How do you go about starting a key accounts program?
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COO2 months ago
Develop an effective Key Account ProgramStart by creating the criteria for a Key or Strategic Account. I typically divide accounts into these categories: Strategic, Growth, Maintenance, CPR, DNR and Target. A strategic or key account has strategic importance to the company. It can be a larger percentage of the total revenue, give your company credibility, partner with you in some way.
Once you have the criteria, determine what programs or benefits those accounts will receive.
Next do your research. AI can help here. Understand the mission and value. Identify their key initiatives. Look for problems they are trying to address. Figure out how what you are doing aligns with their key objectives or problems.
From here you can start identifying opportunities for growth. List all the opportunities you can for the next few years and identify what stage they are in You will have some in progress already. You will have some possible opportunities that have already been identified through conversations. You should also identify opportunities from the research you have done.
Next, think about people. Typically a key account has a team assigned to it. There may be a salesperson, a CX person, a project manager or someone responsible for product delivery. If it is truly strategic, members of the C-suite may be part of the team as well. Assign an account manager or the person who is the quarterback for this team. They won’t do all the work, but they will be the point person responsible for ensuring the account is well managed.
Once you have identified your team members, list all the people in their company you have contact with. Think about what role they play in the relationship. Do you have a strong relationship or a weak one? Does that relationship need to maintained or nurtured? Next make a list of everyone you should have a relationship with but don’t yet.
Assign each contact to one of your team members. Develop strategies to build, nurture or maintain that relationship.
The final step is to determine internal and external meeting cadences. How often and for how long should the whole team meet? Is it once a month, or once a quarter? This is a required team meeting to ensure everyone is doing what they committed to do. Next, think about what meetings team members need to have with the client and what the cadence should be. Then think about your C-suite. How can you best use them? Should the CEO meet with their CEO once a year?
Now rinse and repeat.
1. Account and Segmentation - Begin by knowing your ICP and correctly identifying the key criteria for a "key account." Be sure to factor in "white space" and not just size of of account or current revenue with you as sometimes the accounts with the best opportunity are not obvious!
2. Talent - Then identify the right number of people to play in the Key Account Manager role. Determine whether you have the talent internally or need to source.
3. Capabilities - Identify the important capabilities KAMs need to be successful in their role. Do a gap analysis of the team against those capabilities. Create a plan to close that gap.
4. Institute a Key Account Selling program that covers SOPs, tools, reporting/metrics, capability building, etc.
5. Ensure that any account planning "tools" you use or build are not ones that will only be used once and "stuck in a drawer." They need to have ongoing utility and be integrated into your CRM.
6. Remember the key factors in successful account planning and expansion approach: Know the account, their industry challenges, market headwinds, etc. Know the competitive risks and strategies to protect against them. Know the stakeholders and their position of influence and power in the company, their ability to purchase and get things done, their view of your company versus competitors, etc. Create zipper strategies to get in front of executives. Identify white space opportunities and a plan to expand - including insights to share, risks to avoid, etc. Understand how to articulate the value you have already created and run successful QBRs, etc. Identify the Key Account Metrics that you need to measure and move and build all efforts around those!
Here is a link to some more reading if interested. https://www.richardson.com/sales-resources/?topic=growing-accounts