Account Planning Archives

What Does an Account Plan Really Do for Your Relationship with the Customer?

April 9, 2019/in Account Planning /by Alex Raymond

If you’ve read any of the numerous articles on the Kapta blog, you likely know that we’re wild about account planning here. In fact, account planning is so crucial to us, we made it one of the standout features of our platform.

Even so, too often it seems like account managers, and even key account managers, don’t really understand the importance of having a plan of action. When you’re running an inefficient KAM program, we can’t blame you for wanting to skip another piece of paperwork. As account managers, we’re guilty of wanting to spend more time actually talking with our clients and less time doing bookkeeping work, but that isn’t to say the bookkeeping isn’t crucial to you and your customer’s success.

So, today, we’re going to take a full, in-depth look at the key features and benefits of a full-fledged account plan. After reading this, you should have a clearer understanding of why we make these documents and maybe, just maybe, you’ll feel inspired to fire Kapta up and revamp or create new account plans for your key accounts.

Show Your Hand

Put yourself in your client’s shoes; how many vendors do you think they work with? Depending on the company, they could work with upwards of hundreds of different suppliers and companies that all want a piece of their budget. So, with that many vendors to keep track of, it’s likely that they are pretty tight with their budget and only work with the people that they know they can truly trust.

Most vendors do the absolute bare minimum and provide their clients with a Statement of Work and not much else. Essentially saying “we did exactly what you asked but not a single thing more.” While this gets the job done, in the long run, it doesn’t provide much value for your clients.

And even if you do make an account plan, a common misconception among some key account managers is that they should keep their account plan to themselves. It’s a secret, and the client should never see it at any costs otherwise the KAM’s hand is shown.

What’s the problem with that?

When you share your account plan with your client, you’re showing that you’re putting in the extra effort for them and going above and beyond. Instead of only doing exactly what they asked with no foresight into the future, you’re thinking three steps ahead.

These days, almost every industry is crowded, and it’s the intangible aspects that will separate your company from the competition and earn the long term business of your clients. When you show your hand and how you imagine the relationship growing in the future, they’ll see you less like someone looking for the next transaction and more of a problem solver that genuinely wants their organization to succeed.

Stop Being Tactical

People like to use the terms tactical and strategic interchangeably. In normal conversation that’s fine, but in account management, the difference could cost your company millions in revenue over time.

Being tactical means you’re thinking about what’s happening now and what you can do to mitigate any risks. You aren’t really paying too close attention to the overall story arc of the account and instead thinking of the next step.

Being strategic, on the other hand, means that you’re thinking further down the line with an end goal based on your customer’s needs continually shifting. Ideally, there should never be one hard-stop goal for your account, and with every conversation and VOC interview you conduct, you’ll move the goal post a little bit further down the road.

If you’ve ever played against an excellent chess player, you’ll notice that at some point, a loss just seems inevitable. While you’re scrambling to react to their latest move, they’re putting their other pieces in position and checkmate is all but certain.

What separates a good chess player from an average one is strategy. It’s the same case in key account management. When millions of dollars are on the line, you can’t afford to be tactical in your approach because churn can happen suddenly if you aren’t careful.

When you create a full-fledged account plan for your key accounts, it forces you out of the tactical mindset as you start imagining where you see the account in a year, two years, and five years down the line. That’s why account plans aren’t simple bullet lists you just down on a legal pad and are instead flexible, living documents that you continue to obsess over looking for new ways to grow your customer’s revenue, bring more customers in, all through your company’s products or services.

Get out of the tactical mindset the easy way and create an account plan that leaves no room for blank spaces in the timeline.

Become Proactive

Have you ever showed up to a meeting completely unprepared left pulling ideas out of thin air? Hopefully, you’re never doing this with your customers, but it happens a lot more than you might think and customers notice. When one of your customers comes to a meeting, they are expecting you to have everything put together and to give them a show in a sense. If you can’t deliver on that part, then your company looks bad, and it seems like you haven’t put much forethought or care into their account.

By creating an account plan and mapping out the various stages of the relationship, it forces you to think three steps ahead and years into the future. You are the expert in your customer’s industry even if you’ve never held a job in their industry before. When you map out an account plan and do the hard work first, you’re proactively searching for new solutions because on past and future conversations with your customers.

When you create an in-depth, comprehensive account plan for your customers, you’re doing more than just the bare minimum that your clients have come to expect from other vendors. Because doing the research to look into your customers’ competitive situation and plan out different strategies to help reach their desired outcomes.

Getting your clients to their end goal isn’t something that happens overnight nor will it happen if you just sit back and watch them use your product. While it should be true that they are better off using your product and not a competitor’s, the tool alone isn’t what will get them their results.

It’s your guidance and proactive approach that will provide them with peace of mind and a basis for looking further into the future as the account grows and it all starts with a well-thought key account plan.

Being proactive when you have multiple key accounts can seem challenging when you have to balance various things at once, but that’s what your accounts pay you for. Also, with Kapta, the account plan process is much more simple.

Once you’ve created an account plan that works for you, you can just copy and paste it and build your other account plans off of that template. Kapta takes all of the mindless, tedious work out of the equation so you can use your energy on things that really matter for your customers and not building out spreadsheets.

Prove Your Worth

Another core complaint that many customers have when it comes to the vendors they deal with is that their account manager only cares about getting in their wallet. Every call with the vendor is a sales call. The end goal for them is to get them to buy one more service, subscribe to one more feature, and then and only then will they have success.

This transactional approach is not what makes key account management great. It’s the value, knowledge, and expertise that makes customers consider their account managers trusted advisors.

When you plan out your accounts years into the future with special considerations for the ways their customer base and industry will change over time, you’re showing the client you’re thinking post-sale. In fact, you’re so focused on their success, they might even think you haven’t considered the sale at all. It’s this mutual success focus that separates the good from the great and the trusted advisors from the other vendors.

