Sales Strategies for the New Year: It's never too late to get close to your top spending accounts

The new year is almost here. Do you know everything you should about your top spending customers? If you are serious about improving sales performance in the coming year, here are 5 things you should know about all your accounts, especially your top spenders:

1.  A short list of 5 business challenges facing the customer.

2.  Things happening in the marketplace that will help the customer—helping forces.

3.  Things happening in the marketplace that will hurt the customer—hindering forces.

4.  A 5 year spending trend with you and your competitors.

5.  Five decision influencers in the customer's organization other than the primary contact.

Take this list for a test drive starting with your biggest account. It's never too late to get in the game.

The more you know now today, the fewer surprises you will have in 2012.

Kurt Sima is a VP/ Senior Consultant at The Center for Sales Strategy