Customer Engagement
Insights and Best Practice
Learn how Key Account Managers are making positive impacts, solving real problems for their customers, and building best practices inside their organizations.
Customer Engagement
How and Why to Track Customer Outcomes
There’s been a lot of talk lately about getting to the next…
January 11, 2021/by Margot HowardWhat To Do When Your Client Executive Sponsor Leaves
If your stomach flipped just reading that headline, we get it.…
January 4, 2021/by Melissa RogersHow to Turn Customers into Advocates
Existing customers are more profitable and easier to sell to…
December 28, 2020/by Margot HowardOvercoming the 4 Major Risks of Account Based Engagement
As customer demands and dynamics shift, smart B2B companies are…
December 21, 2020/by Alex RaymondHow to Respond to Negative Customer Feedback
We all want positive feedback, but sometimes we don’t get it.…
December 14, 2020/by Margot HowardKey Account Managers: How To Set Yourself up for Success in 2021
2020 has been a wild ride, to put it mildly. And the only thing…
December 7, 2020/by Melissa RogersWelcome to the Customer Engagement Economy
The Customer Engagement Economy is here—and it’s here to…
November 30, 2020/by Alex RaymondHow to build Executive Buy-In for your KAM Software Initiative
Let’s face it--no one woke up this morning wanting to buy more…
November 23, 2020/by Margot HowardBuilt to Last: How Strong Account Plans Reduce Customer Churn
In a recession, every customer is at higher risk of churn. So…
November 16, 2020/by Alex RaymondWinners and Losers in the Customer Engagement Economy
As we’ve written before, the Customer Engagement Economy is…
November 9, 2020/by Alex RaymondFive Questions To Ask When Rolling Out KAM Software
At Kapta, we want you to be more than just a vendor; our key…
November 2, 2020/by Alex RaymondWhat IS a Key Account?
Key account management—focusing on the development of a company’s…
October 26, 2020/by Alex RaymondCategories
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How and Why to Track Customer Outcomes
/in Key Account Management /by Margot HowardThere’s been a lot of talk lately about getting to the next level of customer success by helping customers meet their desired outcomes. This trend is so strong that The MIT Sloan Management Review found many examples of companies basing their pay structures on usage, outcomes, or a combination thereof. And they said companies are competing on customer outcomes more consistently with value delivered being the ultimate result.
With 70.1% of total revenue coming from sales to existing customers, delivering value is the competitive advantage to strive for. CSO Insights also found the account planning process helped KAMs solve customer business problems, driving customer loyalty, retention, and revenue. And the most successful organizations were customer-centric, dynamically aligned with their customers, and their reps had become trusted advisors to their accounts. This resulted in sales win rates of 59.9% for the top organizations surveyed.
Make sure the customer is achieving their goals.
To become a trusted advisor to your key accounts, it’s important to confirm they are realizing their goals. To do so, you need to know how they define success in relation to their goals. As a key account manager, helping your customers set and track their goals is an essential element of what you do. It is critical that you make your customers’ goals a priority to ensure customer satisfaction and retention. This makes hitting client objectives a win-win for your accounts and your organization.
But how do you know what your customers’ goals are?
Identifying your customers’ goals isn’t complicated. All you need to do is ask. And a Voice of Customer (VOC) interview simplifies this process. It enables you to ask questions concerning things like:
This interview allows you to gain deeper insights about what’s happening in your key accounts and stay current with them. This valuable information makes it easier for you to go beyond basic support to truly partner with your clients.
Do a Voice of Customer interview with 3 – 5 people
A VOC interview is the perfect way to gather information from multiple key stakeholders within your client’s organization. You don’t want to blast out a survey to every contact when conducting a VOC. It would be totally irrelevant to many of them. This is when you need to engage people who influence product retention and expansion. Enlist your day-to-day contact or customer champion for help identifying these people. They know their organization and who the power users are as well as how to reach them. This simplifies getting the depth and breadth of feedback you are seeking. The result is more informative, higher quality responses.
Determine their biggest initiatives
You don’t want a long list of goals. So, create a list of goals identified by your client and select the top three goals. These need to be actionable with metrics attached. This makes it easy to confirm achievement of these goals. They also need to be long-term since goals are typically set annually. Avoid any that may be accomplished in less than six months. And, although these goals should be big, they need to be realistically achievable, especially if the client is a relatively new one.
