Strategic Account Management Archives

4 Keys to Enhancing Relationships with Your SAM Contacts

December 13, 2018/in Strategic Account Management /by Lesley Poladsky

In the strategic account management game, relationships are everything. You’re not just another vendor pushing a sale and then disappearing. Instead, you’re becoming the client’s trusted advisor. They learn to know you as a person and vice-versa. You’re focused on the long game and plan to know these people for years to come.

So, how do you go about enhancing your relationship? Sure, you probably send them a Christmas card every year, but is that really enough to make the relationship too strong to break?

Today, let’s take a look at four key ways you can go about enhancing the relationships that you have with strategic contacts and accounts. Some of these tips might seem obvious, but if you’re not doing all four of these things, then you’re not genuinely fulfilling your role as the SAM.

1) Get to Know Them

This seems basic. You’re probably asking your computer monitor right now, “Duh! Of course, I know my contacts. What more could I know about them?”

Sure, you know them in a business sense. You talk to them about their organization and the problems and goals they have, but I want you to know them on a more personal level. This will involve some internet stalking, but some of the best answers are readily available.

If you haven’t already, connect with your contacts on LinkedIn. This will give you a better idea of who they are personally. You should determine what their career goals are, along with their personal needs and wants and how these goals relate to their organization.

Since you aren’t proposing them solutions that will help them personally, you need something that fits their organization but is related to their personal goals.

See what makes them stand out, and you’ll be able to figure out the things that will add value to them – not only their boss.

2) Find the Missing Piece

Now that you’ve done a deep dive on your contact’s social media profiles, the next step is finding the missing piece for them in their job.

Remember, your goal is to make them the office hero for their organization, and this means you should propose solutions that not only benefit their organization as a whole but solutions that they’ll be genuinely excited about.

Once you’re able to provide a solution that they’re really excited about, then they’ll see you as a trusted advisor looking out for their best interests. This is crucial to establishing and enhancing your long-term relationship with the client.

The best way to fill in these value gaps is to talk directly to the contact. Take some time in your next interview with them to learn more about what they want. Ask them how their life could be easier. What struggles do they have with their position? What does a perfect workflow look like for them?

With these answers in mind, you can start thinking about ways that your products or services could benefit them personally while providing support that can potentially solve their problems. Solving problems for people is one of the most sure-fire ways to build a relationship with someone, and in this sense, your client will see you as a step above the other vendors they deal with.

3) Stay in the Loop

Your role as the SAM is to not only keep your accounts onboard and away from the competition but to also be the connector between your contact’s organization and your own.

Assuming this role as the connector means that you should never go more than a couple of days without talking to your SAMs. Being a SAM and being passive is not the ideal combination. You should be proactive in your management approach.

Being proactive means you aren’t sitting around waiting for the customer to have a problem and then scrambling to propose a solution. Instead, you need to actively reach out to the contact to see how they’re doing. You want not only to check to make sure that they’re having a great experience with your products and services but also to see if there is anything that you can do better to improve their experience.

Some contacts will be shyer than others, so don’t take a simple “Yup! Everything is great!” as an answer. Continue to probe and learn more about potential issues and solutions. Throw a few ideas to them that could make their experience better, and if they still respond that it’s going great, then you can move on all while using what you learned as potential areas for improvement in the future.

4) Stay Consistent

The final way to enhance your relationship with your contacts is to be patient while also being consistently persistent. Every person is different, and while some people are open books and ready to be your best friend, other contacts might be all business.

Building a sustainable, long-term relationship with an account takes time, and you can’t fake your way through it. You need to genuinely care about their wants, needs, goals, and problems. If you try to skip a couple of steps, the contact can sniff it out, and you’ll end up on their “just another vendor” list fast.

Remember, it’s not about what you’re getting from them. This relationship is all about providing real value for the client through a number of different avenues and solutions.

So, don’t be discouraged if you have a hard time getting the client to open up about their role in their organization. Keep reaching out and keep learning more about the contact little by little. If you plan it right and are patient enough, you’ll find opportunities to provide solutions and value to them personally.

