Stategic Account Management
Beyond the buzzword: What is it, why do it and how?
Today, business and sales conversations revolve around building the best client relationship possible and maximizing results. But acquiring new accounts is time consuming and expensive. That’s why it’s even more important that your business manage every existing client to their fullest potential.
Lots of businesses use customer relationship management software such as Microsoft Outlook, SalesForce.com, ACT and the like as tools to manage their client databases. And we freely toss around buzzwords like “relationship,” “partnership” and “vendor management.”
Yet, without a true integrated account management strategy, your efforts are only a partial solution and too often can lose their effectiveness.
Strategic Account Management is that step in the strategy that converts these lofty goals, slick software and fancy buzzwords into practical actions. It’s about taking a strategic, holistic and long-term approach to each and every client relationship. As a result, you get a step closer to:
- Taking care of your best asset — your client database
- Ensuring retention
- Closing the back door that competitors look for to wedge their way in
- Maximizing sales from those who know you best
- Improving the client experience
- Consolidating and centralizing client information
- Improving your cost-to-sales ratio
- Employing multiple touch points throughout the client company
As an integral component of consultative selling, Strategic Account Management also:
- Establishes a direction and strategy for the overall relationship and every sales call
- Brings the relationship from “one-time,” transactional sales to a more strategic, long-term approach
- Takes a broader view of the client — rather than one that’s isolated to a specific issue, product or department
- Capitalizes on multiple points of contact
- Provides the mechanism for transfer of account information, so that anyone can pick up the file and continue to help improve service
- Establishes a practical definition of “partner with the client”
This strategy works both ways.
Strategic Account Management isn’t just a one-sided initiative. When you implement this strategy, you make it possible for the client to reap many of the benefits your business does:
- Better customer service as a valued long-term client
- Stability and continuity by the sales reps and company
- The elimination of redundant questions and activities
- A clearer display of understanding of their business
- A true long-term partner
Get started with some easy steps.
Want to use Strategic Account Management in your business? Here are a few simple guidelines to get started:
- Be sure your general account information lists all pertinent information
- Record the information in a central and easily accessible location
- Make the process of recoding and updating client files simple and easy
- Check that management references and uses this data
- Confirm that data can be easily accessed
The more you can automate this information in your company’s central system and make it user-friendly, the greater the value.
Build it smarter, not harder. Rahal Consulting can help you design a Strategic Account Management system for the way your business works. To find out more, contact Joe today.
Summary
This information presents a sampling of Rahal Consulting’s philosophy and approach toward sales and business development. With extensive and successful business experience accrued over numerous engagements across multiple industries, we are poised to help business leaders prepare for the future.
Rahal Consulting seeks to initiate a dialogue with business leaders and to objectively assist in the development and implementation of growth strategies and tactics.
To initiate a more in-depth discussion and for additional information, please contact Joe:
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Boston, MA 617-999-7262 Rahal Consulting Successfully accelerating the performance of sales organizations
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