Get specific
Once you have a short list of goals, it’s time to create an action plan for each goal. This plan details all the steps you and your client need to work through to meet or exceed these goals in the designated timeframe. Break each goal into small milestones or objectives. Next, identify shorter range actions that are attainable in a couple of weeks and day-to-day tasks to complete as well. When each small task is completed, no matter how small, it has a cumulative impact on reaching shorter-range objectives and then the big goals.
Don’t do this alone
Now that you’ve broken down each goal into smaller objectives, actions, and day-to-day tasks, you need to share your plan. You can’t hit these goals all by yourself! You’ve got to get buy-in from your internal team and from your customer. Yes, that’s right—share your plan with your customer. They have steps to take toward attaining their goals as well. And once you’re all on the same page, Kapta’s powerful collaboration tools make it easy for your internal team to communicate and stay up to date so nobody drops the ball. This helps everybody stay focused on the end goal as they move from milestone to milestone along the way.
Track results and follow up regularly
As you work toward accomplishing your customers’ goals, keep an eye on the metrics your customer uses to measure success. And follow up with your client and internal team frequently. This enables you to make plan adjustments as needed when setbacks or other changes are encountered so you stay on pace to meet or exceed your shared goals. Changes may also be needed if a particular approach isn’t as effective for a particular client or if the customer is experiencing issues.
Communication is key to successfully reaching the goal line!
Kapta includes a full suite of tools including communication and collaboration tools, client reports, and VOC insights. Schedule a demo today to see how Kapta can help you consistently exceed your customer’s expectations.
What To Do When Your Client Executive Sponsor Leaves
/in Key Account Management /by Melissa RogersIf your stomach flipped just reading that headline, we get it. Great client relationships take time and effort to build, and losing a trusted advocate within your customer’s organization can be crushing. News of personnel changes on the client side can introduce all kinds of woes: the loss of possible years spent building good rapport, a threat to the security of smooth, or at least to-be-expected, day-to-day operations, and, worst of all, your company’s ownership of the business may be at risk altogether.
But it doesn’t have to be all doom-and-gloom! Losing an executive sponsor presents a fair amount of risk to the account, sure, but it’s also a moment of opportunity. When uncertainty looms, keep your head in the game and stave off panic with a few specific, strategic steps.
Review the Org Chart
Your client org chart is invaluable in this scenario, and if you duly followed the first step in Our KAM Process™ of getting to KNOW your customer, you should have an org chart that’s robust, up-to-date, and ready to help in this exact situation.
Ask yourself: who are your next most valuable players on the client team? Is there someone else you can connect with, that may be willing to knowledge-share and shepherd you through this period of transition? Do you already know the person taking over? And if you don’t have any of these secondary strong relationships, are there other people on your team who might?
If you find yourself in a situation where you’re not getting much support or insight from the client, don’t be afraid to explore new links of communication. Is there someone higher up the executive chain, on either side, that may be able to make things easier? Of course communication and outreach should always be thoughtful and tempered, but now is not the time to slink into the background because you don’t know where to go or who to ask. As a key account manager, you may have to overturn stones you haven’t before.
Schedule (Actual) Face Time
As soon as you know who your new executive contact is, set up a meeting. In-person — or as close as you can get to in-person — is best. Reintroduce Our KAM Process™, even if it’s already been done; this new person may have a different vision for their business’s needs and goals. Discuss the following and listen to your new contact’s perspective with a willingness to learn:
Demonstrate your value by asking candid questions. Be aware that business-as-usual may not be guaranteed; in fact, you may find yourself in the position of having to resell this new contact entirely. But start with the basics, before reinventing the wheel — again, proactively following Our KAM Process™ should keep the relationship in good shape. If you run into roadblocks, it’s ok to ask the client, “do you have an open mind on this?” to make sure they’re willing to work through transition pains and stay on board with you. Upsells and big ideas can come later; now is the time to reestablish the business, educate your new contact if needed, and build a solid cadence from which to move forward.
Lastly, remind yourself that this change could mean good things for the business! Big changes can breathe new life into the way your two companies do business together.
Honor Existing Relationships
If you have any control in the matter, try not to let your previous contact slip out of sight and out of mind — especially if it was a notably strong relationship. And even if it wasn’t an exceptionally strong relationship, take the time to thank your former contact and wish them well. You never know where a person will land in the future, and how their needs may come back around to work in your favor. All business relationships represent an opportunity to cultivate your personal network, so before you get caught up in what’s next, take a moment to appreciate what was. You can’t go wrong.
