TL;DR
- Airbnb's recent move: serve existing customers across the customer journey (airport pickups, grocery delivery, private chefs, and possibly flights)
- Most firms pour budget into lead gen while ignoring the revenue sitting inside their existing client base
- The probability of selling to an existing client is 60-70%. For a new prospect? 5-20%
- A simple customer journey audit can uncover adjacent services you're already positioned to offer - without writing a single new proposal
Airbnb caught my attention this week...
And no, it wasn't for some creative ad campaign to find new travelers.
They started piloting airport pickups and private car transfers in select regions.
They're testing grocery delivery. Rolling out private chefs and hotel bookings - all aimed at one thing:
Owning more of the journey for the customers they already have.
CEO Brian Chesky put it plainly on a recent earnings call: "We're starting to test new services like grocery delivery and airport pickup to make each trip better from the beginning."
And this is where it gets interesting for firms like yours...
I work with many companies who invest heavily in business development.
Sales teams.
New proposals.
New pitches.
New networking.
Meanwhile, existing clients go somewhere else for the next thing they need...
The IT provider whose clients are asking someone else about cybersecurity training, for example...
Every one of those handoffs could be viewed as revenue walking out the door. And it's costing more than most realize.
That said, not every firm should chase this. For many, the better play is doubling down on the thing they're already known for. Adding services you can't deliver well is a fast track to mediocrity. But if your best clients keep needing something adjacent to what you do - and they're going somewhere else to get it - it's worth asking whether that gap is costing you more than you think.
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The economics here aren't subtle.
Selling to an existing client has a 60-70% close rate. A new prospect? Just 5-20%. And McKinsey reports that effective cross-selling - offering adjacent, relevant services to existing clients - increases sales by 20% and profits by 30%.
Let's say, for a $10M firm, a 20% revenue lift from existing clients is $2M in new revenue. No new proposals. No trust-building from scratch. No 6-mo sales cycle.
Airbnb understood this. They're not entering "transportation." They're filling gaps in a journey they already own most of.
The Customer Journey Expansion Audit
Here's a simple audit to find revenue hiding in your existing relationships:
→ Map the full journey. What happens before, during, and after your client works with you? Where do they go when they leave your orbit? Every handoff is a signal.
→ Spot the leakage points. Every time a client has to find someone else for the next step, that's revenue leaving - and a trust gap someone else is filling.
→ Rank by proximity. Which adjacent service is closest to what you already do? Start there.
→ Test before you build. You don't have to hire for this. Partner with someone, white-label it, or set up a referral arrangement. Then offer it to 3-5 existing clients before investing in infrastructure. Let demand validate the idea, not assumptions.
The Stats
📰 Bain & Company (Fred Reichheld) found that increasing client retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25-95% - and acquiring a new client costs 5-25x more than keeping one.
📰 McKinsey reports that cross-selling increases sales by 20% and profits by 30%, with firms that systematically address customer journey gaps outperforming peers by more than 20%.
📰 Harvard Business Review found that the probability of selling to an existing client is 60-70%, versus just 5-20% for new prospects - and service expansion in professional firms can increase customer lifetime value by up to 30%.
Your existing clients are already paying attention to you. The question is whether you're paying attention to what they need next...
Let's wrap this up...
Airbnb looked at their customers and is responding to a problem they have before, during, and after their stays.
So, consider asking this question:
What's the problem your clients face AFTER working with you? What's the next thing they have to figure out?
That answer = a potential expansion roadmap
One more thing: whether adding a service is the "right" strategic move depends on a lot of factors - your capacity, your team's skillset, your market, your margins. For some firms, the answer will be "not right now." That's a perfectly good answer. But the question is still worth asking. Because why lose clients to problems you can solve?