How Kapta Can Help

While you’re busy focusing on enhancing your contact relationships, you shouldn’t have to worry about the technical details of the account. Get out of the spreadsheet and get on the phone with your clients by using a SAM platform designed to make your life easier. Request a free demo of Kapta today and see how it can improve your relationships.

How To Get Funding And Resources For Your Strategic Account Management Program In 2019

December 10, 2018/in Strategic Account Management /by Alex Raymond

As we look ahead to 2019, you’re probably already making your plans to accomplish your goals and (hopefully) keep your New Year’s Resolutions.

In the business sense, we hope that one of the items on your new year’s to-do list is to revamp your SAM program to help improve your company’s bottom line. The thing is, to accomplish this, you’ll need the buy-in from a few different people at varying levels of your organization.

This is easier said than done in most cases, but if you know what each person cares about the most, you can start speaking their language and hopefully get the budget and resources needed to bring mutual success for your strategic accounts.

Today, we’re going to cover a few tips and tricks to help you get the funding and resources for your strategic account management program in 2019. While you might not be able to follow these exactly to a tee, if you keep them in mind as you start planning, you should have an easier time getting the funding and support necessary.

Know Your Audience

First thing’s first, you need to know who will provide you with the support that your SAM program needs. You can’t just expect that everyone in the organization will just sign off on the budget automatically. Instead, you need to think about what they’ll get out of the program.

Think about the different people that might be related to the program. What would make them excited about the SAM project? Every person in the organization has their own set of goals and expectations, and you should be able to speak to their unique needs and wants.

Let’s cover a few of the people that you’ll need to work with in order to get your SAM program off the ground and running.

The Chief Financial Officer

The first person that you’ll want to get approval from is the CFO. They’re essentially the person that makes all of the high-level financial decisions in your company, and although a SAM program might seem like a small addition to the sales team, the effects that it has can affect nearly every level of the organization.

For this reason, you want to make sure that your CFO doesn’t just approve of your SAM program, but is fighting in your corner to make it a success. So, to get them to be a champion for the SAM program, you need to speak their language.

What does the CFO care about the most? The profitability of your organization! They want to make sure that the company is bringing in more revenue and saving costs more and more every year. Their New Year’s goal has a dollar sign next to it most likely, so you need to accurately and convincingly show them how a SAM program helps reach their goals.

One of the best statistics to tell them about is how an existing customer can be more profitable than a new customer. For starters, you don’t need to spend nearly as much time and energy selling to them. No courting them, no giving out special introductory discounts to get them to sign on, and no extra time wasted trying to find the best game plan for them using your products or services.

Instead, existing customers are already comfortable working with your organization, and shouldn’t have much of a reason to leave unless you give them one.

In addition, existing customers are more likely to make a premium purchase from your company. They know how well your solutions work, so they won’t blink an eye to make an extra order or purchase your add-ons.

Show the CFO that existing customers are where the money is at and they’ll come around to like the SAM program more and more.

The VP of Sales

Moving on, it’s now time to speak to the VP of Sales or the CRO of your organization. What do they care about the most and how can a SAM program make them happier?

In most cases, the VP of Sales is concerned with revenue growth. They want to see more money coming in every year, and they have strict sales goals that they need to hit by the end of the year.

Some CROs might wrongly assume that the fastest and most efficient way to grow revenue is by selling to more and more people. In reality, this can be counter-intuitive and waste precious time and resources in the process.

Instead, you should tell them how it’s much easier to grow an existing account than to sell to more people. Developing an account is much like the snowball effect. When you first start, it can be hard to get them to purchase more services from you, but as they begin to see success through your services and products, they’ll have a hard time imagining life without your organization.

They’ll purchase more products and see your company as the partner in their success, making renewals every year without blinking an eye.

The CEO

Finally, it’s time to talk to the head honcho at the company. The CEO of your organization cares about every area of the business, but they care most about market leadership.

Their goal is to provide quality services and products that differentiate themselves in the marketplace above the competition. One of the key ways to do this is through the buffer created with existing customers.

If your SAM program works well, you’ll have a handful of core accounts that make up 80% of your company’s revenue, growth, and innovation. They are the moat around your business, protecting it from competitors and other pitfalls.

