Tag: Best Practices

Webinar with Forrester: Scaling KAM Best Practices: Engineering Repeatability for Revenue Expansion

Recent economic headwinds have spurred organizations to rethink key account management (KAM). B2B companies are keen on swapping hit-or-miss approaches with repeatable processes that guarantee retention and growth. The wedge in this pursuit? Static plans and lack of clarity on how to standardize best practices across their key accounts. A ~27% increase in cross-sell and upsell opportunities isn’t far-fetched if you know how to standardize key account planning best practices at scale. In our webinar featuring Forrester Analyst Steve Silver on Mar 28, we discuss: 1. A definitive road map for implementing key account management (KAM) best practices. 2. What should your ideal KAM tool look like? 3. If you are just beginning your KAM journey, what best practices should you spend time on? 4. How long should your KAM implementation go on for? (See a real-world case study from our recent implementation) 5. What short, mid and long term metrics should you be tracking as a best practice?   Watch the webinar on-demand:

Automate to Accelerate: Streamlining Sales Processes for Greater Efficiency and Productivity

Automate to Accelerate: Streamlining Sales Processes for Greater Efficiency and Productivity Automation of standard and routine tasks is one of the biggest trends that is shaping the modern business landscape. Top companies and organizations are keenly embracing automation to drive cost efficiency and improved sales. Automation in the sales realm is proving to be particularly useful as it helps streamline several processes resulting in higher productivity and efficiency. Several new-age tools are being adopted to eliminate or reduce the time spent on tedious or administrative tasks and free up bandwidth for sales reps to focus on revenue-generating tasks. A cross-functional research conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) reports that technology can automate almost a third of sales and sales operations tasks. For instance, messages shared by salespeople at different junctures of the customer journey can be automated. This simple automated task gives them more time to nurture leads to close more deals and consolidate existing customer relationships. Understanding Sales Automation To fully understand the application and benefits of sales automation, let us first understand what it entails. Sales automation is the process of leveraging software and digital tools to automate a wide range of sales processes from email marketing, to lead generation and sales forecasting. The most widely used tools for sales automation leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and include chatbots, virtual assistants, email, and appointment automation. For example, a gym sales CRM can help streamline tasks like membership management, client follow-ups, and appointment scheduling, improving overall operational efficiency. These cutting-edge tools are invaluable resources for sales reps and help them finalize more deals while establishing stronger relationships with customers. Sales automation tools can also be merged with customer relationship management (CRM) systems to provide smarter insights into the requirements of your buyers. By understanding your audience, their needs, habits, and pain points, you can customize and fine-tune your sales strategy and customize your campaigns to funnel leads through the customer’s journey. Lead Generation and Management Leads are generated in large volumes at the beginning of the sales process. Sifting through this ocean of data can be tiring and time-consuming. It’s also challenging for your sales reps to gauge a lead’s actual interest in your product or service. Thanks to sales automation tools, you can now prioritize leads, channel your team’s energy, and focus on the most valuable ones. By leveraging artificial intelligence, sales automation tools can simplify several tasks such as lead generation and lead scoring, and achieve maximum conversions and higher efficiency. During the prospecting stage, sales automation tools provide information about leads to sales reps and help them create a great first impression. Your sales team spends a lot of time and energy in qualifying leads and remains uncertain about conversion. They can now rely on automation of the lead prioritization process to qualify leads faster. Sales automation tools can ensure that prospects are right for your business before you start contacting them. This process is a boon, especially for organizations that face the challenge of longer sales cycles and low conversion rates. Sales reps depend on lead scoring to know the status of the lead in the sales process. By leveraging lead scoring they can decide if the lead is sales ready, a warm lead, or a cold lead. A sales tracking software can automate this process and help you identify people who are most likely to buy from your business. Instead of servicing every customer, your team can concentrate on interacting with warm leads and ensuring their conversion. They can also tap into automated lead enrichment tools to mine customer information from different data sources. This arms your sales reps with a comprehensive profile of prospects to nurture their relationship with them. Streamlining Sales Funnel and Pipeline Management It’s the aim of every business to maximize leads in their sales pipeline, as more leads result in more conversions and higher profits. However, managing leads and converting them requires more sophisticated tools than spreadsheets and email. With the help of sales automation tools, a large volume of leads can be managed in the sales funnel. AI-powered sales automation tools mine customer data and contact details and streamline regular communication apart from making product recommendations to customers. You can also utilize these tools to standardize and refine the sales workflow over time. Sales automation provides a holistic picture of your sales pipeline and aids in the identification of promising leads and opportunities. They also give you an overview of where the prospects are placed in the buying cycle and help you strategize successful conversions. Sales Reporting and Analytics Automation tools are also favored for their analytics and reporting capabilities. In order to stay on top of your KPIs and sales metrics you need access to in-depth analytics. These tools are a great asset as they are capable of automatically generating reports for stakeholders and managers. Sales leaders are increasingly counting on sales automation to spot opportunities and make data-driven business decisions. Automation is more relevant than ever as it helps in generating consistent data and processes for your entire team. With the help of automation, you can avoid discrepancies and duplications that might hamper your sales processes. By reducing the scope for human error, you can guarantee the accuracy of your data and findings. Integrating CRM and Sales Automation In these times dominated by digital innovations, optimizing the customer experience and staying ahead of the competition requires us to actively integrate our systems and create scalable synergies. By adopting Salesforce integration, we can bring together CRM systems and sales automation and streamline these processes. AI tools used in sales automation play an important role in understanding customers creating a deeper understanding of prospects. Data from various sources such as CRM systems, website interactions, and social media is analyzed to create customer profiles that are a big asset for sales reps. This is just one example of salesforce integration, and sales automation features are included in many CRM systems. Integrating these two integral platforms can go a long

