Account Planning Tool- A Strategic Investment
Account Planning tools that help you grow revenue Digital transformation has prompted many businesses to invest in account planning tools. Retention, understandably, is a big reason. But, underlying that is also the desire to systematize and institutionalize account planning. Increasing customer retention by just five percent increases profits by 25 to 95 percent – Harvard Business Study. Account Planning is a basic framework for every organization to have a customer-centric approach to increasing customer retention. An Account Planning Template helps in understanding the accounts, analyzing, planning, and delivering the right solution for the right customer. It substitutes the rigorous effort required at the backend and helps you with proper strategic account planning that can be simplified by employing proper account planning tools with advanced features. Is your account planning software missing out on any basic features? Is it causing you to lose any major revenue opportunities? No worries! Account Planning does not have to be stressful! Eliminate account data silos with easy bi-directional sync Explore the essential features below to examine your account planning tool. Account Planning tool within your CRM- To Analyze your Key Accounts 1. Whitespace Analysis Understand current engagements with accounts and explore possible opportunities & whitespaces with the whitespace analysis. Whitespace mapping is the virtual representation of data to uncover hidden white space opportunities to target. It helps you to identify the gap between the products/services your customers require vs the products/services you offer. Understanding the pain points at different levels and offering the right solution helps increase revenue from the existing customers. 2. Relationship Mapping Know the organizational hierarchy of the accounts to better understand the relationships and the influences between the contacts. Relationship mapping helps you visualize all the key stakeholders in one place. This tool enables effortless stakeholder mapping for your key accounts- org chart software also helps salespeople to explore detailed information about the contacts of the accounts on the budget control, influences they have on each other, etc., 3. Communication Matrix Capture all your interactions to sketch the communication pattern which can help in planning a communication strategy. The communication matrix helps you optimize the time for salespeople by giving a trend analysis of the interactions made with the clients. Finding a successful communication pattern and following the same will help close more deals in less time. Account Planning tool within your CRM- To Develop your Business Strategy 1. Account Segmentation Segment accounts based on the account health score to understand them objectively. Account Segmentation will help you segment the client accounts into different buckets based on various attribute scores marked in a graph with account attractiveness across relationship scores. This enables the salespeople to come up with the right strategic account management action plan based on the account positions like Star, Strategic, Streamline and ignore. 2. Competitor Stacking With competitor analysis, understand the strengths and weaknesses of competitors along with the analysis of customer spend vs wallet share. Competitor Analysis allows you to better understand the market, potential, and behavior of the customers. This analysis with a bunch of data gives a company an advantage over the competitors to grow by developing new market strategies. 3. Annual Account Plans Build your account plan with the growth strategy for Buying centers, Engagements, Financials, and Revenue. Annual account plans provide directions for every function in the company to plan their objectives and strategies for the year. Though these strategic account plans are not so elaborated, they help you with insights into the changes to be made in the current structure to drive future growth. Though most companies follow yearly strategic account planning, it must be a continuous process throughout the year to be more effective. Would you like to understand how Account Planning can transform your business? We have cracked the code! Account Planning tool within your CRM- To Track and Govern your Key Accounts Know your progress against yearly plans with a comprehensive account planning tool. A Key Account Management Software gathers real-time data from the CRM and helps you to track multiple parameters to check progress against the plans. Mapping dynamic goals and priorities of the Client to ongoing plans will enable you to make the right strategic calls at the right time. Using Account Planning Tools, Powerful actionable insights can be derived to avoid deviations from the goals. These three account planning & strategy best practices can turn potential clients into key revenue-generating clients. Though Key Account planning is a tough journey, a technology-driven approach with data insights can transform account planning as a whole. So, it’s time to take stock and use the right Account Planning Tools to have a pain-free Account Planning experience.