You should describe to the CEO how by building and improving these relationships with strategic accounts, your organization can build its reputation and grow even faster than before.

Essentially, your strategic accounts are everything to your organization, and if you can show your CEO this, they’ll get on board with the program.

Investing Intelligently in your Strategic Account Organization

December 6, 2018/in Strategic Account Management /by Denise Freier

I had a wonderful experience connecting with everyone at KAMCon in Boulder recently. The team at KAPTA were wonderful hosts and brought together a very talented group focused on the future challenges impacting everyone’s most important customers.

In Boulder, I shared findings drawn from our SAMA (Strategic Account Management Association) community about the extraordinary financial performance of strategic account management (SAM) programs. In summary for those who could not join us in Boulder, SAMA Research shows that sales organizations with SAM programs experience 2x greater annual revenue growth from their strategic accounts relative to their non-strategic accounts. Also, importantly, this increase in the top line does not sacrifice profitability, as key accounts earn 10% higher gross margins against standard sales accounts.

At SAMA, we know that leading a SAM or KAM program is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Just declaring the start of a program does not guarantee these results. It requires, at a minimum, wise choices when recruiting your talented account team, aligning your entire organization for your customers as well as possible and selecting which key accounts demand your priorities. As with all businesses, making sound judgements on where to focus your investments are the lifeblood to delivering these extraordinary SAM results.

An important question that we get from SAM decision-makers is what are the most common criteria used to shape your SAM program and account investment decisions. Every business is different, but we have surveyed our SAMA community to dig into what criteria shape investments that achieve these remarkable SAMA community results. A 2018 SAMA Research study that we call Metrics to Help You Calibrate the Right Investments for a Strategic Account Organization (a snap shot of some of the findings can be found here) was designed for SAM leaders to benchmark their investment approach with our overall SAMA community that delivers these great outcomes.

This SAMA research interestingly shows that more organizations in the SAMA community apply the level of their customer’s current satisfaction more frequently as a factor in their investment decisions than the size of the customer organization. The size of your key customers, while an important consideration, appears to be less important than the customer’s perception of your group and the role that your organization plays in the customer’s decision making.

We see in our SAMA community that investing in areas where you are vital to strategic customer relationships brings better results than chasing targets measured entirely by the size of the opportunity or wallet size. The painful truth is that your key account does not always see you as a strategic supplier. You may have invested in the best talent development and have great products that are selling, but the customer’s signals indicate that they do not see you as part of their strategic future like you see them.

At SAMA, we try to help our community elevate to become trusted advisors to their key customers and not merely a top vendor competing for big deals. A hard look and evaluation of your customer relationship can make a difference from fine results to another level of sustained, profitably-growing results.

Our SAMA survey results summary shared here also can help SAM leaders with their decisions where to invest beyond account selections. Do you focus on your staff, your products or infrastructure? A tough call sometimes is which leaders are best at shaping the investment decision process and the metrics that factor into raising or lowering investments. This brief summary of our recent SAMA research may offer you some benchmarking insights that help you recalibrate your program and make a giant difference in your business results.

Not All Customers Are Alike

Not all customers are alike and your decisions where to invest in them make the difference. Some accounts will shape your organization’s future growth while others will continue to drain resources and never deliver a satisfactory return.

SAMA is always learning from our community. We share what we have curated or distilled around best practices and future practices to help SAM management teams benefit from the other experienced SAM programs in our community. Consider adding SAMA resources to your continuous improvement efforts when making your tough investment decisions in the future.

Think You’re Ready for Strategic Account Management Software? Here’s how to find out.

December 3, 2018/in Strategic Account Management /by Lesley Poladsky

As a culture, we’re always going after the next shiny new thing. We see the new iPhone come out; we want it. We see the new model of our car come out and we start to consider if it’s worth the upgrade.

The same is true in any organization. Beyond standing desks, kombucha taps, and premium business cards, software is the primary shiny new thing for companies – and for good reason.

Having an efficient software platform can be a real game-changer for companies, and we would know – we are software people here at Kapta after all.

But we’re going to do something that might shock you – we’re going to question whether you really need to purchase SAM software, or whether you’re just trying to go after the next shiny new thing.

