Key Account Management in CRM
Key Account Management in CRM If you’re like most businesses, your customer relationship management (CRM) system is the backbone of your sales process. It’s where you track your leads, deals, and customer data. But what happens when you start to scale your business and land bigger customers? Suddenly, your CRM doesn’t seem so robust. In fact, it might even start to feel like a hindrance. That’s because most CRMs are not built for Key Account Management (KAM). If you are managing large, complex accounts, you need a CRM that is up to the task. Key Account Management vs. CRM: Are you doing enough for your Key Accounts? At the outset, Key Account Management (KAM) is seen as an extension of CRM. The end goal is to sell a product or service to a customer. However, they fundamentally differ in their approach to achieving the goal. There are a few key reasons why KAM is often seen as a more effective strategy than merely relying on your CRM. First, KAM takes a more holistic view of the customer, seeing them as a partner in achieving mutual goals rather than simply a transactional relationship. Second, KAM focuses on building long-term relationships with key customers, rather than trying to maximize short-term gains. Finally, Key Account Managers are typically more highly trained and specialized, they are better equipped to deal with the complex needs of key accounts. What’s the difference between CRM & KAM? CRM software/system KAM software Objective Generating new leads for sales Identifying and building long-term relationships with existing customers Process Sales-driven Relationship-driven Approach Reactive Proactive Sales and marketing strategy One-size-fits-all approach Personalized strategies Success measure Based on the increase in top-line sales Based on the gradual increase of ROI over time Data Insights Insights generated from historical data Insights generated to anticipate future needs Value proposition Value creation for customer Value co-creation with customers Business Process and Approach Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solutions are sales-driven.. They are an important tool for business development to identify leads and nurture relationships throughout the sales funnel. All CRM solutions are devised around AIDA – Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. It is a reactive process that is based on customer interactions across the sales funnel touchpoints. Whereas, Key Account Management solutions are relationship-driven. KAM helps an organization cultivate, nurture, and deepen its relationship with key accounts in the business. This helps to gain deeper insights into the customer’s domain, conditions, and hurdles, which helps source the unique assets that are needed. KAM is a proactive approach involving account management plans based on the future needs of the customer. A KAM strategy is typically more focused on large accounts or customers that have the potential to bring in a significant amount of revenue. On the contrary, a CRM strategy is more focused on maintaining and growing relationships with all customers, regardless of their size or potential revenue. The sales team at a company that uses KAM will be much more focused on developing a deep understanding of their key accounts and customizing their sales pitch and approach to each one. The marketing team, on the other hand, will be more focused on creating and managing customer relationships across a wide variety of channels. Hope is not a Strategy! Key Account Management is focused on building relationships with key customers and understanding their needs. CRM is focused on managing customer data and interactions. While a CRM is designed primarily for sales, key account management forces you to approach your data in a new way. KAM forces sales and marketing teams to unite around a common goal: building deep relationships with high-value accounts. This collaboration fosters a more comprehensive view of your customers that extends beyond just the sales team. Strength in Unity A key account should not be assigned to one employee. The Key Account Management strategy often requires a more consultative and collaborative approach, as account managers work closely with their customers to understand their needs and develop custom solutions. This means that an account is not centralized, but rather distributed among various employees. This may seem counterintuitive to most companies, which have a sales rep assigned to all their customers. A KAM solution must facilitate collaboration across various teams (sales, marketing, tech, etc.). Role of Management CRM solutions are geared toward sales reps and marketers. The process requires multiple levels of approval from decision-makers. The entire process can be automated to specify each approval step, share files, and deliver campaigns faster. On the other hand, Key Accounts are a top priority for CEOs and CSOs. Their involvement in Key Accounts is imperative at all levels, strategic, operational, and relational. They play a central role in defining key accounts, identifying customers, and allocating appropriate resources to their key accounts. Reporting and Insights There are some key differences between analytics in CRM and Key Account Management. In CRM, analytics is focused on understanding customer behavior and trends and using that information to improve customer experiences and how to best interact with them. KAM analytics is focused on understanding the key drivers of customer profitability and growth. KAM analytics is much more strategic, while CRM analytics is more operational. Both CRM and KAM are important for businesses, but they require different approaches to analytics. While your CRM software is great for centralizing your client data, it cannot help you with KAM functions or provide insight into the relationship. To prepare for success, you need a tool that seamlessly integrates with your workflows and empowers everyone involved in the sales process. With KAM software, you don’t just track how far you have come based on data from previous months. Historical data does not help drive new sales. However, understanding your current strategic path and how far you’ve gotten on it helps you look ahead and plan your opportunities, investments, and operations better. Process and Technology