Best Practices for Developing a Digital Key Account Management Strategy

In today’s sales landscape, implementing a successful Key Account Management (KAM) strategy can often mean the difference between success and failure. However, with the rise of digital technology, traditional KAM strategies may no longer be enough to meet the needs of the modern customer. This is where digital Key Account Management (DKAM) enters the scene. By allowing companies to leverage data and technology digital Key Account Management provides a more personalized and customer-centric approach to sales. In fact, according to a recent survey, 84% of sales leaders believe that digital Key Account Management is crucial to their organization’s success. Despite this, many sales leaders and sales enablement leaders have challenges with developing and implementing effective digital Key Account Management strategies that align with their company’s goals and objectives. Whitepaper: The Impact of Digital Key Account Management on Sales Enablement Here, you’ll discover the best practices for developing a digital Key Account Management strategy. One that will meet the specific needs of your customers and drive sales success. From identifying account management key performance metrics and setting clear objectives to tailoring your approach to each customer and measuring your results – you’ll find all you need to know to succeed in today’s digital business ecosystem.  Key Components of Digital Key Account Management  B2B companies today are increasingly adopting digital strategies to stay competitive. For sales leaders and sales enablement leaders developing a Key Account Management strategy is essential. This helps with building strong and lasting relationships with key customers but also adapting to the changing needs of their customers.  However, successful implementation of digital Key Account Management requires a deep understanding of its key components and features. Here are some fundamental elements of digital Key Account Management, including how it builds upon traditional Key Account Management practices and the essential components of a successful digital Key Account Management strategy. Listen to The Shift: #1 Podcast on Digital Key Account Management   Overview of Traditional Key Account Management and its Translation to the Digital World: Traditional Key Account Management involves building strong relationships with key customers to drive long-term growth and profitability. However, in the digital age, businesses must also leverage technology to improve customer experiences and foster deeper relationships. Digital Key Account Management involves using data analysis and personalized communication to provide these exact results. By intelligently using digital tools and platforms, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their key accounts’ needs and preferences, and tailor their approach accordingly.  Key Features of Successful Digital Key Account Management: Effective digital Key Account Management involves several key features, including: Customer-centric approach: In the B2B sector, customers are looking for personalized solutions that meet their unique needs. A digital Key Account Management strategy should prioritize a customer-centric approach that puts the customers’ needs at the forefront.  Data analysis: One of the advantages of a digital approach to Key Account Management is the ability to collect and analyze data. By analyzing customer data and interactions, sales teams can identify trends and opportunities to improve customer engagement and retention. Personalized communication: Effective and clear communication is critical to building strong relationships with key accounts. A digital Key Account Management strategy should include personalized communication that directly addresses the customer’s needs and preferences. Customer feedback: Gathering feedback from key accounts is essential to understanding their needs and identifying opportunities for improvement. A digital approach allows for easy collection and analysis of customer feedback. It thus enables sales teams to quickly adapt and respond to customer needs. These key components must be part of every digital Key Account Management strategy. By incorporating these features, sales leaders and sales enablement leaders will be on the path to providing exceptional customer service, building better relationships with key accounts and enhancing business performance.  Developing Your Digital Key Account Management Plan  B2B clients today conduct active research online. In fact, over 60% of all B2B transactions start online.  Also, close to 90% of B2B CMOs believe that customer experience will be more critical in the industry in the years ahead. These statistics highlight the importance of a well-planned and executed digital Key Account Management strategy. To stay in the race and outperform the competition, businesses must think creatively and incorporate innovative approaches into their plan.  Learn More: 7 Key Takeaways for a Successful Key Account Management Transformation Journey Here are some key steps to consider when developing your digital Key Account Management plan: 1. Set clear objectives and goals for your digital strategy: It’s important to start by identifying the key objectives and goals of your digital strategy. What are you hoping to achieve with your key accounts? What specific outcomes do you want to see? Having clear goals in mind will help you focus your efforts and measure your progress. 2. Identify key performance metrics and KPIs to track progress: Once you’ve established your goals, it’s critical to identify the account management key performance metrics and KPIs that will help you track your progress. Metrics that could be included are revenue growth, lead conversion rates, and customer satisfaction. By tracking these metrics over time, you can identify what’s working and what’s not and make adjustments as needed.  Learn More: Key MetricsTo Measure The Success Of Your Digital Key Account Management Program 3. Create a framework for your digital strategy that aligns with company goals and objectives: It’s important to ensure that your digital Key Account Management plan is aligned with your company’s broader goals and objectives. To do this you will need to create an Account Management framework that takes these goals and objectives into account. This could mean including elements like your company’s mission statement, core values and strategic objectives. By integrating these elements into your digital Key Account Management plan, you can ensure that your efforts are in line with your overall business strategy.  These steps will help you develop a comprehensive and effective digital Key Account Management plan that drives business growth. It also helps you build long-lasting relationships with your most valuable customers.  Implementing Your