Let’s take a look at a few things that you should have in place before considering a SAM platform to ensure your organization can benefit from the software rather than just bog your staff down with a tool they aren’t quite ready for.

How Strategic Account Management Software Can Help

So, how can Strategic Account Management software help you in the first place? There are a few aspects of SAM software that can really take your SAM program up to the next level.

For one, SAM tools will help you become more proactive and strategic with your accounts. These are the two qualities of every great SAM, and without these qualities, you run the risk of becoming “just another vendor” for your clients.

SAM platforms like Kapta feature tools that enable you to plan your accounts in greater detail, helping you plan every single step of the account into the future. SAM tools provide more visibility with intelligent graphics to see the health of the account at a glance, so you aren’t blindsided during the next QBR or Voice of Customer interview.

Also, SAM platforms enable you to sell more to existing customers. Research shows that it’s easier to upsell and cross-sell to existing customers, and as SAM focuses on the 20% of clients that bring revenue, you should track their use and purchases over time to find the perfect opportunities to fill in the gaps.

Finally, a well-equipped SAM platform can help you develop stronger, long-term relationships with your clients. The SAM software tracks every contact in the account, when you last spoke to them, what you talked about in their last VOC interview and more. This helps you stay on top of the relationship and take steps to nourish and grow it.

All of these benefits sound pretty great, right? Before you sign on the digital dotted line and subscribe to a SAM software, you need to have a few things in place first; otherwise, adoption will take longer than you expect.

Is Your Team Together?

First thing’s first, you need to have your SAM team in place. Every role should be filled by a well-qualified customer-centric pro. We’ve recently discussed the roles in every balanced SAM team, but to summarize, you need a few key players to create a well-oiled, relationship-building SAM team:

Customer Success: They make sure that the success of the customer comes first and foremost before any bottom line results. They’ll keep the program on track and create valuable solutions for clients.

Sales: To balance out the SAM team, you should also have people that know what each client is worth to your company on your team. They’ll make sure the work you’re doing is worth it.

Client Services: You need people that will respond to any and all customer inquiries day in and day out. They speak your client’s language and know your products inside and out.

Technical Support: When your clients have a technical question, chances are you won’t know it off the top of your head. Tech support should be on speed dial and ready to tackle the tech challenges your clients might run into.

If these roles are filled with the right people, then you’re ready to move onto the next box on the checklist – your process.

Do you have a process for SAM?

After your team is in place, you need to make sure that your team has a game plan. More specifically, you need to have a process for your SAM program. This process should be effective, efficient, well-defined, and repeatable.

When does the sales team come in during the relationship? When will you need tech support to work with the clients?

These are just a couple of the many questions that you should ask yourself when creating your new process. Once the process is in place, you can start tweaking it to make sure every player knows their role, and you can execute it smoothly and easily for every single strategic account.

Build Good Habits

A core component inside of your process should be good habits across the board from every team player. Building good habits can be easier said than done, much like going to the gym every morning was once a struggle, after doing it every day for a few weeks, pulling yourself out of bed is easier and almost automatic.

You should build strong organization-wide habits around your SAM program as well. You need good habits related to account reviews, customer interviews, QBRs, and everything else associated with your SAM process.

It’s crucial you do this beforehand because a SAM program, no matter how good it is, will do these things automatically for you. It’s on you and the team to build these habits early on.

Own It

Finally, your entire Strategic Account Management team must be accountable. Every key player needs to own their actions both positive and negative. A well-functioning SAM program won’t hold you accountable, so it’s crucial that you can own every part of the program.

If every individual on the SAM team must hold themselves accountable for the success or failure of the program. With this responsibility in place, your program has a better chance of success.

Are you ready?

If you’ve checked off all of these qualifications, then congratulations, your team is ready for a SAM platform! Since this is your first time using one, why not start off with the only SAM platform made by SAMs for SAMs?

Kapta offers powerful tools that help keep each account organized and on track. The best part is you don’t need to go all-in just to try it out. Schedule your free demo here.

The Balanced Strategic Account Team

November 29, 2018/in Strategic Account Management /by Alex Raymond

In the age of big superhero blockbuster films coming out seemingly every weekend, we’re all familiar with the crossover, team-up movie. That’s when a collection of heroes come together to create a balanced team that is more capable than the sum of its parts.