Org Chart Builder for Better Key Account Management
If I were to summarize the essence of key account management, it would be ‘value creation’ for the customer. To create value for the customer, a key account manager must understand the customer’s business well to figure out what challenges they may face and then create solutions to address those challenges using his own products, services, people, technology or even process. Before that, he needs to understand the customer’s organization in and out which can be actualized by org chart builder. Let’s say this is done. What’s next? The key account manager must now communicate this solution to the right people in the customer organization and that hope they believe in him and the solutions he proposes. But in order to do so, there are some questions that must be answered: Who are the right people to touch base with? Where do they lie in the formal hierarchy of their organization? What are the informal influences between those people? Who are our supporters and detractors today? Who controls what budgets? With whom have we won/lost opportunities in the past? Who are pursuing active opportunities today? Who is that champion who can introduce him to that ‘unaware’ contact with a big budget? Most of the answers to these questions are what we sometimes call ‘tribal knowledge’. It is in the heads of multiple people in our company. In Salesforce, all that can be seen is a list of the contacts in a very unappealing way. Consolidating all this knowledge into an interactive and visual heat map is integral. This is generally called an Org Chart for Key Accounts and is critical to not only building relationships but also in communicating their value to all key account managers who may need to leverage it. With an Org Chart Software, it becomes a lot easier to build interactive org charts that can be accessed by the entire key account management team. Org Charts are traditionally created to illustrate graphically the organization’s formal hierarchy. Its main purpose is to show the relationships and job positions of all the employees of the organization. Employee names and titles are depicted in boxes with lines linking them to departments and other employees. By looking at the chart, viewers can understand the structure of the organization, levels of seniority and where each employee lies in it. Various organizations can use org charts internally to do any of the following: Leaders can effectively manage growth/change Employees can understand how their work impacts the organization Improved communication An employee directory for ready reference Present other types of information, such as business entity structures and data hierarchies The best organizational chart is one that allows this hapless key account manager to understand how to navigate the murky waters of value addition for clients. I would love to say that this is the perfect white space opportunity for your business and you should rush out and make such software. But unfortunately, there is no denying that many have already understood the value of this type of an org chart builder (s). There are many options in the market currently. But with so many options of organizational chart builders how is a key account manager to decide which one is the best? Which is where we come in! We’ve collated a list of the key features an ideal org chart tool should certainly have to effectively help key account managers. Key features of Ideal Org Chart builder 1. Superior UI and UX The way a user interacts with the software and how his experience with it is has to be one of the most important features. It isn’t enough to just give great results, the user shouldn’t struggle to reach those results. Highly Visual An ideal organizational chart maker shouldn’t be list-oriented, it should be extremely visual. A user should be able to understand in a single glance exactly what relationships the different participants have with one another and the key account manager’s organization. Drag and Drop Functionality Key account managers are a busy lot and physically sifting through large volumes of data and changing properties can be much too time intensive. Having a simple and quick drag and drop functionality that allows users to drag and drop contacts into an org chart is definitely a feature to look out for. 2. Flexibility in Purchase Although an organizational chart software isn’t a big-ticket purchase like a comprehensive key account management software, flexibility in payment terms should definitely be sought out. Try before you Buy Isn’t it very annoying when you download the free version of the software and have to purchase it for additional features? Some Organizational Chart Software allows you the option to try a full version for free for a limited period of time and then purchase it if you like the functionality. Flexible Payment Options Org Chart Builders can have multiple payment options. Depending on feasibility you can either opt for a monthly, quarterly or yearly payment. These tailor-made payment plans can allow your organization to allocate limited resources elsewhere. 3. Key Account Manager Specific Minimal Data Entry Having a standalone Org Chart builder will require key account managers to input large volumes of data which is highly unnecessary in the golden age of Salesforce. A 100% Native to Salesforce app can allow you to use your Salesforce data to create org charts eliminating any additional data entry. Internal Influences A formal hierarchy can only take key account managers so far. In an organization some people may have a considerable influence on the budgetary allocation and some may also be in a position of influence with CXO level officials; despite being lower in the formal structure. An ideal Organizational Chart Software should represent this data visually to ensure a better understanding of which contacts to tap for key account managers. Relationship Strength In large organizations, there may be some contacts who may be ardent supporters of your organization and others may have proven to be detractors. Trying to tap
Key Account Managers are also Key Employees