Conclusion
Change in business is rarely much fun, and a shuffle within your immediate client team can be stressful, if not calamitous. But moments of ambiguity and transition can also be an opportunity for you to show value as a calm port in the storm. Rely on your client org chart to help you be creative in finding new client connections, get in front of your new contact and stick to Our KAM Process™, and you should be able to minimize risk and even benefit from a fresh perspective.
To see how Kapta can help support, accelerate and mentor your efforts — in times of uncertainty and in times of harmony — schedule a personal demo today.
How to Turn Customers into Advocates
/in Customer Engagement /by Margot HowardExisting customers are more profitable and easier to sell to than entirely new prospects according to a study by Bain & Company. Increasing customer retention by as little as 5% increases profits by 25-95% while the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% versus 5-20% for a new prospect. Your current customers buy more and buy quicker because they already know, like, and trust you and your product. And, if they become advocates, they will tell others and be a reference for you. Sounds great, doesn’t it! But how can a KAM turn customers into advocates?
Understand your customers
The better you Know your customers, the more strategic and effective you can be for them. Going beyond names and titles, you need to ask them about their personal and professional goals, motivations and expectations. Take time to understand the overall reporting structure in each key account, providing insights around what your day-to-day contacts are juggling in their job as well as the culture of their organization.
Dive deeper by leveraging Voice of Customer (VOC) email surveys combined with individual conversations consisting of customized questions across key account organizations. Then look at internal and external factors that may influence account success through a SWOT analysis.
While getting to know your key customers and when updating your customer knowledge, be sure to ask questions that reveal how you can become a great long-term partner to them. This is important since everybody has their own preferred way of working with business partners. By making a point to ask, you set yourself up to meet their expectations.
Some prefer to initiate contact when they need assistance, where others want partners to maintain consistent contact with them. It’s also important to learn their preferred method of communication as well as what key performance indicators against which they want to measure success. After you ask a question of your key contacts, take the time to listen carefully to their responses, ask follow-up questions, and confirm understanding before advancing to the next question. Then, it’s time to take appropriate action.
Deliver on your promises
Now that you have all this customer knowledge, it’s time to Act by creating an action plan. This is where you set goals, objectives, tactics, and tasks to deliver on the commitments you’ve made to your key accounts. Breaking down each goal into actionable steps enables you and your team to deliver value by actually doing what has been promised. Plus, it makes it easier to stay focused while tracking your progress. This is critical to the overall key account relationship.
Deliver value at every interaction
Make sure that you’re respectful of each contact’s time. Don’t schmooze. Instead, provide value in every interaction by showing them you understand their business and communicating clearly while offering insights, guidance, and new perspectives. This establishes you as a trusted partner delivering buteiness value and increasing customer retention. It also means your clients make you aware of changes and upcoming opportunities first. And they provide you with open, honest feedback quickly and continuously, enabling you to take timely steps to consistently improve customer experience.
Put your customer’s needs ahead of your own
As a Key Account Manager, you must always put your customer’s needs first. Doing so is a win-win where meeting or exceeding the goals and objectives of your key accounts means reaching your own company’s goals as well. Failing to remain focused on your customer’s goals ensures you fall short on both fronts.
Follow up on the value
It’s essential to establish specific goals and success metrics to Measure the success of your action plan by identifying which ones to use as you create each plan. Be sure to establish good baseline data at the beginning as you’re getting to know the customer. Doing so facilitates tracking your progress toward goal attainment. It makes it possible for you to quantify results when communicating internally. And allows you to clearly articulate to your clients the value you have provided. This can make all the difference when it comes to renewals by quantifying account success to stakeholders who think in terms of ROI.
In addition to clearly communicating valuable outcomes, be sure to ask customers if they received the results they were expecting and how you can improve. Always get feedback – this is essential to the future health of your accounts and enables you to keep your finger on their pulse at all times, addressing issues and making adjustments along the way.
Ask for references and advocacy
If they receive quantifiable value from you, ask your client to be a reference or to provide a testimonial. Then share these on social media. There’s no greater form of advertising than customer references, referrals, and testimonials. Make sure you take the time to ask for them once you’ve created this type of deep and trusting customer relationship.
Need help taking your Key Account Management program to this level? Kapta can help. Contact us to schedule a demo today.