Are you stuck thinking that strategic account management is a stand-alone operation? It can be easy for sales-minded individuals to believe that they have to go it alone and accepting any form of help will shine badly on them.

In reality, if you want to be the best strategic account manager and make the most progress on your account plans, you need some help. Let’s take a look at a few of the characteristics of a balanced strategic account team.

It’s Not Just The Strategic Account Manager

When you picture a strategic account management team, you probably only picture the Strategic Account Manager, and that’s it. Why would anyone else need to jump in and help out if SAM isn’t in their job title? Well, there are a couple of reasons why.

The most significant reason is that everyone brings something different to the table. We all have our own unique set of skills, and by choosing different career paths, our roles at the company can complement and mesh with other departments well.

Much like you would rather have a super fast and tall guy play wideout rather than defensive end on the football field, the SAM plays a distinct role but should have a supporting cast of heroes around them.

Who’s on Your Team?

So, who should you recruit and bring onto the strategic account management team? No, you don’t need to put up a job posting or go to some secret meeting to find the perfect people for your team – chances are they’re right down the hall from your office!

Here are a few of the roles that you should incorporate into your team to maximize your success and create perfect harmony in your account management department:

1) Customer Success

Strategic account management and customer success work hand-in-hand. The role of the SAM is to create winning strategies and account plans that not only drive revenue for their company but create actual value for the client as well.

When your customer is winning, your company is successful also. It’s not a cat and mouse game trying to sell them things they don’t need for a quick buck. Instead, with the help of a customer success expert, you can improve your strategy and shift your focus from dollars to success metrics.

2) Client Services

You need someone on your team that knows how to speak the customer’s language. Workers in the client services department deal with high volumes of clients on a daily basis and are the silver-tongued customer service pros you need on your team to make sure that you’re speaking your customer’s language and putting their needs first.

With client services on your team, you can delegate smaller tasks to them rather than managing every single aspect of the relationship. This frees up more time for the SAM to focus on the account planning process and the high-level meetings with executives rather than lower-level associates at your client’s organization.

3) Technical Support

If you’re in the SaaS industry, you need to know the technical details of the product inside and out. Even so, your clients are bound to ask questions during the onboarding phase and even after. While you’re doing your everyday work, do you really want to take the time to troubleshoot or train them?

Chances are, the road ends with technical support either way. So, rather than serving as the go-between for the client and technical support, by bringing technical support onto your strategic account management team, they can provide the correct solution faster to clients than you would have. They’re an integral part of any team, and if software is your specialty, you need them more than ever.

4) Sales

The final piece of a balanced strategic account management team is sales. They’re the ones on the front lines each and every day talking with prospects in hopes of turning them into sales. While strategic account management should be less about sales and more about driving results for your clients, sometimes it’s easy for account managers to lose sight of the bottom-line-driven end goal.

Finding the Balance

By bringing members of the sales team onto your team, they’ll keep you on track and will help you find ways to boost revenue while also driving real solutions for customers.

With all of these pieces in place, your strategic account management team is in balance. You have customer success professionals on one end with the goal of creating results, you have sales people on the other doing what they can to keep the project profitable, and then tech support and client services to ensure you’re meeting the needs of the customer.

Words from the G.O.A.T. Himself on Teams

As arguably the best basketball player of all time (sorry Kobe and LeBron fans), Michael Jordan knew that he didn’t win those NBA championships by himself.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” –Michael Jordan

The same is true for SAM. Yes, you can probably see some moderate success managing an account all by yourself, but this solo approach never works for the significant clients in the end. You can’t do it all yourself, and with a team around you, managing the work is much easier, and you’ll have greater success in the end.

One Final Thought

With all this talk about teamwork, one thing to remember is that the SAM is the QB of the team. You call the shots, and the final outcome of the team’s efforts ultimately fall on you. Don’t let the project get too far out of your control, but rather delegate and work with other team players to benefit the project as a whole, while still maintaining vision on the big win.

