pitches, customer expansion is also a pitch in itself.  For example, if you want your customers to upgrade, you need to convince them that it will work. The best way to do that is to show real-life scenarios where it has. 

So share case studies that highlight how similar customers benefitted from an account upgrade. They’d be more inclined to try it out to get the same results. 

4. Offer a limited trial 

Sometimes, we don’t know what we need until we actually try it. So a great way to get your customers to upgrade is to get them hooked on it first. Offer a free but limited trial of higher-paid plans or features. 

A great example of this is how Apple TV+ offered free streaming days (free pass weekend in January 2025) which helped them get an increase in signups and subscriptions. Viewers got hooked on the shows they were binging and decided to complete it. 

So whether you’re offering free insurance or access to features, your customers get to see the value when they experience it themselves. 

5. Be Proactive with Data

Data helps with finding the customers who need to expand their accounts. A great way to achieve this is to use data analytics tools and predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs and suggest relevant solutions.

However, it’s also a great way to find customers who are underutilising features. With this, you can recommend training courses to help them get the most out of their plan or even complementary tools to maximise their use case. This way, they don’t downgrade their plan.

6. Be Flexible with Tiered Account Expansion Plans

Offering structured plans tailored to different customer segments makes upgrades seamless and appealing. However, sometimes it can cause friction when clients are willing to expand accounts up to a certain point. So if they don’t need all the features that come in the next tiered plan, they become hesitant.

In this scenario, you can offer them discounts. For example, you can offer small businesses or a non-profit a discount for adopting an enterprise-level tool during their growth phase.

Key Metrics to Track for Account Expansion

The only way to know if your account expansion strategies are working is to analyse the data. So here are three major metrics to track for account expansion, particularly in customer success;

• Net Revenue Retention (NRR): Measures how much revenue you retain and grow from existing customers over time.
• Customer renewal rate: This shows whether customers are willing to stick to your business offering
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): Indicates the total revenue a customer is expected to generate during their relationship with your business.
• Expansion Revenue Rate: Tracks the percentage of revenue growth coming from existing customers.

Wrapping Up

Account expansion is more than just a revenue growth strategy; it’s a way to deepen customer relationships and deliver sustained value. By prioritising empathy, data-driven insights, and collaboration with the sales team, you can unlock new opportunities within your existing accounts. Not sure where to start? Book a free call with one of our coaches here.