Effective Account Management
by Alan Rigg
Published on this site: May 27th , 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
Congratulations! You successfully sold one or more of your company's
products or services to a business unit, department, or division
of a large organization. Now your manager has tasked you with "account
management". If you are not already familiar with account management,
you are probably asking yourself the following questions:
- What is "Account Management"?
- What skills and talents are required to excel in Account Management?
- What activities must be performed to maximize Account
Management return on investment?
Providing answers to these questions is the focus of this article.
- What is Account Management?
Account management is a synonym for ACCOUNT PENETRATION.
Just because you have sold one product or service to one
business entity within an organization doesn't mean your
job is done. Think of all the additional opportunities that
may exist in the account! For example:
Does your company offer additional products or services
that might be a "fit" for this customer?
How many other business units, departments, divisions, and
subsidiaries are potential prospects for your company's
products and services?
- Required Skills and Talents
A critical talent for successful account management is the
ability to build RELATIONSHIPS, as relationship selling
is a very effective way to increase account penetration.
Another critical skill/talent is ORGANIZATION. If you are
going to manage large accounts effectively, you need to
be willing and able to keep meticulous records.
What kinds of records do you need to keep? Picture a three-dimensional
spreadsheet in your mind. In the left-hand column is a list
of every product and service that you could possibly sell
to a customer. Across the top of the spreadsheet are all
of the business units, departments, divisions, and other
business entities that make up your account's entire organization.
Behind each business entity is every contact you know within
that business entity.
Armed with this mental picture, ask yourself the following
questions:
Which business entities are you doing business with?
Which business entities are you NOT doing business with?
Where are the various business entities located?
Which products and services does each business entity already
purchase from you?
Which products and services are they NOT purchasing from
you?
Who do you know in each business entity?
Which of these contacts have you already asked for referrals
and testimonials?
What referrals and testimonials have they given you?
- Required Activities
Hopefully your organization has some type of CRM (Client
Relationship Management) software application to help you
keep track of your answers to these questions. If you don't
have access to a corporate CRM system, here are some other
options:
You can purchase a software package like ACT! or GoldMine
You can subscribe to an online service like salesforce.com
You can track information using a spreadsheet, database,
or e-mail program
Next, plan your tactics for increasing account penetration
by considering the following questions:
What process will you use to regularly expose EACH of your
contacts in the account to your company's ENTIRE PORTFOLIO
of products and services?
Who can provide TESTIMONIALS that will help you win business
in other business units, departments, or divisions in the
account?
Who can REFER you to new contacts in other business units, departments,
or divisions in the account?
Why is it necessary to repetitively expose your contacts to your
company's entire portfolio of products and services? Because they
forget! I can tell you from personal experience that there is nothing
more frustrating than finding out a customer has placed a large
order with another salesperson...and the only reason they didn’t
give YOU the order was because they didn't know or remember that
you could fill it!
Is There More to Account Management?
There can be, but activities focused on increasing account penetration
make up the critical core. Account management does become more complex
if a team of people is managing a regional, national, or global
account, but most of the complexity pertains to coordinating the
activities of the team members.
Don't make account management more complex than it needs to be!
The basic goal is to maximize account penetration. Look for opportunities
to sell every product and service in your portfolio to every business
entity in the account. Make maximum use of referrals and testimonials
to help you initiate new relationships. Regularly remind all of
your contacts of the full breadth of your portfolio of products
and services. Be organized and keep meticulous records. If you do
these things, you should be amply rewarded for your efforts!
Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in
Selling:Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform and What to Do About
It. His company, 80/20 Performance Inc., supplies specialized sales
assessment tests and consulting to help organizations build top-performing
sales teams. For more sales and sales management tips, visit: http://www.8020performance.com
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