This concept can be summarized as demonstrating value over time. It isn’t the quick win that keeps the account happy; it’s the culmination of all of your small wins that will keep them satisfied and signed on with your company. You can’t turn to their receipt history and say “Look, you bought something from me on this date and this date” as a way of showing how you brought value to the account.

Instead, your focus should be on the results, and the conversation should revolve around how they were able to meet their quarterly, six-month, and annual goals during the time you worked with them and how your product helped them.

If your client can better understand the how behind your products and services and you have a proven track record of demonstrating value to them over the long haul, then you’ll have better success getting what you want out of the relationship be it premium services, additional packages, or those coveted referrals for their friends.

Show Your Wins

Your account plans serve one other primary purpose: to provide you with leverage and ammunition once it comes to time to renew their contract with your company. If you’re a great key account manager, you’re likely focused less on the sales and dollar figures and more on bringing success to your clients. An account plan is the perfect way to keep track of your wins so you can use them when the time is right.

There are a few scenarios where having your big and small wins on paper will come in handy. If your clients begin questioning your services and it seems like they want to go with a different provider, you can spring into action with a detailed list of the ways you and your organization’s products or services have brought their company success.

They are likely wrapped up in their own initiatives, product development, and serving their customers so it can be difficult for them to keep track of the success that you’ve brought them. Also, when you’ve been working for an account for so long, they might become complacent with success and start demanding even faster and bigger results. Showing them where the account was when they began will put the progress in perspective for them as you move forward.

Also, if they are considering referring you to another partner company, then having a list of hard data and figures that show your services work will provide them with something to share with their referrals and will make you and your company look like magicians, turning a bad situation into a profitable one.

Make sure that you’re noting these wins, both big and small, in the account plan as they happen in real time, so you never miss one, and you can paint a picture of success that will reaffirm their commitment to work with your company.

Summary

Account plans are the backbone of every successful key account program. They might seem tedious at first, but with the right platform, you won’t need to start from scratch, and you can continue growing and nourishing the relationship the easy way. Having a full-fledged key account plan will ensure that you’re keeping the account on track and maximizing the positive attributes that make a successful KAM.

How Kapta Can Help

Kapta is a key account management platform designed specifically with the relationship in mind. Rather than bogging you down with more spreadsheets and complicated tables, Kapta offers an intuitive user interface that KAMs can use to easily track and manage important data related to their most important client. Easily create and edit Account Plans with the built-in templates, improve engagement through VOC Insights, and even track the account’s Overall Health Score all in one platform. To see how Kapta can help your KAM program, request your free demo today.

What Makes a Good Account Plan?

May 31, 2018/in Account Planning /by Lesley Poladsky

Creating an account plan for your key accounts is crucial to not only your success as the account manager but your customer’s success as well. A lot is said about good account plans and the features of an excellent plan. However, a lot of this is easier said than done. Many account managers find themselves struggling to know whether or not their account plan is successful, or if it’s misguided.

Let’s take some of the confusion out of the equation today. Here are our actionable tips to help you take your account plans from lost to success-driven strategies you can leverage for years to come.

Focus on the Mutual Outcome

Account plans that only focuses on one party’s needs are doomed to fail. Whether you’re focusing on only your customer’s needs or your own, if the plan only plans for the success of one party, the others are bound to feel unsatisfied. For this reason, you should craft your strategy to meet both your own needs and your customer’s. Think about where your goals align and how you can each achieve mutual success.

Break it into Actionable Steps

When looking at a long-term account plan, many account managers feel overwhelmed. They see the starting point and the ending point, but getting there is confusing. For this reason, we recommend that you break your plan down into more manageable pieces. This makes it easier to plan and follow along throughout the life of the account.

Kapta’s strategic account plans make it simple to create and implement your plan. Break each phase into actionable steps, and reach your account’s desired accounts one step at a time.

Think Externally

When you sit in the same office day-in and day-out, it’s easy to think internally about your account plans. You’re caught up in sales goals and retention rates instead of how your account plans could affect their organization. It’s an understandable mental trap to fall into, but there’s a way out.

As you craft account plans, adopt an outward mindset. Ask yourself how this plan will change your account’s organization. Think about things you can do to better their outcomes, which will in turn positively affect your outcomes too.

Make it Action-Oriented

Account plans are great tools to use to visualize the future for an account, but if there aren’t any clear, actionable steps, executing the plan is challenging. While you’re in plan overhaul mode, think about how each step translates into a specific action. Doing this ahead of time makes it easy to follow the plan during the coming years. With action-oriented steps, following the account plan will feel more like following a recipe than following a roughly drawn map for success.

Think About Leading Indicators of Success

Think about the things that are in your control instead of focusing on external factors that impact success. This doesn’t mean you should abandon your proactive strategy, but since this is your account plan, you should focus on the things you can do while preparing to deal with any potential risks down the road.

The leading indicators of success will be the value you bring your accounts, along with the success of your Voice of Customer interviews and relationship maps. Keep these aspects as priorities and let the lagging indicators fall into the background in your account plans.

Look for the Win-Win

The success of your key account plans largely depends on the win-win outcome and the mutual success for you and your key accounts. Craft an account plan that makes both of you the heroes of your organization.

The first step to find the win-win outcome is to identify both your goals and your account’s goals. You should do this through the Voice of Customer interview by asking them the cutting, direct questions about their short and long-term goals. You should also seek to determine their definition of success. Contrary to what some might think, not everyone has the same definition of success. Ask each of your accounts what success looks like for them in your relationship and build a strategy around it.

Bring it to Life

While making an account plan is the goal, it should come alive as well. What we mean by this is that it should be a moving piece of organizational art. You don’t want to simply make the account plan and then never look at it again. You created the plan for a reason, so make sure you follow it.

Review It

Going off of the last tip, you shouldn’t let your account plans collect dust. Instead, keep them fresh and review it on a weekly and monthly basis. How have your client’s goals changed? What can you tweak to meet their new goals better? Reviewing the plan regularly will help keep you and your accounts on track for success.