In most companies where there are hundreds or thousands of employees, it becomes very hard for each employee to link their final output to a significant contribution to the company’s bottom line. This is where I, as a Key Account Manager, really shine!According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of a business’s revenue and profits will come from 20% of its clients. My brethren and I have the privilege to be entrusted with 20% of these clients who are the biggest spenders in our organization. Thus, I am in a position where my success/failure can critically impact the company’s fortunes. Revenue growth Year on Year is my primary goal each year. A simple reason for this is the following: Value of Company at the beginning of Year 1 = $10Mn, out of which 4 accounts contribute to 80% of revenue. Value of my Key Account= $2Mn, Growth = 50%. Therefore, the Value of my Key Account is now = $3Mn. Assumption: None of the other accounts grew. My account is now contributing an additional at the end of Year 1 = 10%. My ability to enhance the portfolio offered to my client by 50% can improve the company’s revenue by a whopping 10%. These are extremely lofty aspirations, so how do I really manage to impact the company’s bottom line? The answer is actually two-fold: Tangible Benefits: These are the benefits that can be measured in monetary terms and contribute to the revenue of the firm. I virtually have a lever by which I can bump up the revenues of the company with effort on my part. 1) Reduce Churn When I am dealing with star clients, I make it my primary purpose in life to go above and beyond the expectations they have from my company. Why do I do that? Because attracting fresh customer costs 5 times as much as retaining an existing one. 2) Increased Use of Products / Services My job is to not only ensure that customers remain with us but to ensure that each year we are able to provide them additional products/services. This requires not only knowledge of my products, but it also requires a deep understanding of customers’ business. 3) Improved Profit Margins Each time I sell an additional product/service to a key account I allow the overall profit margins of my company to rise. The reason for this is the elimination of any acquisition cost we would otherwise have to bear to sell this additional unit. Did you know that existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more than new customers? With key accounts forming such a vast chunk of my company’s revenue it is integral that I also concentrate on profit margins. 4) Maximize Customer Lifetime Value For me it isn’t sufficient to just look at the year on year growth as a key strategist it is very important for me to also maximize customer lifetime value. To maximize this value, it is integral for me to not just look at the short term, but a long-term view. This requires foresight and a deep understanding of the client’s business. Guide: Comprehensive Career Path for a Key Account Manager Intangible Benefits There are some benefits that I can get for my company with concerted efforts but they are immeasurable. 1) Closer Relationships with Clients It is a proven fact that when the client has a single touchpoint there is a marked improvement in the trust endowed in the relationship mapping. As a practitioner of Key Account Management, I am in a position of extreme trust with all of my clients. Building relationships with such corporate executives are not easy, but once I do manage it there is a huge reduction in client-business conflicts and an enhanced ability to understand the problems a client faces. All of this further reinforces the client’s trust in me. 2) Product Development Insight I literally have my ear to the ground the entire time. How do you ask? It’s because I am interacting directly with clients. I am in a position where I know exactly what the market thinks about our products and services and this allows me to give insights to the product team for both iterations and new product development. So not only can I strategize for key accounts I can also develop insights that can help my own company future proof itself. 3) Executive-to-Executive Relationships The friendships I develop with high executives allow me to be their confidante in this cut-throat world. When they shift companies, I often find them still turning to me for business which results in additional clients being added to my roster. The phrase “Your Network is Your Net Worth” resonates with my soul! 4) Increase in Referrals As stated above, I share a particularly strong bond with my clients. My proven results year on year prompt them to refer my company’s services to their powerful friend network. This results in quite a few referrals each year, which further drives down overall client acquisition costs. I am an integral part of my company and there is a whole slew of possibilities through which I can create value for it. My strategic insights can prove to be an asset not only for my clients but also for my own company. And that, my friends, is why I am a key employee of my firm!
Strategic Analysis of Key Accounts
A strategic account plan is all about thinking hard and making decisions that have a long-term impact. You don’t make strategic decisions every day. The data and information are available to make these decisions are often limited. It’s the ability of the person to use his/her experience, knowledge and judgment that determines better decisions. This is very complex and person dependent. I believe the right framework could reduce the complexity and help in arriving at better decisions and faster. Management thinkers over the decades have given us certain frameworks to make this strategic thinking easier. Prominent examples that come to my mind are Porter’s Five Forces model & Maslow’s Need Hierarchy. If you observe carefully these frameworks do not give us answers, but help us ask the right questions. Key Account Planning & Management also requires a strategic account management plan and thinking. Key Account Management Software helps you in the process of winning by strategizing ideas, but at least once a year we need to look beyond dollar numbers, relationships, and activities to think about our Key Accounts. I set out to look for frameworks to facilitate this thinking. What I liked most was from the book “Key Account Management-The definitive guide” by Malcolm McDonald & Diana Woodburn. Here are some of the frameworks I would like to use: We would like our engagement with key accounts to be at the strategic level. How do I assess the level of engagement? The level of engagement can be Tactical, Cooperative, Interdependent or Strategic. Ask yourself a set of questions about the key account to know where is the Key Account today. A little math with the right weight to each question and a corresponding answer can tell us the level of engagement. Only knowing the level of engagement is not enough to start taking actions. It must be matched with the account attractiveness and our strength of the relationship in that account. That leads us to the next framework. Strategic: Invest mind-share and ensure profitability Star: Invest time and money. Need not be profitable yet. Status: Maintain the status quo. Streamline: Manage for profitability. Do you know any other frameworks that could help analyzing the key accounts? I would love to know. Because at DemandFarm, we are on a mission to make strategic account planning and management easier and effective with white space mapping.
