Most global B2B companies have realised they need to manage their major customers - who represent most of their future revenue and profit - differently to the rest of their customers. Why? Well if you want to create opportunities to grow with your major customers, and earn the right to keep doing business with them, you need to offer much more than the average supplier. How can you do this?
Read MoreManaging accounts strategically is different to managing accounts operationally. Some of the differences are highlighted in this blog.
Read MoreYou can find lists of competencies for account managers, for example from the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA). Many of these list the technical knowledge needed. However the most critical skill an account manager needs is persistence.
Read MoreTypically, when deciding which accounts to manage strategically, companies use revenue as the main criteria. This makes some sense. Managing accounts strategically requires a large investment in time and resources, so receiving adequate revenue to justify this investment is valid.
However Strategic Account Management (SAM) is about managing the accounts in your business strategically. Managing to achieve your company's strategic objectives, there are many other factors that influence whether an account deserves you investing more time and resources.
Read MoreThe first barrier to change is most people don't like change. They tend to stick to what they know and what worked before. However, change is happening: like it or not.
Read MoreThe business environment is constantly changing. These changes in markets, competition and technology are hurting the results of many companies.
The priorities for companies are to create superior customer value, retain high-value customers, be more innovative and be more efficient. However, there is immense pressure to drive down operating costs, compete increasingly on price, and respond to rising customer demands.
Many companies find it impossible to respond to change and simultaneously pursue strategic priorities. So, they end up mainly reacting to change.
How can you use these changes to your advantage and find opportunities for improving your business results?
Read MoreImagine you are in an Australian industry with about 200 competitors, how do you compete and grow? Back in 2001, that's the problem faced by John Casella of Casella wines. He quickly concluded that he needed to be more strategic than his well-resourced competitors.
But how did he do it?
Read MoreManaging accounts strategically is a proven way to systematically monitor changes in your customers and competitors and make strategic choices for the future. Companies across many industry sectors have successfully applied the Strategic Account Management (SAM) framework to drive relentless positive change in their business.
So, what are the benefits of working more strategically?
Read MoreExecutive sponsorship is any change initiative is imperative to success. It is just one of the five risks to managing the change: implementing strategic account management, as discussed in 'What are the risks with organisational change?'
With a SAM program the entire business must own major accounts. There must be genuine commitment and active involvement from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and other senior executives..
Read MoreHow do you manage organisational change with Strategic Account Management (SAM)?
Introducing a SAM program into your organisation must be treated as a major change initiative. Treating the project as purely a sales project is setting yourselves up for failure.
A SAM program takes time to get results and is an initiative to change organisational culture.
Read MoreMany companies discover their largest accounts are transactional. They generate high revenues; however, place minimal value on the relationship and minimal value on your company's products and services. They are not interested in developing a strategic relationship with your executive team and if they do it is only to discuss getting reduced prices.
So, how should you best handle these accounts?
Read MoreYou’re looking to create the perfect customer experience, so you already have a customer survey, what company doesn’t these days? It may even be a regular annual customer survey, because you understand the importance of knowing what your customers think in this highly competitive, turbulent business world.
A recent article by McKinsey Quarterly delved into the importance of a customer feeling as though the service has been personalised for their needs alone.
Read MoreProblem: Need to improve business results. and have already identified that your people do not have the required skills.
Solution: Find appropriate course and send people on the appropriate course.
Will just sending your people on a course be enough to improve your business results?
Read MoreProcurement departments are perceived as only being focused on reducing prices, so many suppliers will avoid procurement where they can. Instead focusing their energy on building relationships and providing value for business unit contacts. So, suppliers only deal with procurement when they are forced to.
But is this too big a risk, how much influence do procurement have in your industry and how quickly is this influence growing?
Read MoreThis blog follows on from previous blogs on organisations that are too good to change. In this link to a 13 minute TED video, Alison Sanders discusses the art and science of tracking trends. Apart from some fascinating trends, she discusses the importance of timing your action. Most organisations are too late because they do not prepare soon enough for the dramatic impact.
Read MoreWith fewer customers generating more of our revenue, we need to get better at managing our strategic relationships. Whether we call this Strategic Account Management or Key Account Management, we must get better at managing the customers we can’t afford to lose.
There is good news and bad news about managing these strategic relationships.
Read MoreOver the last couple of years, we have seen several organisations that are too good to change. But, how can organisations possibly be too good to change?
The answer is simple: they can deliver better profits this year doing almost exactly what they have always done.
Before you get too confident consider that a company's fall from grace can frequently be traced back to its time of greatest achievement!
Read MoreRecently in China we delivered a three-day workshop in Strategic Account Management. Many things were different. China has 33 provinces or states. Account Managers can be responsible for one or more province? So what? The ten biggest provinces have populations between 54 million and 104 million. So an account manager can be responsible for a region with a population of between 2 and 4 times the population of Australia. How's that for a challenge in managing your time?
Read MoreAs more companies move from sales management to account management, we regularly get asked "how can we measure improved strategic relationships?" In sales management, we are focused on the short term so typically we measure sales results and sales prospects in dollars. Yet if we are serious about developing strategic relationships, then the results will typically being to appear between 18 and 24 months after we start behaving strategically.
Read MoreIn a world of information overload and so many different points of view, it can be hard to cut through the noise and figure out what's useful. For salespeople and account managers, an emerging theme recently is the concept of the challenger approach.
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