Beyond Your Main POC: Build New Relationships That Protect Your Accounts w/ Josh Pitchford
Building Your Sales Engine
<p>How to expand relationships in your accounts, identify all the influencers, and protect yourself before your main contact leaves or competitors wedge in.</p>
<p>If you're only talking to one person in your account, you're one resignation away from losing everything. Josh Pitchford reveals why the "best defense is a good offense" when it comes to account relationships—and shares practical frameworks for expanding higher, deeper, and wider.</p>
<p>As a Sandler trainer and coach at Sales Engine, Josh helps sales teams protect and grow their key accounts through strategic relationship building. In this episode with Mark McGraw, he breaks down the "3x3" strategy for identifying influencers, explains why relationship maps beat org charts, and shares why you need to know people's "5 to 9" (not just their 9 to 5). You'll learn how to fence your accounts, and expand relationships before your competition does.</p>
<ul>
<li> <p>Relationship Map Template: [Link in show notes]</p> </li>
</ul>
<p>About Josh Pitchford Josh Pitchford is a Sandler trainer and coach at Sales Engine, where he helps sales professionals and teams build predictable revenue systems. With extensive experience in enterprise sales and account management, Josh specializes in teaching relationship-building strategies, account planning, and the Sandler methodology. He's passionate about helping sellers move beyond single-point-of-contact relationships to build the depth and breadth needed to protect and expand strategic accounts.</p>
<p>🔗 Josh on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-pitchford-6163274/" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-pitchford-6163274/</a></p>
<p>Host: Mark McGraw — Building Your Sales Engine</p>
<p>In This Episode:</p>
<ul>
<li> <p>Why "another lunch with Grant" won't win you more business</p> </li>
<li> <p>The best defense is a good offense: Building sticky relationships</p> </li>
<li> <p>The 3x3 strategy: Mapping relationships across and up/down</p> </li>
<li> <p>How to "put a fence around your account" to block competitors</p> </li>
<li> <p>Why your competition won't go after your main POC (they'll wedge elsewhere)</p> </li>
<li> <p>The #1 fear sellers have: Their main point of contact leaving</p> </li>
<li> <p>Relationship maps vs org charts: Why dotted lines matter</p> </li>
<li> <p>The advocacy score: Moving people from detractor to champion on a -5 to +5 scale</p> </li>
<li> <p>Identifying influencers: There are now 14+ people involved in enterprise decisions</p> </li>
<li> <p>The three levels with influencers: Identify, access, influence</p> </li>
<li> <p>Bomb-proofing your account: What could go wrong and how to protect yourself</p> </li>
<li> <p>Why the weather is always changing in your accounts (every 90 days)</p> </li>
<li> <p>How to know people as people: The "5 to 9" not just the "9 to 5"</p> </li>
<li> <p>The fuzzy file: Collecting personal information about your contacts</p> </li>
<li> <p>Unreasonable hospitality: Going the extra mile with thoughtful gestures</p> </li>
<li> <p>Using AI and Etsy for personalized gifts that deepen relationships</p> </li>
<li> <p>Mapping to the buyer's network: Connecting your team to theirs</p> </li>
</ul>
<p>Links</p>
<ul>
<li> <p>Sandler: <a href="https://www.sandler.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.Sandler.com</a></p> </li>
<li> <p>Episode page: <a href="https://www.buildingyoursalesengine.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/</a></p> </li>
<li> <p>Show links: <a href="https://linktr.ee/buildingyoursalesengine" rel="nofollow">https://linktr.ee/buildingyoursalesengine</a></p> </li>
<li> <p>Josh on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-pitchford-6163274/" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-pitchford-6163274/</a></p> </li>
<li> <p>Relationship Map Template: [Link in show notes]</p> </li>
</ul>
<p> </p>