Relationship Mapping Strategies: A Complete Guide to Master Them
Upselling, cross-selling, and the entire scope for your revenue expansion hinge on understanding the reality of relationships within your key account. Customer relationship mapping serves as a strategy that helps visualize these connections, offering critical insights that traditional methods like organizational charts can’t capture. Relationship maps often employ a relationship heat map, which visualizes the strength of relationships using colours or line thickness. For instance, strong, frequent interactions might be represented by bold lines, while occasional contact might appear as thinner or dotted lines. These relationship mapping examples demonstrate how identifying key influencers within a client’s ecosystem can lead to more effective engagement for successful outcomes. Read on to learn how strategic relationship mapping tools help visualize account dynamics, offer valuable insights, and illustrate the informal networks that influence decision-making, workflow, and information dissemination. Imagine this: A key account manager might discover through relationship mapping that the decision-making process in a major client company involves not just the C-suite but also influential middle managers and technical leads who have significant sway over procurement choices. Armed with this insight, strategies can be tailored to engage all relevant stakeholders, ensuring comprehensive coverage and better alignment with the client’s needs. Importance of a Relationship Map A well-crafted relationship map provides a dynamic blueprint of the interplay between different stakeholders, helping organizations navigate internal politics, foster collaboration, and enhance communication. It’s precious in scenarios such as managing change, driving sales strategies, or implementing complex projects where understanding the influence and roles of various individuals can significantly impact outcomes. What is a Relationship Map? A relationship map is a visual representation of the connections between individuals or entities within an organization. Unlike a traditional org chart, which outlines hierarchical reporting lines, a relationship map highlights informal networks—showing who communicates with whom, who holds influence, and how these connections impact business processes. This strategic tool goes beyond surface-level interactions, uncovering hidden influences and connections that can drive decision-making, shape workflows, and even impact customer relationships. Understanding these informal networks allows key account managers to target the right people with the right messages, ensuring that sales strategies and stakeholder engagements are perfectly aligned with internal dynamics. Key Components of Relationship Mapping and How to create a relationship map? At its core, a relationship map consists of two fundamental elements: nodes and links. These components work together to provide a visual representation of the network within and around an organization. Nodes represent individuals or entities. In a business context, a node could be a key account manager, a client contact, or even an entire department. The positioning and size of each node might vary to reflect the entity’s role or significance within the network. For instance, a node representing a CEO might be more central and larger compared to one representing a junior staff member, signaling the CEO’s broader influence across the organization. Links connect the nodes and show the relationships between them. These relationships could be professional, such as reporting lines or collaboration histories, or personal, reflecting mentorship roles or informal communication channels. The strength of a link often denotes the intensity or frequency of interactions between the nodes. For example, a thick line might indicate regular collaboration on projects, while a dotted line might show occasional communication. Additionally, attributes of these relationships are critical for a deeper understanding of the network dynamics. These attributes include: Strength: How strong is the influence or dependency between entities? A strong relationship might mean frequent interaction and significant influence on decision-making processes. Frequency of Contact: How often do the entities interact? Regular weekly meetings might suggest a closer relationship compared to quarterly check-ins. Influence Level: What is the level of influence of one entity over another? For example, a senior director likely has a high influence level over their direct reports but might also wield considerable informal influence over other departments In practice, consider a relationship map created for a sales team. It might reveal that a salesperson frequently collaborates with the marketing team more than their direct sales colleagues, influencing product promotion strategies significantly. This insight can help managers adjust roles or support structures to optimize team performance. The 6-step Process to Create a Business Relationship Mapping 1. Identify Objectives Before you start mapping, clarify what you hope to accomplish. Objectives can vary widely, from improving sales strategies to enhancing internal communications or managing stakeholder relationships. For instance, a company might use a relationship map to identify key decision-makers in a client company to tailor their sales approach effectively. Every client-side team will have various positions, which are demands made by certain individuals or parties. These positions stem from the multiple strong reasons that parties will have. This could be their needs, concerns, hopes, desires, and fears. The closer your agreement is to the overall interest, the better the deal. 2. Gather Data Collect detailed information about the individuals and relationships you need to include in the map. This involves not just names and titles but also the nature of their connections, the history of their interactions, and their influence levels. Tools like surveys, interviews, and internal records can be useful here. In practice, a project manager might gather data from team members about their previous collaborations and areas of expertise. The relevance or the pecking order of the individual or group is a subjective measure that will keep changing in the client’s lifecycle. This is why keeping this map updated is so important. This is helpful because by clarifying your interests before a negotiation, you will be in a better position to define your goals for the negotiation. Using this list, you can create a diagram that speaks about all the stakeholder groups and the individuals within them. This diagram should give you a fairly good idea for everyone who is involved. 3. Identify the Interests of the stakeholders within the account After having made a list of all the relevant players, you must now analyze them. You will have to jot down these client interests
Build Strategic Account Plans in Salesforce with DemandFarm