Kapta Can Help

Managing a significant account is tricky without the right tools. Once you have your team in place, Kapta will be your playbook with everything you need to manage a winning account all in one platform. Want to see how Kapta can help your SAM team? Request a free demo today.

Why Change Management Matters in Strategic Account Management Software Deployments

November 26, 2018/in Strategic Account Management /by Lesley Poladsky

Strategic Account Management (SAM) software can help you up your game by allowing you to track, measure, and analyze everything that might be important to your company. As much as the benefits of a great SAM software are evident, the process of rolling it out across your company is never easy. How do you get your people on the same page so you can fully implement the new SAM software and start getting all the benefits as soon as possible?

Change management will play a key part in this. If you try to force the change through without taking the time to make sure you do it right, you could end up with a lot of disgruntled company employees who resent the new system. For the sake of getting the best out of your SAM software and helping your company reach its full potential, pay attention to how you’re implementing the new change. If you ignore change management and focus too much on new, you may leave too many people behind.

Any Change Creates Resistance

In the context of business, any change you make will bring immediate resistance. It’s a fact of life that people do not like change, even when the change is something that’s obviously beneficial. Facing change in the workplace is especially difficult because of the sense of uncertainty that’s created. No one likes to feel uncertainty in their job, which will lead them to resist any change you plan on implementing. The larger the change, the stronger the initial resistance will be.

Resistance to Deploying Strategic Account Management Software

Deploying a Strategic Account Management software platform company-wide is a large change. Whether you’re starting from scratch or replacing an existing asset management software with something better, it’s going to be a long road. People in your organization may become worried about how they’ll use the new software, what they’ll have to learn, how long it will take to get used to it, how it will be different from the old system, and a lot of other things.

To minimize the consequence of resistance to your proposed new Strategic Account Management software deployment, you need to pay attention to a lot more than just the change itself. Take a look at the full picture of all the moving pieces involved in the deployment, including the people working at your organization. For the entire deployment process to run more smoothly, you need to practice change management.

Implementing Change Management Principles

There’s a process you need to follow whenever you want to make an organizational change. The process doesn’t really change, even if the actual change being implemented is drastically different from case to case. Whether it’s a SAM software deployment or a total restructuring, this is the process of implementing change in your organization:

Management must support the change

In most organizations, change needs to go from the top down. Leaders in your organization need to be on board with the change and to stand behind it wholeheartedly. If you’re in a top leadership position, you need to fully stand behind it yourself and bring your colleagues on board with you. Even if you’re not in a top leadership position, you need to petition your leadership to stand behind the changes being implemented so everyone in the organization can be on the same page.

It all starts with organizational leadership. When leaders can confidently tell people in the organizational that this SAM software deployment is the right way to go, it can help others gain more confidence in the change and give it a chance instead of outright rejecting it.

Present a logical reason

Leaders need to explain why the change is necessary and beneficial. Employees at any organization are capable of understanding when something needs to happen, whether they like it or not. Your job in this beginning phase is to help them understand why the organization has decided to deploy a SAM software and how it will improve things for everyone.

You need to focus on logic. Fill in the missing pieces by pointing to the need that exists in your organization right now and how this software is going to fulfill that need. Presenting the case for a change can help people ease into it more comfortably, since they’ll be able to see why it’s necessary to go through the process of changing. You may start to win them over if you help them to wrap their minds around why it needs to happen.

Communicate about the change

Up a line of conversation open. Be transparent about what’s going on during the transition, and keep people updated throughout the process. If you present that a change is going to happen and then you fail to keep them in the loop about it, you can create a lot of anxiety and uncertainty around the whole process. Update regularly and communicate about it openly.

The other part of communication is reaching out to people directly. Ask them to be involved in the deployment in some way. These will be your SAM software champions, because they’ll be more interested in seeing things succeed when they’re directly involved. Their involvement will help to bring others into the fold as well, limiting the number of people who get left behind. It’s good to do these talks as directly as possible with each person, so they can understand their role and their importance in making it happen.

Follow through with the timeline

Create a timeline about how the account management software will be rolled out, then stick to what you’ve said. If things change, update the timeline to reflect it. Do your best to follow a predictable timeline so you don’t create uncertainty and chaos. The best thing you can do when you’re implementing a large change is to keep things as stable as possible by letting everyone know ahead of time how and when things will happen.