Digitalization of B2B Sales Interactions: Technological Changes in Key Account Management Processes
B2B interactions today are primarily taking place in digital channels. In a recent Forrester Sales Enablement Report, the report indicates that the average number of buying interactions has surged since the pandemic; from 17 pre-pandemic to 27 post-pandemic. Hybrid and virtual selling environments (partially forced by the pandemic) have made buyers innately digital these days. These ‘new buyers’ have needs and expectations that do not necessarily line up with traditional B2B sales and selling methods. B2B interactions typically happen these days without even meeting the salespersons directly on digital channels. The question of the hour is, at a time of such huge shifts to digital ecosystems, what does Key Account Management entail in terms of sales organization? How does one adapt to this new condition of data-driven B2B sales? Shift to a world of ‘Click and Transact’ In the DemandFarm webinar ‘The Changing Role of Technology in Key Account Management’ featuring Forrester, Rick Bradberry, Principal Analyst & Executive Advisor B2B Sales at Forrester reaffirmed that what we do in terms of sales or account management and interactions with customers has changed a lot, “I would say that COVID actually drove the trend that had existed before the pandemic. And that was a preference that buyers had for self-service experiences.” Consumers have become accustomed to what Rick refers to as the world of “click and transact”. This consumer experience started in the B2B space of e-commerce for consumers. It went from physical products to digital products and these experiences have come into B2B. The SaaS field has amplified this further. What We Want, When We Want It! This mindset of shifting to self-service is accompanied by a second aspect in the B2B field. These new experiences and preferences created are produced by enabling capabilities. “Why do we need to still architect these experiences with customers the way we did it 20 years ago?” asks Rick. Consumers, i.e. B2B companies or buyers, or even users of those B2B products, not only prefer to do it themselves, but they are also able to do it because an enabling technology or experience exists that allows them to do so. Great Expectations! (No, not the novel) The shift to this era of ‘self-service’, in a sense has changed expectations on leaders to deliver experiences with customers as well. For company boards and CEOs, the focus has been retargeted on how to deliver the type of expected self-service experience using technology that customers truly prefer and want to use. For Rick Bradberry, “That’s where Insights becomes a new mantra for leaders!” In order to be able to deliver customization to customers, one needs an insight-driven approach to how to think about people, processes, talent, and the way the business is run. Generational Variances… Each generation brings in a completely different perspective within the workforce when it comes to digital compatibility in the sales process. This pertains to both the buyers and the sellers. What sort of culture is sought out also differs as a result. Rick Bradberry shared a few interesting data points in the webinar. According to him, when it comes to self-service in internal app stores, external marketplaces or within any product, “An average Gen X buyer would look to do that 37% of the time. But in Gen Z (the younger generation), this goes up by 10% furthermore to 47%.” Of course, we can’t forget the millennials who stick to about 43%. So, companies have to shift their understanding of the ‘sweet spot’ in B2B digital interactions. What does this mean for you? What do these trends say about Key Account Management in a digitally expanding B2B era? Things that have traditionally been done in Key Account Management have now become digitized and improved at the same time. Functions that were done tediously and manually before, are now enabled as capabilities within the technology and tools used by consumers. Such technologies facilitate improved quantitative and qualitative usage to understand your customers better and course-correct how you serve them. This will inevitably lead to better long-term value, bigger deal sizes, better forecasting and accuracy. Check out these 6 key takeaways for a successful digital key account management transformation. What used to be a struggle when managing accounts before, for example – whitespace, becomes a metric that is easier to improve upon. These capabilities are now quickly being embedded in technology if they haven’t already. Additionally, with the advancement of Artificial Intelligence of AI, analytical tools are also progressively built to improve. Insights, the future of faster functionality, and assisted account planning awaits account management. Built-in analytical tools do more than what humans are capable of doing in terms of number crunching. What the future holds is perhaps such intelligent tools giving a perspective that might otherwise go unnoticed to human eyes. This might boost functioning in Key Account Management in unparalleled ways! Check out DemandFarm’s Insights-driven Account Planner to aid your key account management process!
