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
Change Management Best Practices for Key Account Managers
Change is a part of life and while some organizations might hope…
October 28, 2019/by Alex RaymondHow to Communicate with Your Customers to Maximum Effect
During our KAMCon event last week, there was lots of talk about…
October 21, 2019/by Alex RaymondInvesting in Key Account Management PROCESS Before TOOLS
At Kapta, we’re all about technology and we’re proud of the…
October 14, 2019/by Alex RaymondQ4 Planning for Key Account Managers
Where did the year go? It seems like just a few weeks ago we…
October 7, 2019/by Alex RaymondTop Tools for Key Account Managers
Every profession requires the right tools. Without them, we’d…
September 30, 2019/by Lesley PoladskyHow to Spot a Great Key Account Manager
In any field, when we’re hiring a new person to fill a role,…
September 23, 2019/by Alex RaymondHow Key Account Managers Can Use LinkedIn to Maximum Effect
Social media has rapidly changed society over the last decade…
September 16, 2019/by Alex RaymondWhat’s Your Definition of Key Account Management?
For some things in life, there is a clear-cut, right or wrong…
September 9, 2019/by Lesley PoladskyGet Ready for KAMCon 2019!
It’s that time of year again. Summer is wrapping up and we’re…
September 2, 2019/by Alex Raymond6 Steps to Getting the Most out of Kapta
When you invest in a new software tool, you want to know for…
August 26, 2019/by Alex RaymondDelegation Principles Every Key Account Manager Needs to Understand to the Fullest
How good are you at delegating? Do you just divide parts of a…
August 19, 2019/by Lesley PoladskyChange Management Success Factors – It’s Not A One And Done Process
Change is inevitable for any organization, and although some…
August 12, 2019/by Lesley PoladskyCategories
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Your New Year’s Resolutions: What Makes Change Management Work?
/in Customer Engagement /by Lesley PoladskyChange is constant. But there’s no time like the New Year to pause and take stock of the personal and professional changes you intend to make in the coming year. While we can’t weigh in on your fitness plan, we do have some tried-and-true best practices for making organizational change successful.
At Kapta, we think about change all the time. That’s because many of our clients come to us actively seeking change: They want to establish, grow, or evolve their Key Account Management function. They want to build customer engagement. They want to drive organic growth. And they want to use our purpose-built technology to get there.
We coach our customers through the change management required to implement and improve their KAM process, along with implementation of the Kapta platform. As a result, we’ve identified some key factors for success. There’s a great deal of information out there about change management, and we’re not trying to replicate all of it here—we’re just going to share the things we’ve seen that really make a difference. We’ve grouped these factors into 2 major categories: Tangibles and intangibles.
Tangible Factors: Skill Set and Process
Let’s start with skill set. In almost every scenario where organizational change is the goal, there’s some number of people who need to learn a new skill. Rather than assuming they’ll pick it up as they go, take the time to actively assess your team’s current capabilities against those they’ll need to be successful in a new process, and develop targeted strategies for filling the gaps. The more you can meet people where they are, and tailor educational opportunities to their needs, the better.
In some cases, you may find you need to make a new strategic hire to fill in some gaps in skill set, or you may need to outsource training and onboarding to be more successful. Look outside your company as needed to make sure your team has the support they need as they grow into new capabilities.
In addition to new skills, you’ll also need to implement new processes. For a process like Key Account Management, there are no cookie-cutter solutions—even if there are established best practices to guide you. You’ll have to adjust your approach to fit your team and your customers, and it’s important to get feedback every step of the way to make sure things are working well for your stakeholders. If you run into issues, work together to develop solutions.
One helpful tactic for creating solutions is to organize a good old-fashioned brainstorm. If you have a small group, work in one room; if you have a larger group, break into teams of 3-5 to make sure everyone has a chance to contribute. Present ideas, then group similar ideas together, letting everyone “vote” on priorities. (Multicolored sticker dots work well here.) The more actively your team participates in this process, the more ownership they’ll feel, and the more motivated they’ll be.
Ultimately, both skill set development and creative problem solving around process are designed to make your team feel successful in the new way of doing things. It’s never enough to simply hand down a mandate, then leave your team to figure out how to make it happen. This can lead to frustration, and ultimately reduce adoption of the new process. The more you can prepare team members with the skillset needed, the more capable they will feel, which will increase engagement levels, and that, in turn, contributes to higher adoption and greater long-term success.
Intangible Factors: Belief and Energy
It’s critical your team feel energized around the change, and that means driving belief in its potential for success—not only on an organizational level, but also on a personal level. The number one predictor of success in change management is how strongly your team believes in its potential to succeed. (Think about it: If you don’t think going to the gym is going to do anything for you anyway, why would you even try? Much less persevere when it gets hard.)
In order to drive belief in your future success, it helps to create some amount of fanfare around the change you’re implementing. A series of internal emails or posters can help build excitement and interest while setting the stage for a change on the horizon.
You can also consider a fun kickoff event. If you’re introducing a new process and technology, why not introduce it over a lunch your company has served, or a sponsored happy hour? This creates an atmosphere of celebration, rather than obligation.