Check up

Just because you bring people on in the beginning doesn’t mean you should expect them to follow you through everything without question. Make a habit of checking up with people regularly to make sure things are operating smoothly. If there are any problems, you need to put yourself in a position to catch them early instead of letting them fester and grow in secret.

Try to ask specific questions when they’re appropriate, to get more informative answers out of people. Ask about specific parts of their role, and ask follow-up questions until you get satisfactory answers. You need to root out any existing problems and potential issues in order to react appropriately to them as quickly as possible.

Compensate for weaknesses discovered [training employees, communicating better, etc.]

Each time you talk with people in your organization, you need to take action whenever there’s a solvable problem in front of you. This will mean something different depending on what problems people are facing with the deployment. If they’re struggling with any part of the software, you can organize training sessions. If they don’t fully understand their role or what they’re supposed to be doing, find the gaps in communication and fix them.

Some of the challenges that come with change are difficult to solve. However, if you ignore any weaknesses you uncover in your staff, you may be just pushing the problem farther down the road where it’ll be more difficult to handle later. Problems that are heard and not addressed, or problems that are ignored, can create a bad working environment that causes people to leave rather than sticking with it.

Share successes

As you’re going through the change process, make sure you take the time to acknowledge when things are done right and when your people have important successes. Celebrate the small successes as they come.

Beyond change management, there are other aspects of a new software deployment that you should be paying attention to as it goes.

Do It Right from the Beginning

Avoid taking shortcuts and allowing people to get away with using the new software the wrong way, even in the beginning. If they’re using it incorrectly or they are refusing to use it as it needs to be used, you need to correct their behavior right away. Be consistent from day one and don’t allow laziness or lack of motivation to use the new system creep in.

Starting right and staying consistent is going to help the entire organization build good habits around use of the new software. Instead of excusing improper use or letting people get away with not using the software at all, teach them how to do it right and encourage them to learn the right way from the very beginning. This is going to result in a lot of people with a higher competency and a better overall understanding of how you expect things to be done.

Develop a process around the new software. Adjust your current working processes to accommodate the new software. Make sure that you’re using it to the fullest of its abilities as soon as possible.

Train Your Organization

No one is going to know how to use the new software intuitively. Everyone will have a learning curve that they’ll progress through at their own rate. Some of your more tech-savvy people are doing to pick it up very quickly and learn to utilize it right away. Others are going to need a bit more training to understand how to use the software fully.

Make sure that training is easily available. The only way you can take all your people with you into the new phase of the organization is to teach them how to use the new tool. When possible, tailor training to accommodate the needs of different people. Try not to force quick learners to sit through hours of unnecessary training or to move so quickly that slower learners can’t keep up. If necessary, create different training teams to make sure people are getting the kind of attention they actually need.

Lead by Example

Organizational governance cannot slack off when there’s an ongoing transition. You need to lead the way and champion the change. If the organizational governance isn’t even taking the new software seriously, no one else is going to either. Take the new processes you’ve developed and make sure you’re consistently using them yourself and encouraging others to do so. Give a lot of grace as people learn how to do it, but do expect them to learn and start to use it on their own over time.

Looking at the Long-Term

Pushing things through as quickly as possible won’t make them a success. Just because you’ve gotten everyone to start using the new system also doesn’t mean you’ve succeeded. The way you implement a change will make a huge difference in the long-run. For the new change to stick and become an integral part of how your organization operates, you need to do it right.

The change management process is going to set you up for long-term success. Strategic asset management software like Kapta can help you reach your goals and keep track of what’s going on in your operation, but you won’t get the most out of it unless you pay attention to how you roll it out. Overlooking change management could be a costly mistake in the long-run.

A Strategic Account Manager Job Description You Can Steal (and Post)

November 19, 2018/in Strategic Account Management /by Alex Raymond

Strategic Account Managers are an integral part of every organization. They’re the trusted advisors that drive your clients’ success. Make no mistake – they aren’t like any other account manager. SAMs deal with the 20% of clients that drive 80% of your organization’s success, so it’s safe to say they’re the relationship superheroes that drive growth and success.