What is Strategic Account Planning in Salesforce? Strategic accounts are the lifeline of every organization which brings substantial profit through repeat business for several years. Strategic account planning is the process of building robust plans to offer proactive management for these strategic accounts to help them in achieving business goals. In this blog, you will also understand the importance of Account Planning within your Salesforce CRM. 56.5% of Organizations don’t take advantage of account planning tools to grow their strategic accounts. Though Account planning takes much effort and time, organizations can benefit from addressing the level of complexity and competition which is increasingly common in sales today. Above all, a good key account planning strategy will invariably lead to great account plans for all strategic accounts. Hence, Effective key account management must be an ongoing process and not just a one-year event which can reduce the complexity and save time. Key Benefits of Strategic Account Planning Better Win rate (75%) Increased understanding of customers’ business (72%) Shorter sales cycles (58%) Better customer loyalty (55%) Increased deal size (49%) Better executive access (47%) Identify non-competitive deals (27%) Case Study: Healthcare Industry Company Boosts Strategic Account Revenue by 30% Account Planning in Salesforce ‘Account Planning is more strategic than tactical’ Over the decades the account planning process has become stale and ineffective. There are two primary reasons Firstly, account planning methodologies have become too complex and theoretical. Most importantly, the account planning templates thrust down to the account managers are just a checkbox item filled once before the year and forgotten. It’s not that Account Planning is only tactical. Perhaps it’s more strategic now. Moreover, the strategy is in thinking of a better solution for the customer that they haven’t thought about. Earlier the strategy was supplying to the customer’s defined strategy. So how do we solve this? You can solve this by enabling Account planning in Salesforce CRM. Salesforce is one of the most popular customer relationship management tools in the world. It helps the sales team to automate their daily tasks and provides them with valuable insights into customers. Sales Account Planning is one of the most important sales tasks that is mostly executed outside of CRM. The complexity increases, because there are a lot of third-party integrations necessary. To optimize this, the sales team must be empowered with key account management software to execute account planning inside the CRM. What is the Process of Account Planning in Salesforce? The components of the strategic account planning process could be: There is a lot of user-created data that already exist in Salesforce – Contacts, Opportunities … Salesforce has plenty of tools to pull intelligence around accounts, contacts from social networks, and the internet. Also pull in data from other relevant systems – outlook/google calendar, CPQ, etc. These sources already have built connectors to Salesforce. That provides account teams with a deeper understanding of their account – landscape, whitespaces, and financials. Configure simpler Salesforce Account Planning templates Check out DemandFarm’s Key Account Management & Salesforce Native Account Planning Software on Salesforce Appexchange What does Salesforce Account Planning look like? Account teams have visual maps of their accounts in terms of landscape (products versus buying centers), a Salesforce Org chart with a heat map, and financials including existing deals, active opportunities, and forecasts. Armed with this data and insights build account plans easily inside Salesforce. You can track and review your accounts live with Salesforce account planning. Collaborate with all stakeholders across your organization to drive growth. 6 Reasons why you should opt for 100% native Salesforce app for your account planning: Simpler to use: 100% Native Salesforce Apps are always simpler to use leading to quick training & onboarding cycle & high adoption rates Real-time analysis: All of your data is updated in real-time and is always 100% accurate and 100% up-to-date Secure: Native apps comply to all the organizational security settings established within your Salesforce Data Protection: No security risk since data never goes outside your Salesforce CRM Lightning Fast: 100% native app also means that your reports will run faster and save you time Skip Sync Issues: No syncing issues like that can make you lose valuable data or create inconsistencies While making account plans in Salesforce always ask for account management tools that are 100% native to Salesforce. Essential Features of Account Planning Software within Salesforce 1. Data Analysis and Tracking Keeping track of your Sales Account Plan is the key to effective account planning. A good Key Account Management software will allow you to create plans with milestones and timelines. It should also help you check your progress against your goals and provide you with timely alerts so that you can make proactive changes. A visual pipeline with the different deal stages and with each stage divided into tasks is ideal. It’s also important to have industry analysis tools that keep you informed on industry trends and market forces. Similarly, customer relationship analysis is a must-have in any strategic account planning template software as it’s the key to understanding the customer. Customer strategy maps (to assess your customer’s short-term and long-term strategy), stakeholder assessments, and competitor assessments are all essential tracking tools that should be a part of your KAM software. 2. Visualization to Represent Key Analyses Given the variety and complexity of stakeholders that need to be tracked and analyzed, information overload is a real possibility. Given that the human brain is much more receptive to visual data, your strategic account software should enable the visual representation of complex data. This will help managers make faster strategic decisions. A bird’s eye view of strategic account management helps to identify opportunities and quickly present value-added solutions to the client. 3. Data Consolidation Without strategic account software, most of your data will likely be all over the place in different formats, from Word docs to PPTs to spreadsheets. It’s important to have consolidated on one platform so that everyone can access data in a consistent format and be
Understanding SAM (Strategic Account Management) Better
SAM, as Strategic Account Management is often called, is very often misunderstood to an extent that it becomes important for us to talk about it every now and then. Such is the criticality of this concept called SAM that we cannot afford to ignore it. The strategic account management process is about building value-driven relationships with your key customers. It is a synonym of Key Account Management. The strategic account manager’s role is to identify those key customers that generate maximum revenue and profitability as compared to other regular accounts. With DemandFarm’s Account Planning Software, account managers can reduce the time and effort involved in the entire process but we’ll get to it later. These managers act as a bridge between the company and stakeholders at the customer side. The idea is to increase customer lifecycle value by starting small like with a free trial or test project, adding value and building trust. So here we are, with SAM again. Let’s go busting certain myths about SAM, one by one. The first thing we need to know about SAM is that it is not just an elite organization’s hobby or