The Do’s and Don’ts of Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs)

Before the do’s and don’ts, let us be clear – Quarterly business reviews are not for every client that an organization has. QBRs require effort from multiple members of the sales team to get a clear understanding of how the service helps customers take their business strategy forward. Quarterly business reviews show what can be acted upon based on this understanding, and can be fine-tuned with help from customers. They are a useful tool for B2B product companies to evaluate their performance and make strategic decisions. Company leaders can review key metrics such as revenue, customer retention, and product usage, and identify areas for improvement. They also allow for open communication between different departments and can help to identify any bottlenecks or roadblocks that may be affecting the company’s overall performance. For companies to stay on track with their goals and objectives, QBRs provide insights to make any necessary adjustments to their strategy in a timely manner and ensure the continued growth and success of the product. Read More: Essential QBR Metrics to Track For Account Growth What are Quarterly business reviews? Quarterly business reviews (QBRs) for key accounts are regular meetings between a company and its important customers to review the status of their relationship and identify opportunities for growth and improvement. During these meetings, the company typically presents data on key performance indicators, such as sales and revenue, and discusses any issues or concerns that have arisen. The customer also has the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience and suggest areas for improvement. QBRs are an important tool for maintaining and strengthening key business relationships. Learn more: QBR Playbook for Sales and Account Management Leaders Why are QBRs important? Quarterly business reviews provide a regular opportunity to review and assess the performance of the business and identify areas for improvement. QBRs can also help product organizations to better understand their customers’ needs and preferences, and make necessary adjustments to their products and services. QBRs can help product organizations to: Monitor progress regularly. The process of QBR helps product organizations identify any areas that are underperforming or not meeting their expectations. Inputs allow product organizations to make necessary adjustments to their products and services to better meet the needs of their customers. Identify opportunities for growth and expansion, like new markets, product lines, or services that the product organization can explore to increase revenue and profitability. Improve customer satisfaction by regularly checking in with their customers to understand their needs and preferences. Product organizations can better meet the needs of their customers and increase customer satisfaction. Increase efficiency by conducting regular QBRs, and identify areas where they can improve their internal processes. This can help product organizations to increase efficiency and productivity, ultimately leading to increased profitability. Quarterly business reviews are important for product organizations as they provide a regular opportunity to review and assess the performance of the business, identify areas for improvement, and make necessary adjustments to better meet the needs of their customers. How to gauge an effective QBR? Apart from measuring customer satisfaction through surveys and feedback forms, progress can be tracked against agreed-upon goals and other methods. The service provider and customer organization should have agreed-upon ways to track and report that can be examined during the quarterly review. Evaluate communication and collaboration: The effectiveness of the quarterly business review should be evaluated based on the level of communication and collaboration between the Sales teams and customer organization. Track incident and problem resolution: Taking into account the number and severity of incidents and problems that have been resolved during the quarter, gives an indication of how the product is developing. Monitor service level agreements (SLAs): Performance against agreed-upon SLAs need to be reviewed as market circumstances change, to highlight if any changes are necessary. Review financial metrics: Cost savings, revenue, profitability and other financial metrics show if there are any avenues that can be leveraged. Assess the use of technology: Using tools that simplify business reviews can give sales teams more time to actually engage with the client meaningfully. Seek feedback: The customer organization should be given the opportunity to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the quarterly business review and the Sales team’s overall performance. businesses often use tools like survey platforms, embedded forms, or QR codes to collect post-meeting feedback quickly and efficiently. Solutions such as the QR Code generator make it easy to create custom codes that link directly to feedback forms. 4 Common mistakes to avoid while doing a QBR Business reviews should always be conducted in a strategic mode, not a tactical one. That rules out support requests and other business-as-usual practices to save time. A clear agenda keeps the discussion pointed, and keeping the discussion time-bound creates necessary urgency. Here are some common follies that can derail quarterly business reviews: 1. Not setting effective goals Quarterly business reviews are meant to foster growth, and the goals should reflect this. The meeting should be about both parties (the customer and the vendor sales team) deciding on the steps to achieve their most important goals. Starting with what both teams want to achieve in the next few quarters can give a definitive direction. The goals can be as simple as presenting actionable ideas to clients and get their buy-in, to the complex facets involving finance and production. Usage statistics and event summaries should reflect this aim so that the topics are kept in the conversation for the entire quarter. 2. Assuming customer needs Customer input on the agenda is a crucial part of a quarterly business review. Once the agenda is set, sharing it with the customer team and asking if there’s anything else they want in the business review keeps them involved. This skin in the game leads to productive discussions, and reduces efforts of sales teams too – as they don’t have to pull stats for something that the customer is not interested in looking at, right now.  3. Treating all customers the same Customers can

