key account team trainingWhy? Because the skills and level of expertise required to be successful in key account management is significantly greater than your lower tiered customers.

 

Let’s recap some fundamentals of Key Account Management before defining some core areas for key account team training.

 

What is Key Account Management?

Key Account Management is a way to service your most valuable customers

 

What does Key Account Management do?

Key Account Management enables you to retain and grow your best accounts      

 

What does it mean to use Key Account Management?

It means you will have greater retention and growth inside your best accounts

 

Key Account Business Objectives:

 

  1. Don’t lose any big accounts
  2. Sell more to the biggest accounts
  3. Create more big accounts

 

Customer indications they’re in need of a key account program:

 

  • Requests support in developing their strategy
  • Requests specialized resource support (those that can speak directly to their specialists)
  • Requests exclusivity on product rollouts
  • When innovation is the focus, they request support/solution architect assistance

 

4 core areas of key account training:

 

1. Executive

 

  • Managing KAM Strategy
  • Key Account Leadership
  • Hiring “A” Player Key Account Managers
  • Metrics

 

 2. Strategy

 

  •  Key account scorecard
  • Customer selection
  • Account recruiting strategy
  • Account planning
  • Resource alignment

 

 3. Account Management

 

  • Customer onboarding
  • Reporting relationships
  • Quarterly business reviews
  • Shared resources

 

 4. Account Development

 

  • TAM Analysis
  • Customer Marketing
  • Executive sponsorship
  • Sun-setting customers

 

When we say put your best talent on your largest and best opportunities, that means your key accounts have your best talent. This is one of the primary reasons you’re not wasting your time on negotiating training, objection handling, etc. The training focuses on those core areas that allow some of your best talent to maximize the return and defend your most important clients.

 

Key Takeaway: If you’re not investing in the development of your key account teams, where are you investing your training dollars?

 

Download our our white paper to learn more about growing revenue from key accounts.

 

Follow @JohnStaplesSBI

 

Follow @MakingTheNumber

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Staples

Leads teams of highly qualified experts, all relentless in their pursuit of helping you make your number.
BIO
ALL PEOPLE

John is the global leader of SBI’s account management business unit. As such, he and his team help clients across 19 verticals drive top line growth and operational efficiency in sales and marketing.

 

John’s marketing, sales and product expertise span a multichannel strategic approach. He has an unyielding focus on strategic and key account development, which enables strategic alignment between all functional team members in order to reduce acquisition cost and increase lifetime value.

 

His broad experience in sales, marketing, product and engineering allows him to bring a unique problem solving approach to his team and clients. As he has discovered through decades of experience, clients are often distracted by the symptoms of a larger problem and overlook the root cause of it.

 

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