Share It with Your Team

Your boss and the rest of the account managers on your team want to see your plans. They can help provide you with new ideas, and you can also provide them with new ideas. This collaboration between account managers builds the team up as a whole, ensuring mutual success within your organization.

Don’t Hide Your Plan

Even though you might feel that it’s best to keep your accounts in the dark about your plans for them, you can actually benefit by sharing parts of the plan with them. Don’t give away all of your strategies just yet—you want to continue blowing away their expectations after all. Still, they would like to know that you’re thinking of their long-term success and intend to continue providing the same quality services for years to come.

Get Feedback

No account plan is perfect, and you should seek feedback from others whenever you can. Think about the other account managers on your team—which have the most successful plans? On sales teams, people tend to become competitive with one another. In reality, when one person is successful, you can all be successful. Look for help and see where your plan can improve.

Just do it!

The last actionable tip is simply “do it”! There’s no time like the present to create a successful account plan for your key accounts. Get started today, and you’re one day closer towards achieving mutual success with your clients.

How the Best Account Managers Achieve Success with Warwick Brown

May 24, 2018/in Account Planning /by Alex Raymond

I’m really excited to share a fantastic interview I conducted with Warwick Brown, the Founder of the Account Manager Tips blog. We sat down to talk Account Management, asking great questions, and how to drive real success with your key clients.

In this interview, you will learn:

- How to ask questions that deliver true insights
- How to prepare for big meetings by doing the right research
- Secrets to mastering Account Plans
- How to grow into your Account Management role

This was a fascinating conversation with a real Account Management pro. Enjoy!

My Interview with Warwick Brown

Alex Raymond (AR):

Warwick, to start off, please tell us a little bit about your experience in Account Management.

Warwick Brown (WB):

I’m originally from Australia but have called London home for the past 7 years. My entire career has been in service delivery, primarily in business travel. I moved from operations to account management about 15 years ago because I felt it was a more proactive and partnership orientated career, which really appealed to me.

The interesting thing about business travel is that I’m not selling travel. I partner with all sorts of organizations. I’ve been an Account Manager for firms like McKinsey, Deutsch Bank, Merck & Co and Vodafone. And, the common thread in my world is about understanding their business, because I need to know why they’re traveling: why do they need to get from A to B, what is their purpose?

The more you uncover about your clients, what they do and what drives them – the more successful you will be in Account Management.

I like the way you phrased that. The more successful they are, the more successful you can be. I know that in your work you do a lot of coaching both with your team, and you also have your blog and the website where you’ve got a lot of interesting stuff to help people to kind of level up or get to the next level, if you will, as Account Managers. One of the things that I’m sure will be of interest to our audience is, how to get to the crux of the matter with customers, how to ask good questions, really getting down to the heart of the matter with a client. As you’re coaching your team, what are the tips that you give them about asking great questions, and do you have any examples of great questions?

We’re wired as Account Managers to help and we tend to jump into that solution mode. We hear a problem, and instantly we think, “Right. I know exactly what you need.”

But, actually, we really need to dive a bit deeper and keep asking questions long before we give the answers.

So, one question I always ask – and it’s a simple one: “What do you need to achieve this year and how will you be measured?”

You have to distinguish between your client “the organization” and your client “the point of contact” because you may have an organization that wants to save $20 million, but the individual might not necessarily be goaled on that.

If you start out with that question, your contact will tell you exactly what they’re goaled on, how their measured, the challenges they face and how much time they have in the day to actually focus on their goals.

The conversation immediately turns into how can you align your solution to better support the thing that they’re going to be measured on.

Now, that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing you talk about, but start there, unpick that and you learn a lot more about the wider business and it gets you thinking.

In a recent meeting my contact said “I have no time. I’m not even supposed to be looking after this category, but there’s no one else to do it.”

Okay. For me, instantly I think how can I help her claim some time back? How can I make things more efficient? How can I help her learn more about the category? Maybe she doesn’t have enough confidence? Even a negative response like that changed the direction of the conversation to something more positive.

That’s a great discovery question to ask. It sounds like, when you’re coaching Account Managers, you’re really trying to get them to be not just focused on their product and service, but almost more broader business consultants or focusing on understanding your client’s business more. That’s an area where I know a lot of Account Managers don’t feel super comfortable – they do not feel like they necessarily have the background or the skills or the experience to be able to talk about a broader range of issues. What have you seen work there in terms of building a confidence or giving Account Managers tools to be able to perform that more of a consultative role?

Researching your clients’ industry is vital. Knowing your industry inside and out sure helps but knowing theirs adds a new dimension.

Merck and Co – a global pharmaceutical company – were a client of mine. I learned about clinical trials, blockbuster drugs, graduate recruitment, patents and generic drugs and lots more. That had nothing to do with business travel but everything to do with them. Knowing all of that made a huge impact to my ability to uncover opportunities and to make my solution work better for them.

And they viewed me as an expert because I understood them and spoke their language. It paved the way to much deeper connections and loyalty and opened access to senior people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Invest the time and research your customer and automate:

set up Google alerts
create Twitter lists
follow companies and people on LinkedIn.
and block time in your diary to read

It’s important to prepare for meetings in advance, understand who will be there and why and what want to achieve. Every time you interact with a customer you should move things forward:

learn something new
get a decision
get an introduction to someone else in the business.

Account Managers need thinking time but rarely get it.

Most organizations don’t appreciate how much time and effort is involved to really understand your customers.

There’s a disconnect between what they want Account Managers to do and what they’re actually doing. You’ll often find Account Managers the first point of contact for a whole range of issues.

A lot of firms think the Account Manager owns everything but if you’re out there chasing invoice copies and refunds, you’ll never be seen as a peer or partner of the C-level. You’re seen as the gopher.

What I’ve done with my teams is strip out any activities that don’t directly impact revenue and retention and returned them back to their rightful business owners.

As a manager of an Account Management team, you have to focus on that for your team.