10 Best Practices to Run Highly Productive Quarterly Business Reviews

Quarterly business reviews (QBRs) are an essential tool for driving success in any organization. These regular meetings provide a platform for you and your customer to review progress, assess the performance of your product or service, identify areas for improvement and discover growth opportunities.  By conducting QBRs, your company can stay on track to achieve your goals, stay competitive in the market and ensure you’re meeting your customers’ needs. You can use this platform to listen to feedback from your customers and then use this information to make improvements to your offerings. You can thus remain relevant to your customers and build closer ties with them.  One of the key benefits of QBRs is that they provide an opportunity to quickly identify and address problems or challenges that may have arisen. You can promptly address these, thus avoiding bigger problems and a negative impact on your business. It also helps with retaining your best customers.  QBRs are a great tool for communication. By inviting and encouraging open and honest feedback and allowing your customers time to address concerns and challenges you build trust and foster collaboration. Through these sessions, your customer can share their ideas and concerns and you can work with them to develop workable and relevant solutions.  They are a great way to compare progress against the goals and objectives set. You’re able to demonstrate how your product or service has helped your customer achieve success in their goals. By understanding their future plans, you can tailor your product so it continues to be a part of their triumph.   Quarterly business reviews when done right are time-consuming and need a lot of planning and preparation. After all, you want to make the most of this one-on-one time with the key stakeholders of your customer’s business. If their only interaction has been with your product, you will want to establish a connection and develop a long-term relationship with them. So, make sure you are prepared to impress them at that meeting.  Read More: Essential QBR Metrics to Track For Account Growth Here are 10 best practices that will help you make your quarterly business reviews effective, impressive and productive. Choosing Your Customers Defining Objectives And Goals Inviting Participation From Key Customer Stakeholders Creating and Circulating An Agenda Effectively Using Data and Metrics  Encouraging Active Participation Reviewing Progress Against Previous Goals And Objectives Sharing Updates From The QBR Session Leveraging Technology and Data-Analytics Planning For The Next Quarter Learn more: QBR Playbook for Sales and Account Management Leaders 1. Choosing Your Customers Since you need to invest time, energy and resources in planning and conducting quarterly business reviews, you need to make a wise investment. Choosing the right customers is an important step in ensuring the success of these meetings because they can provide valuable feedback and help you identify areas for improvement.  When choosing who you want to conduct quarterly business reviews for, you can consider the following: Your most valuable customers. These can be your oldest customers, those that generate the highest volume or those who have a high lifetime customer value. These key accounts can provide valuable feedback and insights, and their opinions are important to the success of the company. Highly engaged customers. Choose customers that have recently been in contact with your company, those that have heavy engagement on your social media or have a history of providing relevant and helpful feedback. Engaged customers are more likely to actively participate in the QBR process. Customers with diverse perspectives. Look for customers across industries, geographies and company sizes. Getting feedback from different perspectives will give you a more comprehensive view of your product and will help identify areas for improvement.  Make sure to get permission from your customers before inviting them to participate in a QBR. Emphasize that the session presents an opportunity for them to be heard and to influence product upgrades and improvements.   2. Defining Objectives And Goals You need to clearly define the objectives and goals of your quarterly business review in advance and share them with all those you expect to attend.  Having clear objectives and goals helps to ensure that the QBR is focused and productive. It provides structure and direction to the discussion. All attendees understand the expected outcomes and this ensures the review stays on track and doesn’t veer off into tangents or unproductive discussions. Clear goals and objectives also provide a framework for evaluating the success of your QBR.  Sharing the goals and objectives with all attendees in advance helps them come prepared for the meeting. Thus resulting in more targeted and efficient discussions during the meeting.  It’s important to set specific and measurable objectives and goals. For example, the goal of ‘increasing customer satisfaction’ is too broad and generic. It can be better defined as ‘increasing customer satisfaction by 10% within the next quarter’. This makes the goal easier to measure and progress easier to track. 3. Inviting Participation From Key Customer Stakeholders Inviting key customer stakeholders to participate in QBRs is an excellent way to ensure the success of these meetings. Stakeholders can include decision-makers, key influencers, product users and other individuals who play an important role in the relationship between you and your customer. Don’t be afraid to invite people across the company. If they can provide relevant and helpful feedback on your product and service, invite them! Different perspectives only mean more robust feedback.  Key stakeholders can provide valuable information about the usage and perceived value of your product. You can gain insight into your customer’s experience, their priorities and needs, their future goals and plans. This allows you to better shape your strategy and plans and tailor your products to meet the needs of the market.  The QBR helps foster better relationships with your customers. Highlighting the role your product played in achieving success for your customer will help them better appreciate your alliance and product. Seeing their opinions and feedback given due attention and incorporated makes them feel valued. This leads