Account Manager Skills 101
Who is an account manager and what do they do? An account manager does the overall management of sales and relationships with the various customers of the company. The main roles of an account manager are the following:- Maintaining and developing relationships with customers by addressing their concerns Building strong strategic relationships with clients Explore white spaces with clients to retain business and crack opportunities Enhance business prospects with long-term relationships While all account managers need hands-on experience managing customer relationships, there are wide ranges of other (equally important) account management skills that are critical for the role. Find out 3 unique ways how John grows his key accounts as a strategic account manager. 5 Must-Have Skills for Account Managers! 1. Good listening and understanding capacity The key to effective working relationships with clients is good listening. This enables building trust and reduces conflict to build objectives and find opportunities in every client interaction. This helps account managers anticipate the needs and exceed expectations of the client. Guide: Comprehensive Career Path for a Key Account Manager 2. Collaborative and Customization ability In the current world of business where customers are situated globally, companies don’t compete on pricing or product alone but also have to show that the customer experience they offer is the best. Account management is never a solo game but a collaborative effort. Collaborating with customers to make them fully participate in the process can help build strong relationships, in turn, drive sales forward. Additionally, an account manager has to ensure that internal teams are in coordination with each other. 3. Leadership and Ownership capability Account Managers who are leaders should inspire and challenge clients to take brave decisions. This can help build strategic account planning for disruptive transformations. Only by embracing changes in every process can you yield better and larger results. Account managers should have the foresight to focus time and attention on the development of key accounts. 4. Dynamic Business Analytical knowledge Being able to analytically think about the process and dealing with the load of information from various sources is part of the critical actions that an account manager does everyday. The ability to identify the cause and effect relationships quickly is vital to being a good account manager. 5. Excellent communication skills To build strategic relationships with clients and retain them, an account manager will need to have excellent communication skills. They need to keep each team informed and maintain coordination. An Account Manager needs to be highly skilled, clear and concise in his communication to ensure that long – term client relationships are maintained. Key Account Management is a continuous process that keeps evolving. Not only does it require a highly skilled account manager, but it also requires account managers to be equipped with the right key account management tools and account planning tools that can assist them through their journey (Fun Tip: Check out this cheatsheet on choosing the right sales account planning tool). DemandFarm’s Account Planner makes account planning ridiculously easy. Perform whitespace analysis, relationship analysis and financial analysis to forecast growth potential. Gain enhanced visibility in order to analyze your key accounts.