That’s an interesting point. It’s really easy to sit back and say, “Well, just go be more strategic. Don’t be such a tactical person. Don’t be a gopher,” as you put it. But, operate at a different level. You can hear those words, but you don’t necessarily know what to do about it. You can’t take someone who maybe doesn’t have a ton of experience, maybe they’re fairly junior, and immediately make him this senior experienced kind of consultative type of person. So, is it about giving them the tools, like frameworks or great questions to ask, like you mentioned, or more training about Account Management? Or, what are the things I can actually, just on a really day-to day level, practical, actionable level, go from being this kind of gopher type of thing that you said, to be more strategic?

You have to really break down what you’re doing now. You know if a client is using you as a shortcut. You know if your internal teams aren’t pulling their weight. And you know if you’re part of the problem too. A lot of Account Managers are supporting work-arounds to compensate for gaps in the offer.

Make a list of everything you’re doing that you shouldn’t be doing and then create the plan to transition them out. You can’t stop doing until you know someone else has started.

That’s why Account Manager Tips was born is, it doesn’t have to be hard. I know Account Managers are time poor and the struggle is real. I give them actionable advice that’s quick to implement and over time the compound effect of these small wins will really elevate how you deliver account management.

It can be really overwhelming when you’re supposed to do a SWOT, a PEST, a relationship map, white space analysis just to manage your client. It’s overkill and most account managers think: “ I can’t do that. I just don’t have time.”

So, they do nothing.

But you can look at your customer and ask yourself “Who don’t I know?” Start with who your point of contact reports to. A lot of account managers don’t even know that much.

Start small, and then work your way up to something more robust as you develop your style and discover what works for you.

“Start small” is fantastic advice. When you say that the reaction from a lot of people would be, “Oh, my god, I don’t have time for this.” Why don’t they have time? Is their boss not giving them time and space and permission to be more strategic and thoughtful about stuff? What do you think the roadblocks are to having more time?

To elevate your status as an Account Manager, to have commercial conversations, to have strategic conversations, to introduce yourself and expand your networks … that is hard work. Sometimes scary. It’s safer place to sit at your desk and say, “I’ve got too much admin. My emails are out of control. I’m fixing issues.” That’s a great excuse to stay in your comfort zone and avoid pushing yourself.

But that means the really important stuff: creating value, improving revenue, deepening relationships, strategic planning – all falls by the wayside and your client becomes ripe for competitors to swoop in.

So you need to make time.

I like to use cloud-based project tools to create account plans and invite client to collaborate with me on them. Instantly you’re seen as more strategic because now you have plan, not just an email.

I created a very simple account planning process and that was the same year I had zero churn. It led to more intriguing conversations with our clients because it’s not reactive, it’s proactive.

My team got to the end of the year and said “wow, I did all that” and their clients also said “wow, you did all that”

It really helped their confidence and got them thinking differently.

This is for your client or for your manager that you’re talking about?

Both.

I think you have to share your successes with your manager – they don’t always know the details of what you’re doing and all the great value you’ve brought. Plus it helps them promote your team internally and get you the support you need.

And you have to remember to share the good news with your client too. Just a handful of quality initiatives with a solid ROI that you’ve pursued during the year will get your client thinking “I’m so glad we’re working with you.”

It sounds like there are two elements: one is marketing yourself and educating your boss. The other element is inside of your company – understanding why your customers are buying your products or services or what they’re trying to accomplish with them.

Absolutely. Account Managers need advocates to get things done. And that means getting your boss and your organization to understand what you’re doing and why. You also need to help connect the dots for them on what your client wants to achieve and align everyone to that purpose. A lot of times clients start using your solution for something other than it was intended. They’ve grown but your offer hasn’t kept up. How do you get everyone back on the same page and get attention to the challenges and the opportunities? That’s what we should keep focused on.

Where can people find you and what’s your area of expertise?

My blog Account Manager Tips is the best place to start and you can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter as well.

I call myself an Account Management Activist and here to serve the interests of account managers everywhere to help them develop their clients and their careers.

Account Planning: Tips and Tricks for Long-Term Success

October 4, 2017/in Account Planning /by Alex Raymond

Unless you’re willing to understand your customers and approach them with a uniquely tailored strategy, your business may not see the kind of success you would like in the B2B marketplace. Modern buyers have a lot more choices and fewer barriers to switching, meaning the pressure is on you and your business to make sure what you offer is attractive for the long-term. Part of this can be accomplished through useful account planning.

What is Account Planning?

Account planning is a core function of the Key Account Management department. It involves researching and understanding your customers, then making plans with those customer accounts based on the information gained. Instead of focusing only on gaining information and passing it along, or interpreting information to try to form a new strategy, account planning bridges those two functions together to get the most value out of both.

Tips for Successful Long-Term Account Planning

If you want to do well with an account planning strategy, you need to think about the long term and plan for that. Here are a few ways you can help set yourself up for success:

Know Your Customer

Understanding your customer is the most crucial part of account planning. Everything you do has to revolve around what you know about your customer. If you get the wrong information, you’ll make poor decisions and an ineffective plan. Take the time to put in your research hours and get a true understanding about what the customer needs, the challenges they face, how they see your company, what’s going on in their industry, etc.

It can be helpful to first find out what information you’re lacking about your customer before jumping head first into researching. This will give you a greater focus for your research, and will help you find out information that will fill in the gaps of what you do know already.

Direct Your Focus & Establish Account Goals

Mutually beneficial goals are the main focus of an account plan. With Key Account Management, you can’t keep a focus on accomplishing only goals that would be good for your company. You must direct attention to what’s going to help your customer. Keep your customer in view with every decision and planned detail, because they are less likely to go along with a plan that doesn’t revolve around their own success.

With your customer focus, you must find goals that work for both of you. You cannot expend endless energy and resources on goals that will not benefit you in any way. Find the most mutually beneficial goals you and your key account customers share and pursue those as the plan progresses.

