Sales Strategy

Key Account Management

Key or Strategic Account Management
Many organisations, as they grow, become more and more reliant upon large customers to deliver the 'lion's share' of their revenue. (The pareto principle or 80/20 rule is alive and well in most businesses). This is not a new phenomenon though how easily can you place your hands on the strategy for these accounts? Not just a set of action plans but a collaborative goal and action oriented document or process designed by you and the customer with partnership as the intent...where is it?

Can you see it, touch it and review it regularly? If so then you are a long way down the path of customer engagement. Customers are often (but not always) involved in the development of this engagement.

The model below shows a typical 'journey' from an initial transactional relationship to a strategic partner. The timeline is different for every organisation.

The following are typical components of a Key Account strategy:

• ‘A stake in the ground’. Where are we today in terms of results and relationship and where do we want to be in 1,2,3 years time?
• Who are all of the key decision makers and what are their personal motivators for dealing with you? (The context for this component is that all people make decisions emotionally and justify them logically)
• What is our vision or statement of intent for this account?
• What is the competitive environment and how do we deal with it?
• How do we score the current relationship and how then do we increase the score to reflect our future plans?
• Are there continuous improvement plans in place and if so are they signed off by all parties?

There are many other components to a successful engagement model and much of the content already sits within the minds and filing cabinets of your people. Your th&a or salesfox consultant is trained to work with you to tailor the most appropriate engagement strategy using best practice methodology as well as the current working tools within your organisation.

Winning Major Opportunities
As the bid and tender process becomes more and more sterile with an often reduced ability to get close to the decision making process (eg online bidding and group bidding institutions) we are faced with a choice...do we submit to these changes or do we act differently?

Here we look at numerous ways of managing the process more effectively by communicating our intent as a potential supplier or business partner and building activity plans around (but not limited to) the following:

• The decision making process. Who are the key influencing roles in the opportunity and how do they operate as decision makers? What political issues are you up against? 
• What do you know about the current business situation or the opportunity in question? How much do they need you? How are you perceived by them?
  

• 

• The competitive situation, who are we up against and what is their strategy?
• What are our strengths and areas of improvement?
• How do we deliver the solution to the customer ?

This methodology is developed specifically for your organisation and is facilitated using 'live' opportunities.