Moving beyond CRM: Why Key Accounts need a dedicated Account Management platform
Driving and sustaining growth is very different from achieving a goal According to the results of multiple surveys, the biggest priority of a CEO is to achieve growth, Yet, only a small quantity of corporate leaders succeed in driving and sustaining growth because the focus is not exactly on achieving growth, but acquiring customers – at least in the B2C world. For B2B software solution vendors, however, the choice is different. They can focus on acquiring new customers, but it is the existing partnerships that enable them to do so. The focus on acquiring new customers might be exciting in the beginning, but statistics show that the action of onboarding new customers is five times costlier than keeping an existing one, as the odds of a successful sale are between five and 20 percent. Nurturing existing customers requires a different kind of work, where team members ensure their customers see the solutions provider as one and they think of one as their trusted advisor to help them meet their desired outcomes. As existing customers already know the team and have experienced the working of other solutions, the probability of a successful sale rises to 60 – 70 percent. The Survey also reveals how existing customers are twice as likely to try new products from their service provider, and their spends are 31 percent more than new acquisitions. The numbers make it clear that focusing on existing accounts and allotting resources to their emerging needs leads to success, yet organizations tend to prioritize acquiring new users above expanding the footprint of existing customers. A survey by Alpine Investors found that nearly 70% of revenue-oriented activities were prioritised on new customer acquisition, and only the remaining 30% were focused on engaging existing customers to generate more revenue. The findings were backed by the Miller Heiman CSO Insights Report, which found that 57.3% of global sales leaders surveyed prioritised capturing new accounts, even when the revenue from new customers accounted for only 29.9% of the revenue. The signs of the tide turning are evident too in these surveys, as the next item in the order of priority for sales leaders is to increase penetration into existing accounts. These accounts account for 70.1% of total revenue, which marks an increase over the previous years’ numbers. No matter how exciting winning new accounts is, the focus on the bottom line makes organizations rely more on the growth of existing relationships. This growth comes from expanding the scope of existing accounts, while improving activities that ensure account retention. The CSO survey showed this to be an important roadblock too, with only one-third of the leaders (34.6%) admitting their confidence in the abilities of their organization to expand existing accounts. Making the most of key accounts: where organizations falter The elements of account management that drive successful strategies have changed a lot over the last few decades, but nothing compared to the changes that have happened since 2020. The new normal requires organizations to majorly redesign their Account Management processes. Having a dynamic account management and sales process is the biggest driver of success to achieve sales goals, as they allow teams to adapt to new conditions quickly. This gives them a concrete base to work on, and cater to discerning buyers, disruptive technologies, changes in the market, buyer need changes, features launched by competition, and more. A constant revision of account plans helps vendor organizations to keep their customers happy in the long-term. But establishing a dynamic account management process is not feasible for all clients – and establishing a key account practice becomes essential. Like account managers, key account personnel also take care of the needs of the clients, but in a proactive way rather than the reactive nature of current account management (the number of accounts that an account manager handles makes it almost impossible for them to be proactive, to be fair). They tackle challenges before they become serious issues, observe relevant data and tweak the key account plan accordingly to meet upcoming needs, and keep their organization ready for changes. Only 28.9% of SaaS vendor organizations report being anywhere close to that level of process maturity, and they are qualified by their revenue goal achievement and customer stickiness. They also enable their key account managers (KAMs) with relevant tools that allow them to create and maintain dynamic processes for every key account, and take the partnership forward from a solutions provider to a trusted advisor. Source: Gartner Understanding the limitations of CRM Customer Relationship management (CRM) software are the backbone of any organization dabbling in sales in any capacity, and their importance in software B2B sales is immeasurable. Rightfully so, as they simplify sales opportunity and customer acquisition by capturing key metrics. They accurately pinpoint leads in the sales pipeline so that sales teams can take relevant steps to convert them into customers. Their strong focus is what makes them indispensable, and it is the same factor that rules them out from enhancing existing partnerships. As typical sales cycles are a few months long (at most, a couple of quarters) CRM tools are not equipped to plan long-term strategies, which is the need when it comes to existing clients. They don’t provide provisions to track customer goals, history, experiences, and a whole lot of other factors. Sales teams and key account managers should be able to accurately track and monitor changing goals and expectations, to get the customer to understand that the vendor organization is genuinely interested in providing them with solutions for the issues they’re facing. Download this guide to learn how to move beyond your CRM and build a successful Key Account Management process in 9 steps! Driving success with Key Account Management Software Key Account Management tools are geared to build solid relationships with existing customers. They help account managers save and analyze precise information about their key accounts. Watch Now: The Changing Role of Technology in Key Account Management The volume of the data, structured by
7 Key Takeaways for a Successful Key Account Management Transformation Journey
7 Secrets to Successful Key Account Management Transformation Journey Digitalizing your key account management practice is like a journey rather than a milestone. Our team has been a part of several successful digital account management transformation journeys. So what did we learn? In this ebook, you will find 7 key takeaways for a successful Key Account Management Transformation Journey. This includes executive-level buy-in, change management, going modular and much more. Learn more vital Digital Key Account Management tips in order to have a successful transformation.
