Key Account Management In Sales
Each organisation is unique and the particulars may differ, but on the whole, you need to move the prospect through each stage of the sales funnel to drive sales. While sales representatives are out finding new clients and meet sales quotas, account management is a client-facing role upon completion of a sale. It is a continuous effort to build key relationships with customers.
What is Key Account Management?
Customer success comes first for an account manager. Closely tied in with your business strategy, key account management ensures customers are satisfied and achieve their long term goals. Account management helps grow profit margins by establishing productive and positive relationships with customers that represent high value in the long run. It is a productive and collaborative relationship that requires transparency from the supplier, the customer and within your organisation.
You can focus on business opportunities and grow the account through upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Understand the challenges and problems that a customer goes through and develop a value proposition to jointly solve their problems. Focus on the most valuable customers for best use of your efforts.
Prioritise Valued Customers
Understanding your customers can set you apart from the competition and boost sales and profits. It is a strategic approach to finding common ground between your customer and you. However, some customers are more valuable than others. Instead of choosing the highest revenue customers who may not be loyal, look deeper at the benefits a valuable customer can provide before your competitors get to them.
Think about the current and potential growth of an account and which customers have the highest likelihood for growth. The customer and supplier have to be receptive to change and willing to collaborate. It is a bonus if an account shares your perception of value and shares common ground with your team.
Benefits of Account Management
Account management differs from a transactional sales-driven strategy as it is an organisation-wide approach that requires changes to the way that business is done. Account management and sales might both aspire to build strong client relationships and increase revenue but they do so by relying on different skill sets.
Investing in a stronger relationship can unlock greater potential that will manifest itself in profits and goodwill. In key account management, various parts of the business are involved with the focus on creating long-term value for the customer and organisation instead of purely revenue. This customer-first philosophy helps you understand and address customer motivation and challenges to become a preferred supplier for many years.
Utilise Upselling and Cross-Selling Opportunities
The easiest and fastest way to get new sales can often be the most obvious. Instead of finding new clients, account management relies on existing customers to provide more sales. Upselling might seem like a difficult prospect but it can leave your customers even more satisfied when you provide them with even greater value than they expected.
Keep in touch with your customers even when you do not have anything to sell so that you are easy to recall. Think about the other things that your customers use and whether you can offer the same. If some time has passed, you can use cross selling to remind them about your other offerings to improve revenue. If, for example, a telecom services company is selling telephone lines, it can cross sell by selling internet bandwidth for mpls vpn to a customer.
Maintain the Right Mentality
While a sales mentality is that of a hunter, an account manager needs to have a farming mentality. They need to identify key accounts and make them a priority. Relationship-building and communication are vital skills to tapping into potential and maximise revenue in the long term.
Account managers and sales representatives both try to increase revenue but go about it in different ways. As an account manager, you need to know the skills required and consider the lifetime value over one-time purchases. By keeping the long term in mind, you can reap the benefits over the course of years and keep building a more valuable and collaborative relationship.
What qualities do you think a key account manager should have? Let me know in the comments below.
Doron Moses is a specialist in Pre-Sales, After Sales Services and EBITDA Sales Targets with nearly 30 years of experience. You can contact him on doronmoses@hotmail.com