If you’re in the market for a new SAM, you’re probably frustrated trying to think of the perfect job description to weed out the glorified salespeople and find the diamond in the rough that will be the shining star for your company.

We’re here to help! Today we’re giving away a job description you can copy and paste, fill in the blanks, and post on internet job boards.

Qualities of a Strategic Account Manager

First thing’s first, it’s important to know who you’re looking for and the qualities that the right candidate will have.

First, they need to be organized. Managing an account means that they’ll be responsible for a variety of different moving parts. If they don’t have proven experience managing multiple things at once and wearing different hats from time to time, they could struggle to drive growth and build their client relationships.

Second, they need to be empathetic. Nourishing and growing professional relationships is a personal matter. They need to give a damn about their work and genuinely care about the success or failure of their client.

The buck stops with the Strategic Account Manager, so they must also be accountable. You want to know you’re hiring someone that will own their decisions, actions, and work process. It’s their responsibility that the relationship your organization has with clients is healthy and ready for the long term.

Finally, qualified SAMs must have high-level communication skills. They should be more than comfortable talking with senior-level executives on the phone, through email, and in-person. They are the face of your company and need to make the right impression to ensure that you’re not driving customers away and rather nourishing and growing the relationship for the long term.

The Job Description

Now that we’ve gotten the qualities to look for out of the way, here’s the job description for the role. Like mentioned above, feel free to copy and paste this or tweak it to your liking! Our goal is to help you find the best SAM for your company with as little effort as possible. Fill in the placeholders, highlight this text, and paste it into Indeed, LinkedIn, wherever, and you should get some quality candidates!

Job Description: Strategic Account Manager

Are you looking for a job that really matters? A position where your abilities can shine, and you can own the progress and success of your work?

<COMPANY> is looking for an experienced Strategic Account Manager to help support our growth by nourishing, building, and growing our existing relationships with our top clients. You’ll be working with our existing and new accounts and will be the main point of contact for our company. You’re essentially our clients’ Trusted Advisor and will be responsible for their success using our tools.

The Strategic Account Manager is a crucial position that affects every level of the organization. You’ll be on the front-lines of relationship and account management, and you must own the success of our clients.

About the Role

For this role, the Strategic Account Manager will be responsible for the following:

Creating and implementing Account Plans for all strategic accounts with short-term objectives and long-term goals along with clearly defined steps to reach them.
Speaking with customers on a regular basis to check in on them and propose new solutions for their organization.
Coordinating with multiple departments and teams to ensure sales objectives and performance goals are met.
Proactively establishing professional and productive relationships with stakeholders in client accounts.
Assessing, clarifying, and validating customer requirements, needs, and goals on a consistent basis.
Managing new client onboarding, client launches, and initiatives.

About You

To be a good fit for the role, you should have the following skills, knowledge, experience, and qualifications:

Proactive and motivated to go above and beyond to keep customers happy
A problem-solving mentality
Superior communication skills (both written and oral) and comfortable presenting and speaking to senior-level executives
Outstanding organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple moving parts and accounts simultaneously
A fast learner that can hit the ground running and learn our products inside and out quickly
An outside of the box thinker with proven experience developing creative solutions to clients’ out of the ordinary problems.
Leadership skills with an empathetic approach – our success is based on our clients’ success so you must be ready to drop everything at a moment’s notice to help.
Prior experience in Account Management, Sales, and/or Marketing preferred
Proficiency using Microsoft Office tools
Experience using SAM, KAM, CRM platforms preferred.
Bachelor’s Degree and/or equivalent work experience.

Benefits

Why <COMPANY>?

How to Apply

Please submit a cover letter along with your resume to <COMPANY EMAIL> and let us know the unique qualifications you have to become a Trusted Advisor for clients.

Final Thoughts

Finding the right candidates for a role as crucial as SAM can be a challenge, but having a winning job description to use on job boards is the first step towards weeding out the fakes and attracting the winning talent that can take your company to the next level.

So, fill in the blanks and copy and paste this job description to your site or job boards and the hard work is done. Now all that’s left to do is sort through the winning applications and fill the role. Best of luck!