Webinar: The Changing Role of Technology in Key Account Management
The Changing Role of Technology in Key Account Management – Webinar by DemandFarm Average number of buying interactions today in a B2B sales process have surged by 58.8% since the pandemic (Forrester 2021 Sales Enablement Year End Review). As Key Account Planning grows complex with account-centric interactions, technology that can continuously improve based on intelligent insights becomes a necessity. Decision-making will soon be based on Data, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), not on intuition and experience. Artificial Intelligence takes into account thousands of sales engagements within a CRM to provide contextual insights from your data. In the future, AI will most likely evolve to a stage where AI capabilities are embedded within Account Planning tools and can guide client engagements. This webinar will address some challenges and opportunities that arise out of this. Agenda The role of Artificial Intelligence, Data and Analytics in Key Account Planning Intelligent and Contextual Insights Evolving role of Key Account Management teams Augmented Intelligence vs Artificial Intelligence Speakers Milind Katti Co-Founder & COO DemandFarm Rick Bradberry Principal Analyst & Exec. Advisor B2B Sales Forrester Joshua Gregg Vice President, Strategic Accounts The Qt Company Michael McCarthy Senior Business & Technology Consultant, Sales Enablement Duke Energy Watch the webinar on-demand:
3 Ways John used Salesforce Partner DemandFarm to Grow his Key Accounts
If you are managing Strategic Accounts using Salesforce within any sales organization, this one is for you! Salesforce partner DemandFarm’s data-driven and scalable practices helps you increase revenue from your key accounts. Sales teams now get support in terms of insights, best practices, and timely nudges. This has helped them experience a boost of at least 20% in their productivity with focus on the key aspects of account growth. If you are highly reliant on sales data being in spreadsheets and presentations, unable to coordinate between global teams, and are missing trends in the B2B buying processes, then the Account Planner is your go-to fix. DemandFarm’s Account Planner can help you: Enhance digital account management practices Get an instant, real-time view of your progress Use contextual insights to rapidly grow your accounts Download this E-book to learn how DemandFarm can enable you with Actionable Sales Insights to transform your digital selling today!