Best Practices for the B2B Side of Key Account Management

Focus on key accounts is a lot more important in the B2B sector, and for good reason: the complexity of B2B businesses demands efficiency, and handling a large roster of customers all of whom clamor for attention can stretch teams thin. B2B businesses rely on customer management heavily to keep a steady sales flow. While they focus on key accounts, the management strategy usually follows regular account management practices. Based on the size and the products offered, vendor organizations can have multiple criteria for identifying key accounts, but it is important to understand the nuances of customer needs before embarking on a key account management process. Leaders of the organization can guide or collaborate on creating a plan for key accounts, with multiple departments – and implement practices that benefit both the customer and the vendor. The business of key accounts The first factor that pops up when ‘key’ accounts are mentioned, is revenue. Classifying customers based on the revenue share they bring to the organization is a common classification method, as any customer that drives a large chunk of revenue should be treated well. These key account contacts can also refer new prospects, because word of mouth carries a lot of weight when critical business functions are involved. Their endorsement can also lend credibility to the organization and its products, along with opportunities to learn, evolve and innovate. The major focus should be on prioritizing the future of the partnership, instead of instant gains. Understanding parameters like recurring sales, customer’s lifetime value, scope of innovation and common growth, and shared goals can make the choice of key customers obvious. Collaboration between multiple teams is necessary to provide a strong support that successfully nurtures them. Re-evaluating the current sales process can shed light on how long-term relationships can be formed with key customers, and can reveal if the upselling potential of the product is a feasible option. What does a successful key account manager do? Providing training in strategic account management is the preferred option for 61% of organizations to achieve greater revenue and customer satisfaction. Training teams on understanding best account management practices, allows managers to determine what accounts can be termed ‘key’ ones and apply different tactics instead of focusing on closing a one-time deal. Strengthening ties and aligning with customer goals for the short and long term requires key account managers to think beyond the box.  1. Making personal connections that focus on business might sound like an oxymoron, but strategic account managers with their in-depth customer knowledge can provide extremely personalized solutions to the problems faced by their customers. They can change their pitch sequence to address these issues, and convince customers on how the product is suited to fulfil their needs. They can also pitch customizations and add-ons that customers can use to extract additional value from their operations. The understanding of accounts keeps teams to be proactive, anticipate customer needs, and stay up-to-date on industry trends.  Having a personal equation also allows employees to alert and educate customers about potential changes. Customers nowadays want a partner who can guide them into understanding best practices and why they matter, so that they can focus on the core aspects of their job and not spending time on researching a tangential aspect of their task. Results show that customer satisfaction can lead to a bump of 20% and more in engagement, while improving revenue generation by more than 15%. 2. Tailoring solutions in the best way possible right from the moment of pitching, can allow managers to create customer-specific product plans and benefits. Showing the benefits of the product usage to the customers on a regular basis switches the focus of customers on to the extra value provided, can be even interested in upselling opportunities with the same product, or other offerings from the vendor. based on the needs of each account. By tailoring the services to meet specific needs, the relationship can be elevated from buyer and seller to business partners. The big-picture view of key account management gives managers the freedom to fit relevant services in regular workflows of customer organization. The streamlining promotes confidence in the abilities of the solution provider, and interactions between both parties can take a consultation-based role. 3. Enabling decision making is essential for managing high-value accounts, which require time and resources of multiple teams and employees. Having a strong manager who can take calls that are in the interests of both parties and not just short-term gains, can drive operations smoothly. People skills and clarity in communication are essential for key account managers who handle large accounts that have multiple client stakeholders. Organizations should also look into tools that help in structuring and analyzing data, so that managers can plan future strategies with certainty, and keep team members on track.  Why can’t all customers become key accounts? There’s a limit to key account management practices, and no matter how sophisticated a vendor’s processes are, some customer partnerships don’t develop past the transaction phase. Trying to convert such clients by assigning more resources, can only complicate matters – as it is really difficult to scale a client don from ‘key’ status, without losing it. Enthusiastic managers might be keen to designate the account they’ve just won as ‘key’, but leaders should have steps in place to negate such euphoric decisions. Highlighting differences between one-off transactions and potential partnerships through various lenses can solve this issue, and also helps managers look at factors beyond revenue (which is very important, but not the only important factor).The ratio of revenue to cost for customers shows the current state, while determining potential to expand ensures future growth, and highlights any mismatches with product fit. Based on the trajectory, key account managers can look at upselling and cross-selling, and push their customers toward high value status. Unlocking value from digital analytics AI and ML (machine learning) have made further inroads into efficiency and usability, and they can help B2B account management practices evolve too.