Create a Timeline for the Account Plan

In Key Account Management, account planning results in an Engagement Plan that lays out the steps to be taken to reach milestones and eventually goals. This is a necessary part of account planning, because it gives you and your customer something to be held accountable to. They will be able to call your company out if you’re not meeting requirements in any way, and you will be able to do the same if they are slacking in their end of the bargain.

Having a set timeline and attaching deadlines or dates to certain parts of the plan makes it more real to all the parties involved. That makes it more likely that your account planning efforts will yield positive results, instead of being forgotten throughout the year.

Use the Right Tools

To be successful in account planning, you need somewhere to keep all of the information you learn about your customer, the data gathered throughout the partnership, and the engagement plan you’re using for each customer. Using the right software, such a Kapta’s Key Account Management software, helps you keep all the information you need right in front of you when you need it. An appropriate tool for account planning can help in every phase and keep information readily available.

Map Out Your Customers’ Organizations

If you haven’t already mapped out your key account connections, you need to do it as soon as possible. Focus on making a map for each goal with each key account customer. This will help others working with you to understand some of the inner workings of your key accounts, and it will also help you keep track of what needs to be done to keep things running smoothly.

An effective map will give you more information about who is important to your success, who stands in the way, and who the real decision-makers are in your key account’s company. All of these are vital pieces of information to keep you prepared for the future.

Work Together with the Customer

The best way to know if you have the right information about your client is to simply ask them. For the best chances of long-term success, you should be highly collaborative with your customers. Having them in on what you’re doing allows you to work more closely with them on accomplishing the goals of the engagement plan. Without fostering collaboration, you may have a more difficult time staying on track and keeping a customer-centric focus.

Find the White Space

White space refers to the areas that you could benefit a customer where you’re not already working with them. It’s hard to see white spaces from the outside looking in, but it’s much easier to find the opportunities once you’re working closely with a customer. Finding and identifying white spaces with a customer can help you grow your account with them in the long-term by filling in needs they didn’t know you could meet.

Organize Regular Meetings

In order to be accountable and to make account planning worth the effort, you have to keep the efforts going all the time. This is not another quarterly or annual meeting to add to the list, but it’s a fully integrated strategy that needs to be a regular part of your company’s agenda. You should be constantly updating what you know about your customers and researching to find out what you may not know yet. Host short, but frequent meetings so you can all stay informed on the latest information about your client, as well as discovering new knowledge gaps as soon as they form.

Success may look different in most organizations, but it’s something every company is chasing. For your account planning efforts to be successful, they need to be well targeted and focused on long-term success. These tips will help you align your organization to the best practices of account planning and get on the right track for future growth and success.

How to Do Key Account Relationship Mapping Like a Pro

September 27, 2017/in Account Planning /by Christine Smith

Contact mapping is one of the critical activities of most management jobs, but it’s especially critical for Key Account Management. Because of the strong and individualized goal focus practiced in Key Account Management, you need to be able to map out relationships with key accounts to get the most benefit out of the partnership.

Key Account relationship mapping is similar to other types of relationship mapping, but it must be done thoroughly and with a dual focus on your key account’s goals and your own.

Begin with a Goal Focus

You cannot start to accurately map out a key account relationship until you understand the goals of both sides. Your organization’s goals should be clear to you, but you also have to understand the key account’s goals. This should be established when you are beginning to develop the strategic partnership, so you can work towards situations that are mutually beneficial.

Because each key account is different, you should have different goals and maps for each one. It’s also best to have separate maps for each goal, whether they involve the same people or not. This way, you can keep track of everything that’s happening or needs to happen more clearly.

Include Everyone – Then Downsize

When you’re creating a key account relationship map, you need to be thorough. List everyone that’s in any way related to the partnership and specific goal. Don’t be afraid to list too many people, because you can always trim the list down a bit later in the process. This is a better way of making sure you don’t leave out potentially important contacts on either side.

Record the name, position, and importance of the person. Answer these questions:

How are they related to the goal or partnership?
What role do they play in the organization?
Are they for or against the partnership?
How do they feel about you and your organization?
What are their personal goals?
Are they a decision maker or influencer?
How do they like communicating? (i.e. Short and direct or detailed explanations)
What are your opinions about them?
Are there things you need from them?

It may seem like an extensive list of questions, but the truth is that as a Key Account Manager your job is to get up-to-date information and use it to form a strong partnership. You need the right data to be able to succeed in connecting with your key accounts properly. Understanding these things about your key account contacts and your own organizational contacts will make a big difference in how well you work.

Plan the Effects of Seeking Goals

Each relationship map is meant to help you understand how to get from where you are to the goals laid out in the beginning of the process. In the process of creating that map, you need to know how each action to pursue a goal will affect those involved in the map.

Think about the outcomes of reaching milestones towards your set goals, then plan how those actions will affect your key account and your own organization. People will be affected differently by your goals, and planning ahead helps you stay one step ahead of their potential reactions or concerns. Knowing how others are affected lets you approach each person with greater understanding.

Consider the Negative and Positive

Don’t just think about success, but also consider the possibility of negative reactions by someone in your map, failure to reach goals, or efforts to work against the partnership. It is never right to assume that there will be smooth sailing with every key account. You will be wise to prepare and map out the possible effects to and from each contact if things don’t go well.

This doesn’t mean you should plan to fail. But, it means you need to be prepared if failure does happen by knowing what to expect. Not everyone in your organization or your key account’s company will be onboard with or supportive of the partnership. If one of the unsupportive people actively works against it, there are chances for negative outcomes or failure from your actions.

You need to prepare for how to handle failure and do damage control. If you don’t plan it out now, you won’t be ready to handle negative situations well when they do happen. A good map for handling damage control is going to guide you and your team to making better decisions in crucial moments. It will also help you plan better to avoid the worst-case scenarios, since you will most likely have thought about them and listed them ahead of time.

The other side to consider is how your failure or even your success in reaching goals will affect those on your key account relationship map. Failure has more obvious consequences, but sometimes success in one area can have negative effects for specific people or departments.