Shift to Digital Key Account Management with Anees Merchant
As Key Account Management practices head towards a virtual direction, technology takes the center stage. Account Managers and Sales Leaders have to accommodate evolving customer trends and expectations. DemandFarm’s Dr. Karthik Nagendra – Chief Marketing Officer had a one-on-one conversation with Anees Merchant – EVP Global Growth, from Course5i on the Digital Key Account Management journey. Course 5i is a pure-play data analytics and insights company that focuses on helping organizations drive digital transformation using artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, and insights. The following sections cover some of the inputs from the discussion with Anees Merchant about technology as a key enabler, leveraging multiple stakeholders, transitioning into a digital era of Account Management and much more. Digital Key Account Management – why is it needed now? The optimum process to drive sales and client organization involves account management principles and practices. It is important to not only have a large set of accounts within an organization, but also to have good value accounts. When delving deeper into key accounts, understanding their innate capabilities is needed. Account management institutes a process and governance within the organization not only with the sales or client-facing teams, but also with the entire organization. This sort of Key Account Management process helped scale up Key Accounts. Digital Key Account Management in particular has transformed interactions with clients and how to build relationships at a larger scale. In addition, the digital Key Account Management space is also one that is continually evolving. According to Mr. Merchant, “Buyers have changed their behaviors in a significant way. There are many people now who can participate in the buying decision which was never the case before.” Day by day, it is becoming vital for organizations to leverage technology to enable key account management processes. Challenges when adopting Digital Key Account Management “We also had our own share of learning challenges along the way. At the end of the day we work with humans and we work with human behaviors and it’s hard to change,” says Mr. Merchant. Here are a few challenges that were encountered when shifting to Digital Key Account Management within Course5i. Building processes of governance and reporting so that employees feel that Key Account Management is a part of their job, and not just an additional burden. Integrating finance organizations within this process. Inculcating a sense of transparency into the process so that visibility into industry benchmark and company benchmark fosters growth. Making the Key Account Management process more real-time as an analytics and AI company. Benefits of adopting Digital Key Account Management The following are some of the benefits that have come from shifting to a Digital Key Account Management process. 1. Marquee Accounts Every organization has certain marquee accounts, long tails and recently acquired accounts within key industries. After adopting digital Key Account Management practices, sales leads are able to identify patterns between these accounts and between different verticals that can be leveraged. Marquee accounts are getting bigger and long tails are driving better growth for the company as well. 2. Enhanced customer centricity Integrating digital tools into the Key Account Management process of an organization has the ability to enhance understanding of the customer for the sales team. The ability to look at an account from various facets and various departments in an organization gives a real insight. Shifting to Digital Key Account Management enables scaling up accounts in this manner. Things to keep in mind when adopting a Digital Key Account Management process 1. Get the process right: Think before you act on how to go about before you bring on the technology element. It is crucial to understand, plan and map out how you will be able to go ahead and drive revenue goals. 2. Transparency: Involve people within the organization as part of the process from the beginning itself. This helps unburden the process of transition. Additionally, they can see the impact a digital Key Account Management system would make and how it can improve the overall functioning of the organization. 3. Integration: It becomes much more difficult to drive a piece of technology if it does not seamlessly integrate within the existing ecosystem. The transition to adopting a Digital Key Account Management becomes much easier when it can gel with your existing CRM platform. 4. Do a pilot: Depending on the size of your organization, doing a trial of the Key Account Management processes with a few accounts can bring a deeper understanding when it comes to the hindrances and value that you are able to incorporate. It is critical to keep all these aspects in mind when evaluating the different platforms for transitioning into digital Key Account Management. This is what makes DemandFarm’s Org Chart and Account Planner stand out. They integrate without any hitches to your CRM platform. Listen to the complete conversation with Anees Merchant below.