interest or vanity for that matter. Most people and most salespeople think and believe that SAM is only for the top-notch, revenue earning monstrous sized conglomerates. Which is not the case. It is not a concept or a practice reserved for the elite few, it is for everyone, every organization that has certain important accounts, we call as Strategic Accounts. SAM is not defined by the size of the organization, big or small customer, or its strength of people. It is defined by the criticality of the Account, the value of that account in the organization’s portfolio. The potential of that Account is the most important determinant. SAM is part of the larger business strategy and not a selling practice. This part needs to be weighed in a proper light. SAM is a strategy; it belongs to Account Management and not sales. It has a different methodology to it; there is more of prospect nurturing to SAM than the classic way ‘selling’ happens. There is a different team that looks aft SAM. This team needs to be hired differently, trained differently and evaluated in a different manner. SAM is not too expensive, time-consuming or complicated. It is simply working on a different plane than the Sales plane. It is more about co-creation, collaboration, and value creation – with the customer and for the customer. The focus of SAM is on winning through relationship building, lead nurturing and becoming a true partner, the customer’s trusted advisor. As against sales, which is more transactional in nature. SAM works on addressing the looming danger that every organization faces, of its products becoming commodities. SAM helps in creating key differentiators in value to the customer and hence leads to better Key Account Management. And better Key Account Management leads to revenue growth. Just because SAM is not easily understood, organizations typically shoo it away not knowing that they are shooing away a huge opportunity in creating value for their own organizations as well. But all hope is not lost. To truly understand what SAM is, we urge you to look at SAMA. SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association) is a non-profit, 8,000-member organization that can help your company determine whether SAM is the right direction, and help you in your efforts to implement and maintain a successful SAM initiative. SAMA’s mission is to “establish the strategic, key, and global account management as a separate profession, career path, and proven corporate strategy for growth.” Strategic Account Management Association is a knowledge exchange base, an extensive network of experts and practitioners focused solely on the area of strategic account management. Before you shrug SAM away, do visit SAMA (http://www.strategicaccounts.org/)
Insight Selling – The Key to Good Strategic Account Management
Are you leveraging insight selling for strategic account management? The strategic account management process is about building value-driven relationships with your key customers. It is a synonym of Key Account Management. The strategic account manager’s role is to identify those key customers that generate maximum revenue and profitability as compared to other regular accounts. These managers act as a bridge between the company and stakeholders on the customer side. The idea is to increase customer lifecycle value by starting small with a free trial or test project, adding value, and building trust. Insight selling may come across as a complex term but broken down into digestible shots is a simple term to absorb and practice. Insights that the seller offers the buyer during the entire buying journey, from the first call he makes to the email he writes, helps the buyers in their decision. The 3 Stages of Insight Selling for Strategic Account Management 1. Collaborate Collaborate with the buyer in discussions about his current situation. See if you can spot a problem or an opportunity. See if your buyer is trying to mitigate ‘pain’ or increase ‘pleasure’. Once you identify this part, collaborate with him in discussions on ideas of how to solve his problem or get a solution to his situation. The buyer needs a partner, a friend who thinks out of the box, who is not part of his team, yet is ready and willing to partner with him in ideas without getting into bean crunching. The buyer needs to see that the sales rep is proactive and willing to take things further in the long term. Once he sees that the sales rep is willing, the buyer begins to develop a liking towards the sales rep, which is the key step in building trust. 2. Persuade The moment sellers start looking at buyers as human beings like everyone around us is, they stop thinking of them as devils, who are there to pick a thorn in everything sellers have to say. In selling, it is called ‘stepping into the shoes of the buyer’ or ‘empathetic listening’. Whatever you label it, as sales reps we need to think from the buyer’s point of view. Some tips: What is the buyer looking for? Maximizing his ROI. Give him the numbers, the statistics, and case studies he needs to be convinced about a good ROI. Help him calculate, even. No harm! Be an expert not just on the product you are selling, but the pros and cons of your product and also the competitors’. More than that, make sure you know the numbers game like the back of your hand. Because the buyer first wants to know whether going with you is a rationally and financially correct decision. Convince the buyer that he is choosing a minimum risk, safe position, when he decides to go with you. Buyers, like you and me, are a frightening lot. Inwardly. They don’t show it. But remember, it is always lonely at the top; and making the right decision about something, which costs a lot of money may be a frightful moment for your buyer. Help him by providing case studies to show that when he goes with you, he is choosing a minimum risk position. Do not hesitate to focus on the risks involved with other choices, in case, he chooses those. A buyer will want your insights into his decision. You have already won him over by collaborating on the journey so far; now he wants you to help him take the final call. You are in a position of power but also in a position of immense responsibility. You have to talk about the risks involved clearly with his choice, but you also need to help him mitigate those risks. This will help the buyer partner with you. 3. Co-create Co-create with the buyer. Make the buyer feel that you are helping him make the right choice. If you haven’t already learned your lesson the hard way, the buyer dislikes it when the sellers try to hard sell or push their way down his throat. He is more inclined to consider buying from you if you make him feel that you are helping HIM make the right choice, and not pushing your choice on him. A key human emotion is that every person needs to reinforce the feeling to himself that he has taken the right decision. Help your buyer do that. Insightful and intuitive selling helps in building long-lasting, trusted relationships between the seller and buyer and goes a long way in building your Strategic Accounts, and also helps in better Key Account Management. If you liked our blog, you can also read about the 6 strategies of Cross-Selling. You can also explore our blog on cross-selling and up-selling in which we’ve elaborated how it can be used to grow business in 2021.
