Sovereign Seller #22: The Silent Asset - Your Existing Customers

Welcome to Issue #22 of The Sovereign Seller. In sales, hustle alone won’t cut it anymore. The winners aren’t working harder … they’re using marketing to magnify sales. Every Sunday, I’ll share successful strategies from leading organizations. This way, you can achieve steady growth and attract more dream clients.

Sunday

February 1st, 2026

Lauderdale By The Sea, FL

7:11 AM

In 2009, Kevin Hart wasn’t as famous as he is today.

He was grinding on the comedy circuit, taking whatever small gigs he could get.

Most comedians in his position would have done what everyone else does: chase the next venue, the next booking, the next shot at getting discovered.

Hart did something different. After every show - no matter how small the crowd - he’d collect email addresses.

He was playing the long game. He knew the people watching him at that moment were more valuable than anything else.

He kept at it. Show after show. Email after email.

He didn’t spam them with sales pitches.

He kept them updated - he nurtured relationships.

New tour dates. Behind-the-scenes stories.

It was free advertising.

Real communication with those who paid for a ticket.

By 2014, when Sony Pictures got hacked and their internal emails leaked, it was revealed that Kevin Hart had such a large email list that - not only could he command higher pay for movies, he was able to charge the studio to promote their movies … to his list!

That’s what happens when you cultivate your own list of fans or customers.

The Farmer Who Sold His Diamonds

More than a century ago, Baptist minister Russell Conwell gave one of the most famous speeches in American business history: “Acres of Diamonds.”

Here’s the short version:

A farmer owns a modest parcel of land.

Hearing about diamond discoveries in faraway places, he believes real opportunity exists elsewhere. He sells his farm and spends the rest of his life chasing fortune …. Unsuccessfully.

The man who buys the farmer's land discovers it sits on one of the richest diamond deposits ever found.

The diamonds were there all along.

The tragedy wasn’t laziness. It was misplaced searching.

The same thing happens almost every day in sales.

Companies who own acres of diamonds (their existing customers), failing to cultivate those riches.

Instead, they:

• Chase new prospects
• Say things like “make more calls”
• Add layers of administrative friction
• Have more sales meetings

All while neglecting to strategically focus inward on their existing customer list.

Past customers. Warm prospects. Former buyers. People who already raised their hand once.

They sit there silent, dormant, unloved - while leadership pushes for growth elsewhere.

That’s why I call it The Silent Asset

The Courage To Look Inward

During my first two seasons overseeing corporate sponsorship for Ball State Athletics (2018-19, 2019-20) I bounced around from prospect to prospect with no real strategy.

Sure, I made myself feel and look busy, but the net results were never reliable.

And even worse, this cold manic prospecting stole time, energy and focus away from warm prospects and existing clients with growth opportunities.

I was “squeezing in” fulfillment and nurturing relationships between cold prospecting.

After Covid, I learned how to essentially outsource my prospecting efforts with marketing and systems.

This magnified my selling efforts and gave me the chance to focus inward.

I went “all-in” on the 92 existing clients we already had - plus the 50 or so warm targets who were in my orbit would listen to me.

At first, it felt like I was doing something wrong.

Every sales book. Every training program. Every sales meeting seemed to focus … outward.

On those new shiny prospects.

It takes real courage to ignore how everyone else does new business development.

To trust that the diamonds are actually under your feet, not across town in some stranger’s office.

So here’s what I did.

EXISTING CUSTOMERS:

• First and foremost, I made sure we over-delivered on what they purchased. I wanted clients to say to me, “Shane, we spend money on other stuff but our investment with you was by far the best experience we’ve had”. And many eventually did say something like that. This reduced our churn, we only lost clients due to forces outside of our control, not because we didn’t delight them with their sponsorship investment.
• I sent a quarterly printed newsletter with marketing tips and highlights from our football and basketball seasons to keep clients informed - most of them did not attend our games.
• We sent holiday cards in the mail too … not on Christmas … but on other holidays like Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s Day - so our cards really stood out. Everyone sends stuff at Christmas.
• I developed a referral campaign also using the mail. It sent personal letter, thanking them for their business, and offering some type of gift or incentive to introduce me to a colleague. This effort always paid for itself many times over.
• Here’s the biggest lever: I vastly increased the amount of time, effort and energy spent on renewals. Renewing clients became the holy grail, THE most important thing. This was our greatest opportunity for growth … renewing and increasing the spend of an existing customer who’s contract is up. More time spent brainstorming ideas, better proposals, and really deeply listening and responding to feedback captured from our clients.

WARM PROSPECTS:

• There are always prospects in you orbit who are “warm”. Examples: people you pitched last year, leads that come in through marketing, referrals from existing sponsors. Most B2B sales reps should have somewhere between 25-100 of these.
• I made sure I had a list of warm targets so I never forgot, and I was always updating this list with new competitive data, decision makers etc.
• They key is to never forget about them. They are almost always worth more of your time than another cold call, you just can’t give up - ever. My favorite author/consultant - Dan S. Kennedy would say - "We don't give up until they buy, or die."
• I mail them the same stuff I send existing customers - holiday cards + our newsletter and invite them to games and relevant events.
• I also added them to our outbound marketing efforts - like our direct mail campaigns.

PAST CUSTOMERS:

• I checked our CRM and reached out to every client we had ever done business with. This can be a big list, and the effort of reaching back out to these people will always result in something positive.
• The feedback you get from this effort is very valuable and helps you fulfill and pitch future opportunities. Just as important, capturing updated contact information of new decision makers.
• This always resulted in bringing one or two clients back, and adding more targets to my “warm” list.

The results of this effort?

More than anything, focusing inward gave me a better quality of life.

I stopped stressing over my day, my budget, about all the things that did not pertain to my existing clients.

I hit my goals, won some awards, and maximized my compensation.

Just recognizing that the diamonds were already under my feet.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Sovereign.

To your success,

Shane

P.S. This is week 4 of 5 in the Owned Media series. Next week’s finale: The Physical Media You Control. Discover why media companies waste inventory. Learn how any business with a sign, lobby, or physical presence can become a lead generator. If you’ve been applying these frameworks as we go, you’re about to have a complete inbound system that feeds your pipeline while you sleep.