Start Early and Continue Updating

Stepping into a strategic partnership is complicated process with many required steps for success. By creating a relationship map early on, you’re helping to get your bearings before things get too complex. A solid relationship map helps you consider all the relevant inputs in your partnership so you can approach and respond to each one appropriately from the start. You need to understand your key account thoroughly, and a relationship map will help with that from the very beginning.

But, just as with every other Key Account Management process, you shouldn’t stop working with your key account relationship map once you’ve made the first draft. Update it when you get new information about one of your contacts, if someone’s status changes, or if a role is replaced or switched. Keeping your relationship map up to date is the best way to keep track of the key account’s organizational structure and the true strength of your partnership with them.

Creating a key account relationship map can be a lot of work. But, once it’s done, it’s an invaluable tool to promote growth of that key account. It will help you as the Key Account Manager, but it will also help your team to get more information they may need about your key account contacts when you delegate tasks to them. If you are promoted or replaced, you will be setting up a fantastic transition for the one coming in to replace you.

Curious to see how you can take your Key Account Management skills to the next level? Download this helpful ebook on how to create powerful engagement plans for your key accounts or sign up for a demo of Kapta.

Summer Slowdown? 3 Ways to Recharge Your KAM Program

August 11, 2017/0 Comments/in Account Planning, Key Account Management /by Alex Raymond

Summer tends to be slow for many businesses, but don’t assume that your competitors are drifting along with the current. Like you, they may be taking the opportunity to paddle ahead of the pack. This is a great time for KAMs to review their strategies and create action plans for the rest of the year. It’s also a great time to enhance your relationships with your team and with your best clients! So let’s focus on how to recharge your key account management program.

Assess Your Goals and Evaluate Feedback

You’re more than halfway through the year, and it’s a good time to see if you’re on the same path you set out for yourself in January. Are the customer goals you set earlier in the year still relevant? Where do you need to make adjustments? Slow days at the office allow for more in-depth research into your clients’ industries, and it’s a good time to creatively and proactively solicit feedback from your Key Account contacts. Unless summer is the peak season for your client’s industry, your contacts should be more receptive to evaluating past strategies and brainstorming future collaborations.

Improve Team Relationships

Summer is a fantastic time to strengthen bonds with co-workers. You rely upon your team to support you when you need them, so take advantage of the more casual atmosphere of the season.

Your firm will likely support your ideas for an event hosted by your Key Account Management department, at which you’ll make a point to celebrate the contributions other departments make to your success. Try to host the event off-site, and make it fun and family-friendly to make it easier for your valued teammates to attend- this should feel like a treat, rather than just another work obligation.

Rather than throw the event at a local theme park where everyone will be spread out, pick a park near your office (or another location easily accessible to your team’s families) where you can rent a pavilion. Invest in some burgers and brats, some cold drinks or a keg, and invite families to bring lawn games such as Bocce or disc golf for the kids. Keep it simple, casual and inclusive, and encourage people to interact on an interpersonal level.

Don’t forget to spend some quality time with individual members of your core support group this summer. Does Kris in Logistics enjoy flat water kayaking? Suggest an afternoon trip, on your dime, and be sure to defer to her expertise when you’re on the water. When you show an interest in your colleagues’ personal lives and talents, you reinforce trust and social bonds.

Reconnect with Your Clients

You may decide to include your clients’ families in your team appreciation picnic, and if you do, be sure to include your Key Account contact’s team. After all, you’ve gotten to know their decision makers and support crew, and you understand how valuable they are to the strategic partnership between your two companies. You rely on customer collaboration, and your client does as well.

Most of your colleagues rarely have occasion to interact with your Key Account teams, so bringing them together in a casual atmosphere, and singing their praises to your clients, shows how much you respect and appreciate your crew. When you exhibit gratitude and openly share the credit for your KAM success, you also earn the respect of your clients.

Don’t be afraid to “talk shop” when casually entertaining your Key Account clients, but don’t make the occasion an overt sales meeting either. Use your listening skills. Your client may provide valuable information about predicted business trends under exploration by her firm. And in more laid-back surroundings, she may be more willing to bounce ideas—and queries for solutions—your way.

People like to do business with people they know and like, so strengthening personal connections between you and your Key Account personnel will provide many returns down the road. In addition to building upon your business relationship, you may even forge solid, lifelong friendships.

Account Planning: Show the Customer You Care

February 23, 2017/0 Comments/in Account Planning /by Alex Raymond

I know lots of Account Managers who dread the annual (or hopefully quarterly) account planning process. They think it’s a waste of time and that they can just coast through with their customer relationships, and that everything is going to work out fine.

Well, as you can probably guess, it doesn’t always turn out that way. These days, customers have all the power and they can leave or cancel with very little notice.

So where’s the power in account planning?

It’s in showing the customer that you heard them, you are taking action, and that you CARE. Yes, a little empathy can go a long way in making a customer relationship super successful.

Account planning is about looking at the world through your customer’s eyes, and figuring out how to solve problems for them. It’s NOT about just selling more of your product or service to your customer.

So you heard what the customer said, you know what they need, and you care enough to take action. Once you have taken action, you care enough to keep the customer in the loop about how you are addressing their need/issue/problem.

And guess what? Caring about your customer’s success is one of the best ways to ensure your success.

Empathy is one of the hallmarks of great Key Account Managers. Account planning is where you can put that into action.

What else? How do you show your customers you care?

Proactive Account Planning: Driving Strategically Towards Success

February 6, 2017/in Account Planning /by Alex Raymond

The beginning of the year is commonly a time when we re-evaluate our strategies for the coming months. You know that proactive account planning could be a game changer for you this year. Yet, you still find yourself reacting to circumstances instead creating a strategy that actively drives success.

So how do you make the shift? How do you start driving success for both your business and the key customers you serve?

Let’s explore a few key points below.

An Account Growth Strategy Needs a Proactive Plan

Customers expect so much more today and want to know how important they are to your business. You’ve told them they are a priority; now, they want you to show them. This means working with them as a consultant on issues that may not directly benefit your business but that provides them with advice that adds value to their business. In order for a customer to view you as an integral part of their growth and success, you need to deliver on your promises and exceed their expectations.