9 Quick Steps of Key Account Management Process
Key Account Management Process The title may make it all sound easy and that the Key Account Management process can be created in 9 easy steps. But as you may already know it isn’t that simple. However, the sooner begun, the better done. Let’s cut to the chase and start knocking out the 9 steps easy and quick. KAM Glossary: Crucial Account Management Terms Explained These 9 steps go over key account planning, setting up, implementing and reviewing a key account management process. Step 1: Building a Framework Build a Key Account Management framework that suits your needs, targets and goals. Define your Key Account Management journey including adherence to processes and the timeline for your targets. Build roadmaps with milestones and goal-setting. Step 2: Account Segmentation Identify and use analytical thought to determine what your key accounts are. Analyze both potential and current contribution to determine key accounts. Use analytical thinking to understand stakeholders and understand your key customers. This helps the sales team segment the client accounts into different buckets. This will enable salespeople to come up with the right strategic action plan based on account positions. Nearly 33% of a SaaS vendor’s revenue is usually a result of a few key accounts. Nurturing these key accounts and growing with those relationships is important to produce stronger results while lowering selling costs side-by-side. Segmenting key accounts, therefore, becomes essential for future growth. To learn more about the need for key account segmentation, the types of key account segmentation and various customer segmentation strategies, check out this blog here. Step 3: Defining Roles and Responsibilities Identify the major personas that will be involved with the key account management process – Account Management, Sales Enablement, Sales Leadership, Sales Ops, Revenue Ops etc. Determine what their roles will be, how it will play into your Key Account Management process. In addition, establish how they will collaborate with each other. Step 4: Draw up a Key Account Plan Blueprint This blueprint should clearly state the main direction, opportunities, and priorities for each Key Account. It should have a direct link to customer information and should be built as a collaborative effort between internal and external stakeholders. This should then be made available and accessible to all involved in the account. It is also important to check if you have had the customer involved and cued into this plan. Having clarity on which information is important and which is not is also essential. A large amount of information is of no use if it is not relevant information. In addition, it is important to have the information regularly updated, and in real-time ideally. Step 5: Get into Action The key is to get into action and have a clear plan. This should include pondering on questions like: This should include: What needs to be done? By when (clear timelines need to be specified and agreed upon and followed)? Who will be involved and who takes ownership? How will results or success be defined, measured, reviewed and communicated? What’s your troubleshooting plan? What are the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved? What is the escalation POA? Last-minute crisis in case the account is in danger? Step 6: Track, Monitor, and Recalibrate Account plans are dynamic and relationships keep changing. It is inevitable that you will lose some whitespaces, or miss out on some crucial data in the process. It is essential to keep track of Account Plans, continuously monitor changes and recalibrate based on these changes. In addition, a vital part of the Key Account Management process includes course-correcting plans along the way to ensure growth and progress in your accounts. Evaluate Now: Framework to Assess your Key Account Management Maturity Guide Step 7: Communicate with internal and external stakeholders The plan stays on paper if it is not shared and buy-ins are not done in time. Internal Stakeholders Internal stakeholders that are the team members need to know the customer status and value to be delivered at all interfaces. Clear roles need to be charted and communicated. A few questions need to be answered: – Is the customer status/value recognized at all touchpoints? – Regarding the proposition, what you will / will not deliver? – Are the roles of all of the account managers known? Read Now: Stakeholder Mapping for Key Accounts External Stakeholders Externally, customers need to have details of all members on his account. They need to be in agreement with the proposition, opportunities, priorities, and activity. Once again, there are a few questions that must always be dealt with: – Do customers on that Key Account have access to the details of the account team? – Are they bought into the proposition, opportunities, priorities, and all planned activities? – Have the KPIs been shared with and agreed by the customer? Step 8: Opportunity Planning As important as it is to manage accounts via Key Account Management framework, it is just as important to have a proven framework for Opportunity Planning. Having a framework for