Key Account Management Strategy: 4 Successful Account Management Strategies for Account Planning
A major portion of a company’s sales typically come from a small group of customers. Or, as the saying goes, around 80% of a company’s profit will come from 20% of its clients or accounts. We’ve all heard this management adage time and again. However, it continues to hold for many businesses around the world, no matter their size or the industry in which they operate. That’s why it’s critical to have proper strategies in place to ensure you, as a company, manage 20% of your clients with extra care than you normally would. How do you do that? By strategizing and picking the best account management practices for your firm. But despite the best account managers, Key Account Management strategies and approaches are failing. The main reasons behind a failed key account management strategy are a few critical mistakes that organizations tend to make. Those include a misguided selection of key accounts in the first place, overburdening key account managers, and wasting of resources, according to a study by Gartner published earlier this year. By resolving these issues, sales teams can greatly improve their key account growth, the study adds. source: Gartner What is Key Account Planning? Key Account Planning or Strategic Account Planning is a business process that entirely deals with the administration of these strategic key accounts. The best way to administer key accounts is to nurture them into long-term relationships. Key accounts are not just those that are bringing in the most money to your company right now, but can also offer the most promising prospects for growth. The Key Account Management process, in short, involves employing key account managers to maintain, develop and nurture those key accounts, and strategic customer relationships. It requires more in-depth and specialized handling than the role performed by the larger sales team. The popular saying is that in sales, you sell. But when it comes to Key Account Management, you help customers buy. What are the benefits of Account Planning? Key account planning offers a few important benefits for businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, that make it a must-have. Account Planning is considered one of the most effective ways to both grow revenue and safeguard current sales. In other words, with Account Planning, in one stroke, an organization can protect its present while simultaneously working towards the future. By using Account Planning strategies, your business gains opportunities to cross-sell and upsell additional products or services to existing customers. Can you do this without Account Planning? Perhaps. But it would be a haphazard process. Account Planning ensures that your key account managers or sales reps know exactly which products or services to pitch, and which existing client to pitch it to. As we mentioned above, Account Planning also allows you to protect your existing customer base. It helps curb customer churn. When you use Account Planning strategies, your key account managers and sales rep are armed with the right tools. They can offer personalized solutions to customers who matter. In the process, what occurs is a mutually beneficial transaction between your organization and your key accounts. How do you use key account planning in your business? In the rest of this article, we give you a starting point by examining four best account planning strategies that will benefit your organization. Four Successful Key Account Management Strategies for Account Planning 1. Select the right key accounts How do you identify your key accounts? That should be the first question that comes to your mind, before you can even think about what Key Account Management strategies you need to implement. Key accounts or strategic customers aren’t only the ones that are bringing you the largest chunk of revenue. There are several other parameters that you need to consider before you can designate a client or customer as a key account. Here’s a look at some of those factors you need to consider to arrive at your own list of key accounts or strategic customers: Historic data: How much revenue has an account brought in over the years? How has its ratio of contribution to your company’s profits/revenue expanded (or shrunk) with time? Answering questions like these give you a more accurate and comprehensive description of key accounts in terms of revenue contribution. Growth potential: Now that you have an idea of how much revenue an account has historically contributed to, the next step is to map out its growth potential. How much more can your company earn from an account? Is there enough long-term potential? Do you believe that the organization is financially sound and will remain so for the foreseeable future? Value potential: Does the company offer you opportunities for growth that’s not necessarily based on numbers? For example, does the company have an extensive network or connections that you can tap into? Does it have access to resources you may need, or come with a stellar industry reputation that makes them a value add to your portfolio of customers? Match potential: Of course, it goes without saying that any account you are looking to classify as a key account must be a fit with your own company. For example, the solutions you currently offer (and plan to in future) must, obviously, be a match with what the other organization wants. Often, the culture of a strategic customer also ought to match your own, as it makes it easier to do business with them. As you implement a selection strategy to identify your strategic customers or key accounts, it’s very important to remember not to go overboard. It may be tempting to create a large portfolio of key accounts under the assumption that it boosts your company’s credentials. But the process is meant to be a narrow, selective one. You don’t want to end up with a long list of key accounts that may not be strategic for your company. When you do that, you run the risk of having to remove or demote some accounts, and that can cause unnecessary
Sales vs. Account Management: The Relationship between Sales and Account Management