Today’s KAM relationships require more customized strategies, which means you need individual relationships with each specific member in their decision-making unit. By fostering these relationships, you’ll know what’s important to each person, which will open the door to more in-depth collaboration and jump-start new business opportunities.

Take time to consider how you can do this better.

Proactive Account Planning Means Better Team Alignment

Combine a proactive key account relationship strategy with an effective communication strategy to align your in-house team members with the customers’ goals. This will nurture closer working relationships, build trust, and reduce the chances of any nasty surprises. However, this must begin within your own organization.

Everyone on your team should be committed to maintaining close relationships with your key accounts, which means working together, collaborating, and supporting each other. For instance, if you promise a key account that they will have priority access to new products or services, you have to depend on Operations to provide this—not sales. It’s important to clearly communicate your customers’ needs to the appropriate team members and then hold them accountable for the delivery.

Developing a communication strategy that aligns the customer’s stakeholders with the key people in your business will ensure that everyone in your organization understands what is happening with each account, what you expect from these individuals or departments, and how important their contributions are in forming a joint success plan. This is a trickle-down effect because making these customers happy is a long-term asset for everyone in your business. Making sure they understand this (and putting the appropriate incentives in place) will go a long way toward exceeding your key customers’ expectations.

Keep Your Finger on the Pulse of Account Health

It’s amazing how so many companies lose their biggest accounts because they fail to provide them the kind of value they seek. These companies are often surprised when the customer chooses to go with a competitor because they are simply unaware that their customer was unhappy to begin with. Don’t let this happen to you. Your competitors are constantly trying to win these customers from you, and the strength of your customer relationships will make all the difference.

Proactive account planning calls for constant questioning, listening, networking, and analyzing because how well you think are doing with your key accounts and how well your customers think you’re doing can be two separate things.

Talk to your key accounts about their goals and how they feel about your relationship. Voice of Customer surveys can be especially helpful in determining the health of your key accounts.

The Four Levels of Customer Success

There are 4 levels by which you can actually affect and change your customers’ perceptions. At level 1, they think of you as a supplier and are basically just looking at pricing and quality. There is no loyalty here. At level 2, if you offer additional benefits to your products/services, they may just stick around. At level 3, you are finding ways to help them achieve their objectives and adding exponential value to the relationship, thereby increasing loyalty. Level 4, however, is where you want to be. This is where they consider you a business partner who offers strategic advice and contributes to their ongoing success.

So which level of service are you providing to your key accounts? And if you’re not there already, what can you do to ramp up your efforts to level 4?

Now is the time to start building these long-term, profitable relationships, nurturing trust, and driving key account growth in more proactive ways.

Kapta’s Complete Guide to Successful Account Planning in 2017

January 9, 2017/in Account Planning /by Alex Raymond

2017 is here and there is no time like the present to start your account planning on the right foot. The start of a new year is the perfect time for key account managers to organize their account planning strategies for the next twelve months. Through strategic planning and a proactive approach, you can make 2017 your most fruitful year ever as an account manager.

To make things even easier for you, we’ve compiled your complete month-by-month guide to successful account planning in 2017.

January: Jumpstart the year by developing a plan to be more proactive.

At the start of every new year, countless key account managers resolve to be more proactive in the months ahead. Unfortunately, many account managers fall back into the same reactive habits that ruled their lives in the past because they failed to develop a specific plan.

Below are three ways to make this goal a reality in 2017:

Create a plan that outlines the exact steps that you will take to be more proactive in 2017.
Post this list of steps on your desktop or in another highly visible location.
Start your list with a proactive phone call to your key accounts. Begin making calls the day you return to work.

February: Find out if your key accounts have any current needs or pain points.

Just because you have managed a key account for years does not mean that their specific needs will remain the same with every passing year. Set aside some time in early February to reach out to your best customers and ask them some questions so you can better understand their needs. You should do this even if you think you know your key accounts like the back of your hand.

March: Make sure you are your customers’ most trusted resource.

Never assume that your key accounts will be with you until you retire. As a key account manager, you should always be prepared for the opposite. You should know your industry and always strive to maintain an edge over industry competitors.

Here are three tips to help you become a more valuable resource to your customers:

Stay on top of current trends by participating in industry trade shows and continuing education activities.
Be armed with at least one solution when you are forced to relay a problem or bad news to a customer.
Make a point of learning about your key accounts’ goals, successes, and business operations.

April: Appoint a team to help you provide speed, quality, and support to your customers.

Your key accounts deserve to receive the highest level of product and service, as quickly as possible. This can sometimes become a challenge, especially if you manage multiple key accounts. Strive to ensure that your customers can always reach you or a member of your team during business hours. If you have an assistant or colleague who can provide assistance in your absence, make sure that your customers have their contact information.

May: Measure YTD progress and map out a plan for the second half of the year.

May marks the end of the school year and the month before summer vacations begin for many families. Proactively reach out to your key accounts in May, before the vacation season kicks off, to briefly discuss year-to-date progress. Most importantly, review your customers’ wish lists for the remainder of the year.

June: Juggle your key account responsibilities with grace.

As a key account manager, you are often faced with competing responsibilities. It may seem like there is no time to proactively reach out to your customers because you are troubleshooting problems, training new staff, or preparing for a company audit.

As you strive to balance your responsibilities, make sure to follow the tips below to ensure that your customers continue to view you as the graceful and competent professional that you are:

Refrain from complaining about work to customers, as this can cause them to feel guilty or awkward.
Strive to return calls and messages promptly, even if your initial response is “I’ll get back to you soon.”
If you are pressed for time, convey this appropriately. Let customers know when they can expect to receive a response.

July: Juice up your quarterly business reviews (QBRs).

July marks the beginning of Q3 and the start of the second half of the year. As you review the second quarter of the year and plan for the remainder of 2017, strive to make your QBRs as useful and engaging as possible.