Driving Sales Excellence in 2025: What, Why, and How?

Our story begins in 2003, a time of great distress in British Cycling. The national cycling team of Great Britain was the epitome of mediocrity at the time, having won just one medal in a century of existence. Fast-forward to 2008 and the squad took home 7 out of the 10 available medals in the Beijing Olympics – a remarkable feat that they would repeat in the 2012 London Olympics. In fact, by 2015, the squad had even won three Tour de France – the holy grail of competitive cycling. Make no mistake. This is much more than your average rags to riches story. But a natural question begs – how did the worst cycling team in the world suddenly turn into world champions? Our answer lies in the strategy of “the aggregation of marginal gains”. It was Introduced by Dave Brailsford in 2003 when he was appointed the new performance director of British Cycling. The idea was simple yet hauntingly effective – to think small and not big. This involved breaking the entire process of competing into its constituent elements and then improving each of them by 1%. In practice, this meant painting the floor of the team truck white to spot impurities that undermine bike maintenance, hiring a surgeon to educate team members on ideal hand-washing techniques to avoid illnesses, making athletes sleep in the same postures every night, and other such countless initiatives. Why does this work? How can such small improvements accumulate into such head-turning results? And most importantly, what can we learn here that can be implemented in sales and account management? Sales Excellence: Getting Ready for 2024 The What and Why of Sales Excellence As reported by Salesforce, organizations spend anywhere between 5 – 15% of their entire revenue on sales. Revenue. Not profits. This is as significant as an investment can get in a single organizational department. Naturally, it makes sense to have a well-defined framework that milks the maximum possible ROI from the equation. And this is where Sales Excellence comes in. In Key Account Management, Sales Excellence is an amalgamation and progression of all possible sales functions. Drawing parallels from the management philosophy of Dave Brailsford, this would mean constant improvement in all key initiatives that go into sales – sales training, sales culture, sales tools, sales technology, and more. From a 360-degree point of view, Sales Excellence model translates to stepping into the world of British Cycling. It cares about everything – the number of deals that are closed, deals closure times, deals won rate, the support level extended to salespeople, and much more. What Ideal Sales Excellence Looks Like For Sales Excellence and Sales acceleration to function at its ideal capacity, leaders and the organization at large need to live and breathe the practice. For a concept that involves attention to detail at unprecedented capacity, anything less than 100% buy-in would be a shame. What does such dedication look like in practice? At the foundational level, Sales Excellence strategy begins with staunch onboarding, training, and up-skilling support for salespeople in a manner that grows into the shoes of a pan-organization culture. Sales Excellence means that salespeople are not only attuned to the best practices of sales but also work closely with other departments (such as marketing) to better understand the personalized needs of every buyer. Key ingredients to formulate an ideal Sales Excellence framework includes: Sales Strategy: Scoping, understanding, and implementing ideal sales targets and budgets by taking into account both current and potential customer segments. Market Penetration and Development: Defining the best mix of digital channels that promotes market penetration at maximum capacity. Sales Processes: Defining the end-to-end sales structure and making crucial decisions related to key account management, customer classification, customer acquisition, and more. Pricing Strategy: Increasing profitability with the right pricing strategy in place. This includes closing the right number of deals, defining key accounts, order management, and more. Impact of Sales Excellence on Deal Closures In a traditional capacity, sales are driven by taking into account how effective the entire organization or sales department is in executing their roles and responsibilities. But such monitoring is often undertaken at a bird’s eye level with KPIs catering to teams or entire sales functions. Sales Excellence goes way beyond this and brings a fundamental shift in this practice. Sales Excellence questions not just the leaders or the sales functions but every individual salesperson. This means monitoring metrics such as the deal closure time, deal win rate, the training and proficiency levels of salespeople with the tools, organizational support, and the like. What does this mean? When the spotlight is on every individual salesperson, improved deal closure is nothing more than a natural byproduct of the practice. Revisiting the story of the British Cycling team, focusing on every detail in the small picture ultimately has a significant cumulative impact on the big picture. How to Measure Sales Excellence Now that you know what Sales Excellence is all about, the next step is figuring how to measure it. The age of Sales Enablement and Sales Transformation has paved the way for many key metrics and frameworks that need to be put to ideal use to measure success in Sales Excellence. Here is a round-up of the key metrics that you should be focusing on: Time to Full-Ramp: How much time does a salesperson spend to put up his/her shop? The quicker they are set up and running (in both individual and organizational capacity), the better the results. Collateral Engagement: So you have provided every salesperson with the ideal content and sales collateral. But are they putting them to good use to move prospects through their buying journey? Communication Analytics: Are salespeople eager to up-skill and keep up to date with organizational and product updates? Monitoring communications (at a high level) can be indicative of their eagerness to be prepared. Sales Performance: This is a direct measure of the effectiveness of all sales efforts and includes monitoring KPIs such as

