Should companies prioritize expanding the installed base over acquiring net-new customers?

Matt Rosenberg · Oct 4, 2023

Expanding and retaining existing customers is much easier than acquiring net new, yet the glory has gone to net new

39:18 20Sales: Why the Founder Should Not Be the One to Create the Sales Playbook, Why You Should Hire a Sales Leader Before Sales Reps & Why You Should Not Hire Sales Leaders From Big Companies with Matt Rosenberg, CRO @ Grammarly

Harry Stebbings · Oct 4, 2023

Expansion was neglected because incentives rewarded net new — free money and fresh budgets made a net new customer the win

Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome; the incentive mechanism was set up to reward net new

39:33 20Sales: Why the Founder Should Not Be the One to Create the Sales Playbook, Why You Should Hire a Sales Leader Before Sales Reps & Why You Should Not Hire Sales Leaders From Big Companies with Matt Rosenberg, CRO @ Grammarly

Carles Reina · Feb 14, 2026 · hedged

Some of ElevenLabs' ICP iterations were wrong in timing or focus, and under-investing in cross-sell left money on the table

When growing very quickly it is difficult not to miss things

Scope: 'probably' wrong; acknowledges fast growth makes misses inevitable

62:30 20Sales: Inside ElevenLabs $330M ARR Sales Machine | The 20x Sales Comp Plan Reps Must Hit | How to Land and Expand in a World of AI | Why Product-Market-Fit is BS, Reps Should Not Be in the Office and Outbound is King with Carles Reina

Ashley Kelly · Jun 7, 2024

Using SDRs to mine the customer database for cross-sell opportunities is a good use of resources, freeing AE/AM time and working from a CAC payback perspective

With many products, SDRs can find cross-sell customers so AEs/AMs spend time where they're best suited, and the economics work on CAC payback

Scope: specific to Rippling's multi-product portfolio; described as unique to their situation

13:00 20Sales: How Rippling Built Their Sales Machine: How to Hire, Train and Manage the Best SDRs, What is the Right Comp Package for Sales Teams & The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team

Shaunt Voskanian · Mar 21, 2026

At Figma the best current use of SDR-type resource is handling small transactional renewals on existing customers to free strategic AEs for strategic work

Figma's problem is not acquiring new customers but expanding existing ones, so the SDR job-to-be-done had to be redefined; they also serve as a talent pipeline for future reps

Scope: a recent shift; they keep tinkering with deployment

14:54 20Sales: Inside Figma's $1BN ARR Revenue Machine | Why We Do Not Have Customer Success or SDRs | Why I Do Not Believe in Sales Quotas with Shaunt Voskanian, CRO @ Figma

Becca Lindquist · May 2, 2026

In a product-led motion where usage already exists, the rep's job shifts from landing logos to capturing internal market share — expanding use cases and workloads across the account faster than competitors can get a foothold

Once competitors are inside an account you're fighting them over workloads rather than fighting inertia, so the winning move is to 'suck the oxygen out' of the account and secure it; Snowflake and Databricks ended up fighting over the same workloads after Databricks got one foothold

39:42 Usage led accounts make workload capture the priority

Matt Rosenberg · Oct 4, 2023

Investing in the installed base pays twice: reference customers make net new acquisition easier and dramatically reduce discounting

Hearing reference stories creates urgency, need and conviction around the solution, so the buyer wants it more and their motivation to push for a heavy discount dissipates

39:49 Installed base investment pays back in new sales