Below are some suggestions to help you prepare top-notch QBRs for your key accounts:

Maintain a consistent format with each meeting.
Keep your customers engaged by using a multi-media format.
If possible, try to limit your QBRs to one or two hours.

August: Do more outreach.

Your plan to be more proactive should include specific outreach efforts geared to benefit your customers. In addition to phone calls and emails, you can implement some of the following outreach strategies:

Design a quarterly newsletter that highlights key activities that pertain to your customers.
Surprise your customer with a complimentary demo of your most recent product.
Reach out to your customers on birthdays and their company anniversaries.
Call to congratulate your customers when they are featured in industry news stories.

September: Survey your key accounts to identify opportunities for improvement.

One of the best things that you can do to illustrate your commitment to your key accounts is to request their feedback. This strategy shows your customers that their needs and opinions are important. Additionally, your customers’ suggestions will help you improve your operations and customer service. Regardless of whether your company administers a formal survey or whether you choose to simply ask your customers about their likes and dislikes, client feedback is invaluable to your continuous improvement as a key account manager.

October: Organize a face-to-face meeting.

Global studies indicate that more than three out four businesspeople agree that face-to-face meetings foster breakthrough thinking and bring out the best in people. And while the convenience of Skype, teleconferencing, and virtual meetings is undeniable, there is no substitute for meeting with your customers face to face.

The best strategy is to complement your teleconferences and virtual meetings with at least one face-to-face business review (QBR) meeting annually. October is a great month because you can review the first three quarters of the year and strategize for the year’s end and the upcoming calendar year.

November: Notify your key accounts of special holiday hours of operation.

With the end of the year around the corner, you should make sure that your customers have plenty of advance notice about office closures. In particular, let your key accounts know if you will not be accessible by phone or email during Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Day.

Here are some ways that you can make sure your customers are aware of your holiday schedule:

On November 1st, begin including your holiday schedule as a part of your e-mail signature.
Turn on your out-of-office assistant before leaving the office for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Contact your key accounts by phone at the beginning of November to let them know about your schedule.

December: Delight your key accounts with year-end specials.

If you plan properly, December can become the most productive month of the year for both you and your customers. At the same time that you and your colleagues are finalizing last minute orders, your customers are often winding down their fiscal years.

Here are three great reasons why December is the best month of the year to offer special incentives to your key accounts:

You can secure orders from customers who have funds remaining in their “use-it-or-lose-it” budgets.
Year-end promotions will help your company move overstock items to make room for new inventory.
Special year-end offers are a great way to express appreciation to your loyal clients.

Ideally, key account managers will employ elements of all of these account planning strategies throughout the 2017 year. Your continued efforts to improve relationships with your key accounts will help increase customer satisfaction and expand your base of loyal clients. These two results could make 2017 your best year ever as a key account manager!

Account Planning Tips for The Holidays

December 13, 2016/in Account Planning /by Alex Raymond

The holiday season is in full swing and many customers are finalizing their year-end purchasing plans. Through proper planning, you can help ensure that your key accounts continue to receive the attention that they deserve during this busy time.

The best way to make sure that you keep your key accounts happy during the holiday season is to proactively notify them of your company’s holiday schedule and any related changes that could affect their business.

Below are eight key account planning tips to help you end the calendar year with your customers on a positive note.

Advise your customers well in advance of your company’s holiday schedule.

Over 90% of American companies close on Christmas and New Year’s Day. A significant percentage of these companies plan to close on Christmas Eve and will not reopen until after January 1st. Do not let your key accounts find out by surprise that your company will be closed. Be proactive and notify them personally of your company’s holiday schedule.

Encourage customers to beat the holiday rush.

The majority of American companies experience a mad rush of activity the week before Christmas. Some customers purchase at the end of the year because they have leftover funds in their budgets, while other customers place orders to take advantage of year-end tax advantages.

Educate your customers about the advantages of submitting their orders before the end of December. Shorter lead times for products and services should be at the top of this list of advantages.

Notify customers of any increase in charges for holiday work.

If your company is operating during the holidays, you need to notify your key accounts—in writing—of any additional fees that may apply. This should occur before you break for the holidays and again when customers finalize their orders.

Offer incentives for customers who place their orders before the holidays.

If your business is closed or operating with a skeleton crew between Christmas and the start of the New Year, then you are likely accustomed to the dip in sales that occurs during this period of time.

Key account managers can plan for this slow sales period by offering customer incentives to customers who confirm their orders before the holidays. Examples of effective incentives are time-sensitive discounts, complimentary add-on services, and free products.

Advise key accounts of any changes in pricing structure for the new fiscal year.

This is particularly important if your company is planning a price increase for the upcoming calendar year. Reach out to your customers as quickly as possible upon receiving the news of any changes, and provide a written copy of the new pricing schedule. Also, be sure to emphasize any positive changes, such as any price reductions that may apply or added perks that come with the price increase.

Express appreciation to loyal customers.

Key accounts are your company’s lifeline to continued success. With 20% of customers producing 80% of revenue for most companies, you should regularly express your gratitude to your key accounts for their continued support. Holiday cards or year-end phone calls expressing your thanks are both cost-effective ways to show your gratitude to key accounts.

Do not forget to turn on your automatic replies.

The last thing to do before you break for the holidays is to adjust your email settings to automatically provide incoming requests with a notification that you will be out of the office. If you plan to have a skeleton crew of employees available to respond to emergencies, then you may wish to provide the appropriate contact information in your automatic reply.

Follow up in the new year when operations resume.

A great New Year’s resolution for key account managers is to be more proactive in the upcoming year. A great way to start the year off on a proactive note is to contact each of your key accounts as soon as you return from the holidays. Let them know you are back to work and ready to help their organization prosper in the new year!

The holidays are a hectic time for everyone, but by taking the appropriate steps to proactively communicate with your key accounts, you will build stronger, more trusting relationships and ensure a smooth end-of-year transition.