In your launch, make sure to include clear rationale for the change. Frame it as:
Make sure to leave plenty of time for questions and concerns. Sometimes people just need to air their anxieties; don’t be discouraged, but rather, validate their feelings (change is hard) and be forthcoming about what to expect. Selling the idea doesn’t mean whitewashing the difficulties of change management—it means highlighting the benefits while being transparent about the effort it will take to get there.
After you’ve shared the news and started the rollout, check in periodically to gauge energy and interest in the change. Again, it’s not enough to announce a change and move on; it takes diligence, awareness, and active leadership to bring about meaningful organizational change.
Your KAM Coach
At Kapta, we’ve coached our customers to success as they use change management best practices to establish, expand, or evolve their Key Account Management process. We’ve watched them build customer engagement, reduce risk, and drive organic growth as a result. So we are strong believers in the potential for success with good KAM practices, and we are always grateful for the opportunity to work directly with our customers to help them get the most out of their investment in Kapta.
Our services packages include:
Change is hard. But it’s possible. And with the right approach and support, it can even be fun.
Introducing KAM To-Go
/in Customer Engagement /by Alex RaymondWe often hear from organizations who need to establish a process for client services or Key Account Management (KAM), but are not yet operating at a scale where they need purpose-built technology to support their efforts.
First we want to say: Congratulations! It takes foresight and big-picture thinking to realize that even if you’re just starting out on your KAM journey—maybe you’re a smaller organization, a start-up, or just beginning to expand your offering—it’s important to lay the foundation for future growth by establishing clear internal processes designed to strengthen customer engagement from the outset. These are the processes that help you drive organic growth and scale seamlessly when the time comes.
KAM also helps establish a culture where customers come first. We find the earlier this is ingrained in an organization’s DNA, the better. A customer-centric approach sets you up to stay competitive, even as customer needs and expectations change. It also helps refine your decision-making as you grow.
If you’re not ready to invest in a KAM platform yet, or if you’re still just wondering how you might implement KAM at all, we’ve developed a free, portable tool to help you establish strong practices around key account management, so you can begin building customer engagement now—and set yourself up for future success.
The KAM To-Go Tool
We always say Kapta is both an app and a roadmap designed to help you strengthen customer engagement. But if the app piece doesn’t make sense for your business right now, you can still use our roadmap to implement best practices around Key Account Management. That’s where the KAM To-Go Tool comes in.
Another name for our roadmap is Our KAM ProcessTM—it’s a proven methodology for building customer engagement through Key Account Management. The KAM To-Go Tool is essentially a checklist, organized around the 3 main pillars of Our KAM Process: Know, Act, Measure.
Within each section (Know, Act, Measure), we’ve organized our checklist the same way we organize Action Plans within Kapta. We start with the big picture: What is the business goal you are trying to accomplish? Then we break that down into a smaller objective: an interim accomplishment that helps you get to your bigger goals. From there we show the action you can take, and the tasks you can assign to individual owners.
This process of breaking down big-picture goals into manageable units is important to apply both internally and with your clients. When you’re ready to build an action plan for them, use the same stepwise approach to ensure a clear, actionable plan forward, where every task your team takes on, no matter how small, adds up to meaningful accomplishments for you and your clients.
Just like pilots use checklists to stay safe and on task before and during each flight, you can use KAM To-Go to stay focused on your customers and organized towards your end goals—not only across the duration of a project, but also throughout your relationship with every major client.
Rinse, Repeat
KAM isn’t a one-time thing. It’s an ongoing method that helps strengthen customer engagement and drive organic growth. It’s an approach that puts customers first so you succeed when they do. And it never stops—as soon as you finish measuring your success with one initiative, you’re hopefully already starting the next one.
When to Try KAM To-Go
KAM To-Go is free and easy to use. There’s no reason not to download now and see if it’s a good fit for what you’re trying to do.
If you’re brand new to Key Account Management, you can also download our Big Book of KAM, another free resource that dives deeper into the fundamentals of KAM, including the who, why, and how of Key Account Management.
When to Invest in Kapta
There’s no hard-and-fast rule about when you need to bring purpose-built technology on board in order to run most efficiently. Some companies opt to start when their team grows—after all, the more people you have running multiple accounts at once, the more important it is to have a single source of truth to visualize the health and productivity of each project and account. You could also bring tech on board when you land an extremely high-value client, and you don’t want anything to fall through the cracks. We find there’s a sweet spot in your growth curve for implementing Kapta, and it’s when you’re large enough for the investment to make sense, but still small enough that Kapta is baked into your process and onboarding before you scale rapidly.
To see Kapta in action, and talk through whether it makes sense for you organization, schedule a personal demo. We’ve been doing this long enough to know when our tech is a good fit, and when you’d be better off with something lighter, like the KAM To-Go tool. We’ll help you find the right approach for your organization, no matter where you are in your KAM journey.
How Are You Communicating with Customers?