Account Management vs. Sales: The Difference Between Key Account Management and Selling. Managing accounts and selling products seem different, but the functions of both practices share plenty of similarities. The relationship between Sales and Account Management is about getting the product in front of the customers, but while sales processes end when a product is purchased, Account management never stops. In simple words, sales teams bring customers in, and account management nurtures them and helps both entities grow. Both account management and sales have goals that are similar – building strong customer relationships, and increasing revenue of their organization. Both are important for the organization to be successful, but the skill sets required are very different. What is Sales? Sales, for B2B companies, involves a wide range of responsibilities on a day-to-day basis which are carried out to connect the solutions/products/services of the organization to relevant customers. Members of sales teams should know the solutions/products/services they’re selling inside out, so that they match & offer solutions that suit the unique needs of their clients. By discussing the benefits of different products, they connect with possible clients – and are involved in creating special deals for high-value clients. It is their job to keep up with sales reports and marketing data, writing contracts (and invoices once the sale is closed), and achieve sales targets set. What Do Sales Managers Do? Sales managers are the backbone of any sales team. Their primary responsibility is to drive revenue growth by meeting sales targets and closing deals. They lead a team of sales representatives, setting sales goals, developing sales strategies, and monitoring sales performance. Sales managers play a pivotal role in qualifying leads, creating sales presentations, and ensuring that the sales process runs smoothly from start to finish. What is Account Management? Account managers should also be proficient in sales activities, but few key differences can be observed between the roles. Account management roles are created to build a strategic relationships with clients after the sale is done, so that the satisfaction levels with the product or solution are high. Account management teams also act as advisers to their customers, and help them plan their long-term growth strategies. Apart from customer development and upselling to grow existing accounts, the account management team also keeps customer service success as their first priority. Case Study: TaskUs registered a 30% increase in up-selling & 20% increase in cross-selling What Do Account Managers Do? Account managers, on the other hand, focus on building and maintaining long-term relationships with clients. Their goal is to ensure customer satisfaction and foster client loyalty. They manage key accounts, providing personalized solutions and addressing client concerns. Account managers excel in relationship management, often acting as the main point of contact for clients and ensuring that their needs are met consistently. Where sales and account management work well together! In small and medium-sized businesses, organizations can have their sales teams handle account management too. This gives the members of sales teams a better look at their customer’s needs, and allows them to craft customized plans. As both sales and account management are critical roles, organizations should consider bifurcating them once they have reached a considerable size. Since account management also involves cross-selling and upselling whenever opportunities arise, sales teams can build their product presence quickly – but managing the account where no selling is involved might get a bit difficult in some cases. Even if sales team members are responsible for strategic account management, leaders of the vendor organization must ensure the team members understand the different skills required to execute both roles successfully. Sales Vs. Account Management: The Difference Between Key Account Management and Selling Understanding the difference between the elements of each discipline, can help the two teams work together, exchange information and share best practices, and grow faster. Some differences that can be highlighted between the functioning of sales and Account management teams are listed below. 1. Pre-sale and post-sale activities Sales teams are traditionally responsible for bringing in new customers, and they usually have only transactional relationships with the customer’s employees. The ownership of the customer transfers to account management teams, who develop a relationship with the customers, understand their issues and help them grow their business. Using key account management software can help both teams equally, as the data about the customer in the vendor organization’s enterprise memory can be used by both teams to great effect. While the sales processes can convert better with personalised solution scenarios, account management can start delighting the customer from day 1 with the data about the issues and how the solution is being used. Deep expertise in the solution’s capabilities allows both teams to seize the opportunity presented by the extra information at their disposal. 2. Hunting for customers and farming that adds value to them Allusions to hunting are aplenty in sales circles, where sales executives scout out the prospects and then close the deal (or ‘hunt’ them). The task of account management, in this scenario, is to ‘farm’ the value brought by the sales team and keep all involved parties satisfied. The data about customers can help them identify ways to cater to the customers’ needs and respond quickly. This is important for client satisfaction and to build good healthy long term client relationship. 3. Shorter and longer frequencies While both teams follow different cadences of work, at the end – they are tied to the client’s decisions. There’s no way to know how long closing a deal will take – ranging from weeks and months to even years (for large enterprise customers), sales teams keep their pitch on all the time. They don’t rest until the sale is closed and the account is handed to… the account management team. The account management team starts selling once the sales team stops – and doesn’t rest. In that way, both teams work on unpredictable cycles, and the amount of information they collect in either stage can hugely benefit the other team. Even if the sales process fails to close, for example, after 8 months – the sales team would have
