Key Account Manager

A key account manager engages in the practice of matching their company's business goals, objectives, organizational characteristics and operational behavior to that of their account. Their primary goal is to maximize revenue and relationships for both parties. Companies look to key account managers to help them survive challenging and changing economic conditions, achieve competitive advantage and create future growth. Above all, companies are striving to preserve strategic customer relationships because of their importance to their firm's future business health. That is the role of the account manager.

Additional Responsibilities

Key account managers have multiple roles. First they have to be the lead sales person in the account. In addition, they need to focus on other critical success factors such as:

• organizational alignment
• senior management involvement
• processes and systems for communications knowledge management
• prioritizing resources
• account planning
• people development
• relationships and program metrics

They are the orchestrator of the strategic customer relationship. They direct the deployment of corporate-wide resources to provide comprehensive product, service and solutions to the strategic account. They are the single point of contact for the customer for both good and bad situations.

Customer Needs Assessment

The place to start your account management activities is with a comprehensive understanding of customer needs. The simplest way is to interview your customers, in addition to reviewing published reports and information from outside agencies. Your customer is the best source for telling you what they believe they need from you. Armed with this information, you can start to build your account plan.

Skills and Capabilities Development

Once you have an understanding of what your key accounts need, do an inventory of your in-house skills and capabilities. This enables you to identify gaps and determine the significance of those gaps. The result is a list of skills and capabilities you need to develop through training, hiring, partnering, and outsourcing. Generally, these skills and capabilities can be divided into three distinct groups:

1. Products and services portfolio: This is the most basic requirement in order to serve a customer. Have the right products and services in your portfolio to present the right solution. It needs to be clear to the customer that you can be trusted to deliver the solutions you promise.
2. Support and service: Key account managers may deliver great products, and still get in trouble for poor service and support. Account managers are responsible for service and support that is unmatched and delights the customer.
3. Customer value creation: What will really differentiate you from your competitors and shield you from future competition is how you create superior business value for your customer. By creating superior value, you can differentiate yourself, and expand long-term business and gain higher margins.

Differentiate Yourself

Exceed expectations: Your customer has certain expectations, and should be clearly spelled out in a service level agreement document. When you exceed a customer's expectations, word quickly gets around the account.

Help them grow their business: You are a resource to your customer and you exist because of your customers. When your customer prospers, so will you. By helping your customers grow their business and become more profitable, you become a trusted advisor to them and you create value for your business as well.

Be a partner, not just a supplier: A key account manager has to be a partner. Once you start to help them grow, share the risks, and create value for them, you will have achieved the key to account management.

Conclusion

Being a key account manager and creating all that additional values is time consuming and takes resources. In an environment where everyone appears to be buying on price alone, enterprises that do not provide special considerations to their key accounts, eventually atrophy.

Related Articles

• Account Management
• Account Management Software
• Key Accounts
• Segment Accounts
• Global Account

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