/in Customer Engagement /by Alex RaymondGood client relationships demand consistent, intentional communication. These take many forms: Calls, emails, in-person meetings. Half-hour status check-ins or annual, offsite strategy meetings. Despite the wide range of customer communication that takes place over the course of a partnership, there are still questions you can ask yourself almost every time to ensure your efforts are worth it—for you and your client. The key here is that it’s less about how much you communicate with your customers, and more about how much value you add when you do.
There’s no way to overstate the importance of customer communication—it strengthens the relationship, builds engagement, and ensures you’re up to date on their challenges and goals, so you can provide proactive, productive client service. However, the obvious benefits of clear client communication are balanced by the simple truth that time is precious, and nobody wants to be stuck in a pointless meeting or bombarded by unnecessary emails. The questions below help ensure efficient and effective communication, so you and your clients are both getting the most every encounter.
Question 1: Are you providing context?
We’ve all been there: Halfway through a meeting, we catch ourselves wondering, “Why are we here?” When that happens, the best case scenario is we disengage a little bit—look at our phones, check email, or otherwise start “multitasking,” which is to say, not focusing on the task at hand. The worst case scenario is that we are actively frustrated because someone is wasting our time.
Here’s how you prevent that kind of disengagement and/or frustration with clients: Start every meeting with a statement of purpose. Whether it’s a 30-minute call or a 3-day workshop, make it clear from the outset what you’re there to accomplish. Ideally, the agenda or objective goes out ahead of time, so people arrive at the meeting engaged and ready to work towards the goal.
Question #2: Are you overwhelming your client with information?
As the famous French philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” Brevity is challenging. It takes confidence and preparation. And it forces you to think carefully about what’s really important—not to you, but to your customer. (More on that later.)
Confidence is key in client communications. When you’re not 100% sure of the quality of your work, it’s tempting to try to make up for it in quantity. Rest assured, nobody wants this. Time is precious, and people know when you’re wasting theirs. Use your preparation to be confident in your presentation, and use your confidence to be brief. Rather than coming across as “thin,” you’ll come across as efficient. People appreciate this.
It can also be tempting to show your customer how much work went into the presentation, as a way of saying “Look! We’re good at this, and we’re worth every penny!” Resist this temptation. Stick to bottom-line, actionable content that relates directly to the stated objective of the meeting. (Tip: If you’re working in slide format, don’t be afraid to use an Appendix. It’s a great way to capture information that’s not directly relevant to the task at hand, but could be useful down the line.)
Question 3: Are you spending more time talking about you than you are talking about them?
This is a tough question to ask, because the truth is, we’re all guilty of this to some degree. It’s a very human mistake, and one that companies make in their communications all the time, whether it’s nonpersonal (website, marketing) or personal (client communication).
Here’s why it’s understandable: You work hard, day in and day out, to do what you do. Your work matters to you, and it should—caring about your work is how you make your work good. But the cold hard truth is: It doesn’t matter to other people in the same way. Your customers don’t need to hear everything that went into your recommendation. They just need the recommendation. If they have questions about how you got there, they’ll ask.
When you’re preparing a client presentation, ask yourself: Is everything here directly related to their goals? Does it speak to their needs and concerns? Is it interesting to them? If the answer is no, delete or move to an appendix. Frame your communications around what your customers need, not what you need, and you’ll create a situation where they’re always happy to talk to you.
Question #4: Are you clarifying what their goals are?
Of course, it’s not just about how you talk to your customers—it’s also about how you listen. If you’ve done the work up front to make sure you’re keeping your communication efficient and customer-focused, you’ll create opportunities for your clients to share their feedback, input, and goals.
When they do share their goals, take note. And make sure you take the time to really understand what they’re trying to accomplish, so you can make a plan to help. This means asking probing questions that get to the heart of where the goal is coming from: Are they just repeating something they heard from higher up? Or have they really thought through the goal and how they might make it happen?
When you understand your customer’s goals, you have an opportunity to grow the relationship by helping them meet those goals. Take the goal back to your team and work through an Action Plan, breaking the goal into manageable objectives, actions, and tasks. The next time you meet with your customer, you’ll have a plan to present.
And of course, make sure every client communication ends with a summary of next steps. This gives people a clear sense of what you need from them to keep things moving, and opens the door for ongoing engagement and communication.
Keeping Track of Client Contact
The best way to keep a client relationship running smoothly is to ensure consistent, intentional, valuable communication. That means you don’t let your clients go too long without hearing from you, nor do you bombard them with repetitive, unnecessary contact.
When there are lots of you running an account, it can be hard to keep track of who’s reached out to whom, and how recently. Sure, you may be CC’d on emails, but what if you get 300 emails a day? Kapta carefully tracks client contact, and raising the flag when it’s been too long since someone heard from you or your team. Kapta also stores contact reports and key takeaways from client conversations, so your whole team has access to the latest feedback and input from clients—and you don’t reach out twice for information they’ve already sent.
Kapta also stores Voice of Customer information, as well as detailed Action Plans, so it’s easy to keep track of what’s important to your clients, and build your communication accordingly.
To more more about how Kapta helps you create effective, relevant, high-value client communication, click here.