monitoring opportunities, opportunity planning & management capabilities ensures that you don’t rely just on your CRM for knowing your customers. Map stakeholders and identify potential hurdles, keep track of your team’s progress on large enterprise accounts. Use relevant intelligence to strategize and plan tactics to build a buyer-focused opportunity plan. Read Now: The Practical Guide to Sales Opportunity Management Step 9: Monitor, Control, and Review the Key Account Management Process This step checks the critical parameter and is the final determinant of success with regards to the following: – Value / profitability – Plan progress – jointly monitored efficiency – Whether the identified opportunities have materialized – Whether the Account management KPIs and SLAs have been achieved – Formal measurement of relationship quality using a formal evaluation process – Whether you would still place this account in the Key Accounts roster These nine steps, if followed diligently and exhaustively, will help you set the Key Account Management process in place and make it
Top 3 Highlights of Dreamforce 2019
Dreamforce 2019 Dreamforce – undoubtedly one of the largest tech events in the world. Salesforce’s massive event gathers more than 170,000 attendees at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco. Dreamforce 2019 was an electrifying week filled with innovation, excitement, and inspiration. 4 Days; 2,700+ sessions; 50+ speakers Did you get a chance to catch up on any of the keynotes or ‘fireside chat’ between Marc Benioff and Apple’s Tim Cook? But other than these wonderful conversations, there are few important highlights of Dreamforce 2019 which you need to know! Welcoming the Newbie – Tableau Since Salesforce’s acquisition of Tableau for a whopping 15.7 billion in an all-stock deal in May, lots of efforts are put in to employ the massive capabilities of the leading analytics platform inside Salesforce. Salesforce has also made huge investments in AI which can boost Tableau’s efforts shortly. In the keynote, Adam Selipsky, President and CEO spoke about the need for building a data culture within every organization. Starting the keynote, Selipskya specified the merger as a “natural combination” to join Salesforce. In terms of fit & overlap, Selipsky and Benioff gave a high-level overview of what to expect. Anyways, users and partners can definitely expect some high-level analytical advancements in the Salesforce platform very sooner. ‘Hey Einstein’ – Voice to Customer experience ‘Hey Einstein’ is similar to Alexa or Google’s assistant but a more focused solution for the workplace. It’s all about bringing Salesforce closer to the community by introducing voice access to Salesforce data which will enable salespeople to quickly access data on the go and to ask the system questions about their data. Salesforce is soon launching a tool that will allow companies to quickly build basic Einstein skills to pull up data from Salesforce. Salesforce Chief Product Officer Bret Taylor gave a small demo and added that “We’re really excited about the idea of voice in businesses — the idea that every business can have an AI guide to their business decisions”. The list of announcements included. 1. Einstein Voice Skills Ready-made dialogue snippets and tools tailored toward specific roles or industries, designed to help “admins and developers to build custom, voice-powered Salesforce apps”, which could be rendered as Alexa Skills, Google Assistant Actions, or other tasks that can be carried out by voice assistants. 2. Service Cloud Voice Resources that closely integrate contact center functions with Service Cloud-based applications and services, enabling agents to avail themselves of Einstein in all its capabilities through a “unified agent console”. 3. Einstein Call Coaching Console for managers that use conversational data to spot trends and provide sales reps with best practices and insights to support designed to improve customer experience (CX). Trailhead GO One of the key announcements at Dreamforce was a deepening of the partnership between Apple and Salesforce. The Giants – Apple and Salesforce have jointly come up with a new companion app Trailhead Go – a sales coach and learning solution which is compatible with iOS and iPad OS. This also implies that no Android for now. Announced in Dreamforce and now integrated with the Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce has entered into the Edutech market providing its users and partners with the best technology resources. Though priced at $25, it’s worth it because of new enhancements of AI and Voice power. Also note that Salesforce has redesigned and launched its Salesforce Mobile app with advanced features like deeper analytics and insights to users, using Siri shortcuts and FaceID with Apple’s design features. It’s completely free and is available in the app store. Conclusion With all these exciting announcements about partnerships and developments, Dreamforce 2019 has ended up leaving us excited for the future of technology. What was your highlight of Dreamforce 2019? Write to us and also stay tuned for our next blog on ‘Account Planning sessions in Dreamforce 19 – Everything you need to know!’