Expand into a customer's neighboring teams
The next deal is often one department across from the one you already serve, and sometimes it has already started without you. Find both, and who to ask.
The conversation
Sample accounts and numbers, for illustrationYouFor our current customers, find the teams next to the one already using us and the business units that match our ICP but do not use the product yet, who leads each, whether anyone there has touched us before, and which teams already have new users adopting.
Unify4 checks · CRM, Segment, Forager and Exa
- Read which teams hold seats at each customer, from the CRM and product usage in Segment.
- Mapped neighboring departments and their leaders with Forager.
- Researched business units and subsidiaries with Exa, and checked each against the ICP.
- Looked for new departments, domains or senior users active in the last 30 days.
Across your 38 customers, four openings came back, of three kinds: the team next door, the unit that fits the ICP and has no seats, and teams where new users have already appeared.
The team next door. Support uses you; Customer Success shares the same queue and has no seats. Led by Priya Nair.
Fits the ICP. A 300-person business unit with its own support organisation in Munich; the US team has been a customer for two years.
Six new users from RevOps in the last 30 days, invited by the Support admin. One is a director.
Four users signed in from the subsidiary’s own domain in the last 30 days. Nobody on the account team knew the unit existed.
Adoption you did not start is the warmest of the three. The team has already decided the product is useful; nobody has asked them to pay for it yet.
YouShow me who is inside each of those accounts today, and who the buyer is for the new team.
UnifyHere is each account with the people using you now, the team to open, and the person who would sign for it.
- Start with Northwind
- Jon Park is already using the product every week. The conversation is about giving his team its own workspace and seats, not about whether it works.
- Ask for the introduction
- At Merridian and Halden the current champion knows the neighboring leader. An introduction from Nils Berg or Tara Quinn will land better than a cold note.
YouTake Merridian alone: which teams use us today, which fit and do not, and who leads each?
UnifyMerridian has four teams that touch customers. One uses you, two fit and have no seats, and one is outside the ICP.
- 1Support · Nils BergCustomer
- 2Customer Success · Priya NairFits
- 3Professional Services · Owen PrattFits
- 4IT Helpdesk · Lena FischerOutside the ICP
The single-account view shows every team, including the small one the cross-customer pass left out, so the account manager sees the whole map before asking Nils for an introduction.
YouDraft the note to Jon Park at Northwind, and watch for new teams across all customers.
UnifyThe note is below for the account manager to review. The watch is saved and reports every Monday.
ToJon Park, Northwind Labs
SubjectYour RevOps team in Unify
Jon, I look after Northwind here, and I noticed six people from your team have started using the workspace the Support group set up. They are working inside views built for Support, which is probably not ideal. I can set RevOps up with its own workspace, routing rules and reporting, and show you what other RevOps teams use it for. Would twenty minutes next week work?
Set up
- New-team watch saved Every Monday: customers with a new department, domain or senior user active in the last 30 days, with the likely buyer.
- Owner notified Each opening goes to the account manager in the CRM with the people involved. Nothing is sent to a customer automatically.
Expanding the account, with and without Unify
Expansion, cross-sell and adoption you did not start, found from the account you already serve.
| Without Unify | With Unify |
|---|---|
| Nobody can say which teams at the account already use you, so expansion starts from a guess | Unify reads which teams and people are already inside, so expansion starts from the truth |
| The neighboring team gets found by asking around internally, and a unit that fits the ICP but never bought is not found at all | The team next door is named, with who leads it and whether they have spoken to you, and so is the unit that fits but has no seats yet |
| The pitch leans on a case study from another company, when the proof is inside this one | The proof comes from the account record: what the team across the hall already got |
| The account owner hears about the outreach from the customer | The draft is routed to the account owner before it goes anywhere |
Start from this prompt
Make it your own in Unify, then review the results.
For our current customers, find the teams next to the one already using us and the business units that match our ICP but do not use the product yet, who leads each, whether anyone there has touched us before, and which teams already have new users adopting.
What else you can ask for
The walkthrough is one path through this workflow. These are the turns people take most often.
- Teams next door onlyFor our current customers, find the teams next to the one already using us, who leads them, and whether anyone there has touched us before.Try in Unify
- New teams already adoptingWhich customers have new departments, domains or senior users adopting the product in the last 30 days, and who is the buyer for each new team?Try in Unify
- One customerAt Merridian Systems, which teams use us today, which teams fit our ICP but do not, and who leads each?Try in Unify
How it changes by who you sell to
- Software
- Adjacent teams share tooling decisions more often than not, and Segment shows who is already inviting whom. Ask for the teams whose members have been invited by current users, for the units that match the ICP but have no seats yet, and who leads each one.
- Healthcare
- Departments buy separately even inside one system. Ask Unify to treat each department as its own account, and to check the CRM for prior contact with that department rather than the system.
- Manufacturing
- Each site runs its own operations, so expansion is site by site. Ask for the plants next to the one using you, the operations lead at each, and whether that plant has ever been in the CRM.
- Professional services
- Practice areas behave like separate companies. Ask for the practices adjacent to your current one, the partner who runs each, and any past email with them, because the relationship is personal.
- Financial services
- The neighboring team is often another business line with its own budget and approval path. Ask for business lines rather than teams, and for the compliance contact each one would route through.
- Education
- Departments buy separately, and the next one over is the expansion. Ask for departments in the same school or college, the chair or director for each, and the fiscal-year start so the timing is right.
Next in customer expansion and health
+2New stakeholdersCatch new stakeholders at customer accountsA new VP at a customer has never heard of you and owns the budget your product sits in. Find them in their first 90 days, before they find a replacement.
+5Cross-sellFind cross-sell opportunitiesCustomers on one product whose stack, hiring or usage says they fit a second one. Name the product, show the evidence, and find the person who would buy it.
+3Expansion signalsFind customers ready to expandA customer that raised money, hired for the team you serve or opened an office since they bought has outgrown the contract they signed. Find them before the renewal does.
Connect what this workflow uses
Each guide covers the connection, what Unify reads and writes, and what to check before the first run.
- Connect SalesforceAuthorize Salesforce in Unify, configure CRM field mappings, and choose when to enable writing.
- Connect HubSpotConnect HubSpot to Unify, map Company and Person fields, and plan CRM exclusions and supported write-back.
Connect SegmentSend supported Segment events into Unify through Webhook (actions).
Questions about this workflow
How does Unify find the teams next to a customer?
Forager and Exa map the org around the team already using you; Segment shows who has been invited into the product; your CRM shows prior contact.
Does it check whether we have talked to them before?
Yes. Connect Salesforce or HubSpot and the answer says whether anyone on the neighboring team has an activity, a deal or an email with you.
What counts as a neighboring team?
A team that shares the problem or the tooling decision: an adjacent department, another business line, another site or another practice, depending on your market.
Can it write the first note?
Ask for it. Unify drafts an introduction that names the current team's use and the person who leads the next one.
How is cross-sell different from expansion?
Cross-sell finds teams that match the ICP but do not use the product yet, from company and contact data. Expansion finds teams that have already started, from new domains or senior users in the product events. Both come back with the buyer and a check against the CRM.