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

Strategic Account Planning – Process, Challenges, Solutions

What is Strategic Account Planning? Account Planning for Strategic Accounts or Strategic Account Management is building value-driven relationships with your key customers that can help in long-term development and retention, thereby maximizing the revenue potential. It is a synonym for Key Account Planning. The account management process has always been complex. The complexities exist at all levels – thinking, documenting, presenting, planning, training, and reviewing. According to a CSO Insights 2016 Sales Enablement Optimization Study, 90.6% of those surveyed said that strategic account planning was relevant to them and, therefore they would do it. Therefore, key account managers must know how to build strategic account plans with the best practices. Using account planning software like DemandFarm’s Key Account Management Software can substantially streamline operations. Taking you through the entire process and strategies may be a bit too long for a blog. But in this one let me make the ‘thinking’ part a little easier with frameworks, directions, and principles for a phenomenal strategic account planning exercise. Why is strategic account planning important? Strategic account planning enables sales professionals to understand their customers better – know their needs, goals, and challenges enabling them to create customized solutions and address specific customer requirements. Account planning also pushes businesses to take proactive measures to address potential customer issues.  Important Processes of Strategic Account Planning 1. Decoding the present scenario Understand account information in terms of revenue/profitability/growth, products/services, geographic spread, and the account’s initiatives and plan for the year. This is publicly available data that can be easily found, so it makes no sense to use this to analyze your client’s financial position and organizational structure. The most relevant questions and the ones that will be unique from your competitors are questions like: Which areas of your business are most important to you? Where do you see yourself in two to four years? Are there areas of interest that you might either reduce or grow? What kinds of obstacles do you worry about? What would you like to see from a prime supplier? 2. Understanding the Voice of Customer (VOC) Ask any strategic account manager, and they will tell you that the days are gone when the client account landscape was represented by a one-way dialogue for engaging prospects. Today, account heads are shifting their listening and response mechanisms quicker as VoC represents a huge chance for driving loyalty and increased sales. What challenges, concerns, and problems have clients been discussing? How can you address those problems with the products/services of your company? This kind of insight is usually not available publicly. It involves having an in-depth discussion with customers to understand their plan and pain points which can help in new product development or even tweaking the current product to suit their strategy and requirements. The success of this depends on the quality of relationships between the client and their customers and the knowledge of both customers and your business. 3. Building Strategic Connections Through Relationship Management With Accounts  You can have multiple types of relationships with clients, and they can be either Tactical, Cooperative, Interdependent, or Strategic. You can use a simple weighted attribute method to arrive at one of the four. A skilled account manager uses the best practices and strategies to plan and create the account management organizational structure with an account plan and process in place. Having the right training and using certain principles increases the skill set of the manager to deal with strategic accounts. With People Sketch an organization chart with hierarchies, titles, and roles of all the contacts that matter. What is also helpful is to identify your supporters/detractors/champions among those contacts. Who controls what budgets? Who influences whom, both positively/negatively? Why? To convert deals and present your customers with a high-grade experience, you need to be informed of the positions your contacts hold within their business and their level of influence in the decision-making process. Mapping their level of influence and their relationships within the organization can help you to concentrate your efforts on the plan appropriately. Relationship mapping helps the sales and marketing units of the business to optimize their lead generation plans and increase revenue from existing accounts. Modern technology keeps the method of creating relation maps automated. Gathering insights using modern technology can automatically keep your relationship mapping efforts up-to-date. ‍4. Growth Opportunities Based on the above 4 data points, identify the buying centers in the account and map which of your products/services is consumed in which buying centers. Understanding Buying Centers can help key account managers in account planning and innovation. The Buying Center is a 40-year-old concept associated with Webster and Wind and can be hugely useful. The Buying Center is a part of the organization that involves a bunch of executives who have varying influence on the B2B buy decision. Performing a complete buying center analysis is an essential first step to help key account planning managers understand which messages and tactics best convey the value of their products. That can give you an idea of two types of growth areas: Mining Growth Finding out which of the existing projects/contracts/businesses can grow this year is where mining can happen. Farming Growth What new opportunities can be explored this year in your strategic account management process? That’s where farming growth comes in! All this can allow you to set a revenue goal for the year. Download Now: The Most Comprehensive White Space Analysis Template for Strategic Key Account Growth     Build a Strategic Action Plan – A Strategic Account Plan Template  You need to analyze a few categories to build an action plan for your accounts. You can start off by listing down action items, specific activities, monthly plans, and the support required, along with timelines. We are a firm believer in keeping the key account management process simple yet powerful. Over-analysis can lead to paralysis, so keep it short and simple. I would emphasize more action items and numbers and less on theory. In today’s dynamic business

Will Real Time Reporting for KAM Help Sales Ops Breathe Easy?

