Why Would Companies Increase Their Costs and Decrease Their Margins?
Companies do it every day in the interest of serving their best customers. They establish “key account programs” that provide additional dedicated resources to top customers while at the same time offering those same customers their biggest discounts, all in the name of increasing volume.
The struggle is that many key account programs generally do not deliver on company expectations. Why? It all comes down to the behavior of key account managers.
Our latest whitepaper explores what defines excellence in key account management today, the sales behaviors critical to maximizing results, and solutions that will drive volume growth going forward.
Key Account Management Behaviors are Different
Great salespeople don’t always make great sales managers. And great salespeople don’t always make great key account managers. Key account management requires the fundamental behaviors required in today’s sales environment, plus an additional set of behaviors that are critical in guiding teams:
- Deep knowledge of the customer’s business, how the company makes money and the key tradeoffs
- Demonstrating value in a customer-centric manner
- Collaborating to create unique offerings to meet the customer’s business needs
- Helping the customer advance to the next phase of the buying process
- Leading the key account team to drive a coordinated approach to the account
- Creating and executing account opportunity and territory plans, ensuring successful achievement of the plan
Key account management programs are less than fully successful because key account managers fall short in particular behaviors.
To learn the common behavior gaps and actions key account managers can take to drive better results, download the full White Paper.