Real-Time Reporting won’t just help; it could power Key Account Management model to success. A veritable game-changer, possibly. The DemandFarm Blog has consistently argued how Key Accounts are latent revenue drivers. The hourglass metaphor neatly sums up the growth potential Key Accounts hold. Unfortunately, these opportunities are not evident to the extent that they become compelling. Thus, most of the time, the Key Account Management strategy is fraught with a ‘business as usual’ approach. The absence of real-time reporting plays a little role in accentuating this problem. The sales operations team entrusted with the reporting function recognizes this challenge. But what can they do? Reporting on Key Accounts is saddled with complexity. On one hand, we have the overwhelming business of the Key Account and on the other, the way organizations manage Key Accounts internally – endless Excel files sitting at various locations, PPTs whose templates keep changing, not to forget the occasional paper memos and thesis emails, and ultimately some closed-door meetings that may not have been minuted. The sales operations team has its task cut out. Why anytime reporting? Because, why should it be any other way? Ok, that was the short answer. The longer one starts with the status quo and ends with transparency. Diagnostic Status QuoToday, Sales Ops teams prepare reports by collecting data from various sources. Some of the data sources are within their control and mostly a click away. However, some, including financial metrics and sales team activities, require coordination and repeated email requests. This adds ‘point of failures’ to the workflow. Even if things work out on time, manual reconciliation issues, omission commission errors and ‘Acts of Man’, make reporting one BIG job. What this means is that the reporting process takes a couple of weeks or more? This lead time runs the risk of depreciating the value of any reporting insight if derived. What may be needed is a real-time, insight-driven report that Spurs necessary and relevant business action. Not a diagnostic that just presents what happened. Transparency to the C-Suite Key Accounts are core to an organization’s strategic plan. Their performance gets attention not just from the Head of Sales, but also from the CEO. The C-Suite, especially, is well-positioned to make a material difference to Key Accounts, by virtue of existing relationships and scale. The current diagnostic approach to reporting compromises the leveraging power of C-Suite in 3 ways. Reactive: The C-Suite has a dependency on reporting teams for insights. Thus, their reactive response. Additionally, review meetings become clarification/ correctional sessions instead of collaborative engagements designed to move forward. Optimistic Dressing: A manual approach to reporting, inadvertently, encourages optimism, and to a great extent when it comes to C-Suite reporting. How do we correct this? The big picture: the C-Suite gets reports from various Key Account teams at various times and may miss out on the BIG PICTURE of multiple Key Accounts and what that may mean to the overall organizational strategy or health. It also helps track several Annual Plans and how they are faring compared to the projections. A real-time accessible report can make the C-Suite an integral team member of the Key Account Management process. Sales Ops leaders realize this potential of any time reporting but have their own problem of plenty. The Tough life of Sales Ops An article from Harvard Business Review cleverly presents the hardships of Sales Ops by jotting down some job descriptions (JD) for the role of Sales Operations. Here is what one of the JD looked like: ‍Strategy Contribute to the 1- and 3-year business vision as a member of the executive leadership team. Evaluate sales force strategies, plans, goals, and objectives. Contribute expertise to optimize sales force and territory sizing, structuring, and alignment. Operations Oversee sales performance analyses and reporting, territory alignment, and customer profiling and targeting activities. Administer quarterly sales incentive compensation plans and the goal-setting process. Manage sales force automation and CRM systems and processes. Provide data, analyses, modeling, and reporting to support sales force quarterly business reviews. This 85-word excerpt from a JD had just ‘one’ word for ‘reporting’. Beat that. The good folks at SalesLoft in one of their eBooks dedicated to sales operations leaders broke down this role into three. Process Data, and Implementation As you guessed correctly, reporting falls under Data and is just one of the functions executed by Sales Ops. So without automation, there is a good chance of reporting becoming a distraction. In addition to this, Sales Ops are also burdened with technology and account planning tools. These days, the best sales teams are empowered by technology solutions, tools, and data. These technology solutions and tools have enabled many organizations to create sales force effectiveness and sales growth. This flow towards technology has indeed made Sales Operations a vital part of the sales by uniquely positioning them to leverage data and technology. All this requires Sales Ops to put strategic time into sales enablement, warranting the need for automated reporting. After all, we are talking about expensive salesman hours. KAM Technology to the Rescue A Key Account Management tool can surely help organize data better and enables sales leaders and indeed all stakeholders to have access to reports and data anywhere anytime. Leverage Existing Data – Leverage existing CRM data to populate analytics rather than depending on the managers, SDRs, and KAMs to fill it out for you. Collate all the data into a single format and store it in a single place so everybody can access and interpret it consistently and in real-time. The platform for Collaboration – It can provide a platform for collaboration between the many stakeholders involved in managing and growing the most strategic customers by making reports and actions shareable and interactive. Insights Like Never Before – Deliver the right customer-centric insights for clarity and action. The landscape, whitespace, opportunities, relationship ‘type’, ‘health’, and ‘attractiveness’ everything to make strategic decisions about key accounts. KAM Technology empowers Sales Ops teams to service and drive business focused