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Strategic Account Management Association

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Dedicated to helping strategic account managers and key account managers manage improve relationships with their most important customers

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Category: Strategic account management process

A repeatable, scalable framework for developing and delivering value with strategic customers.

Strategic account management process, Strategic account manager skills and competencies, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Value co-creation

Understanding the Hidden Needs of Key Accounts for Sustained Growth

By Dave Irwin, Founder & CEO of Polaris I/O

Given the pace of change during the pandemic — an accelerated digital economy, in addition to the current economic climate, supply chain issues, ESG initiatives, and world events — there are constantly new and shifting needs for any B2B company. Different groups of people across departments, regions, divisions, and elevation levels are having to adapt daily to new challenges. Fixed demand for products and services is being overrun with new demand for solutions to emerging problems. This shift in demand is both a threat and an opportunity for suppliers needing to protect, retain, and grow these valuable account relationships. And everyone knows it.

B2B Buyers Want Relevant Information Fast

When you combine constantly changing needs with a fundamental desire of B2B buyers to make most buying decisions without the involvement of salespeople, the threat to the traditional sales-and-marketing model becomes even more pronounced. According to a Harvard Business Review article, “Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing are Becoming Obsolete,” from last year, “Helping today’s B2B buyers buy isn’t a sales challenge, nearly so much as an information challenge (or, alternatively, an information opportunity). The companies that best provide customers the information they most urgently seek, specifically through the channels they most clearly prefer, are in a far better position to drive commercial success in today’s rapidly evolving digital commercial landscape.” 

From a traditional go-to market perspective, the historical focus of sales and marketing, the information a buyer is seeking has been about your product and services. But that has changed. What about unknown demand and the unmet needs of today’s business executives who are bombarded with new challenges every day? This is a fundamentally different dynamic to understand, and critical for effective cross-selling in key accounts. In a buyer journey of unknown demand, it isn’t the channel you deliver the information to that is the issue, but rather the very information itself you are delivering. 

Continue reading “Understanding the Hidden Needs of Key Accounts for Sustained Growth” →
January 3, 2023January 3, 2023customer co-discovery, customer-centricity, Digitalization, information, Value analysis and opportunity insightLeave a comment
Strategic account management process, Strategic account management program organization

How to Sell Innovative Ideas (When Everyone’s Terrified to Take Risks)

By Brian Doyle, President, Holden Advisors

Business decisions are usually made by decision makers at two ends of a spectrum. At one end are the innovators, who want to try new things and aren’t afraid of failing. At the other end are those who fear making a bad decision and getting called out for it. In my experience, the clear majority of business decision makers sit on the “afraid to fail” end of the spectrum.

And who can blame them? Historically, when times are tough, innovators who go out on a limb for an idea get sidelined or, worse, fired. During the Great Recession of 2007-2009, unemployment reached 10 percent, and many businesses cut down on innovation – even when that innovation may have ultimately increased their profit. Business leaders solved budget issues by cutting expenses and employees, rather than by adopting new ideas. If you were an innovator in those days, you were tagged as someone who “didn’t get it” and may have found your job on the chopping block.

A significant outcome of this kind of recession-driven mindset is that fear of failure drives approval-by-committee. Any important, or even small, purchase or decision could mean a personal loss for each person involved in the decision-making process. According to Brent Adamson, co-author of “The Challenger Sale,” an average of 6.8 decision makers are involved in every B2B purchasing decision. This means that if you are a strategic account manager selling an innovative product or service, the sale will need to be approved by six of your main contact’s coworkers before the deal is done.

So, how can strategic account managers support their innovative customers in getting approval from their committees of seven and up? I’ve broken it down into a six-step process with action steps that SAMs can share with their customers as the two work together to close bigger, more ambitious deals

1. Create a shared need. To get buy-in for a new idea, it’s important for decision makers to believe it’s in the best interest of everyone.

Action Step: Create a threat/opportunity matrix before going to the buying team. Figure out what the risk is if the organization doesn’t adopt the idea. Is it layoffs, stock price dropping? Likewise, articulate the upside of adopting your idea. Is it increased profits that position the company for growth?

2. Share the vision. Stephen Covey, in “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People,” had it right when he recommended that we “start with the end in mind.” If people can imagine the new state and how their daily behavior will change, they can more easily support the vision.

Action Step: Paint a picture of how the customer’s day-to-day will change if adopted. For instance, if you’re planning to raise your prices, how do you want your sales team supporting that price increase?

3. Find a visible champion. Once the vision and shared need have been articulated, find someone to champion your idea – a leader who will promote the idea in meetings and from stages the innovator doesn’t have access to.

Action Step: To help champions explain the idea correctly, write out talking points and make them memorable and easy to understand. I’ve had senior leaders read my remarks verbatim on global all-employee calls.

4. Gain commitment from other key stakeholders. As steps one through three are completed, find ways to get other stakeholders, beyond your champion, onboard.

Action Step: Figure out which things each stakeholder cares about most. I’m willing to bet it’s one or more of the “3 Ds”: demand (leadership mandate), data, or demonstration (competitor or other industry best practice examples). In other words, the CFO will likely want to see the impact of a price increase on his or her margins while the sales leader may want an example of how competitors have successfully implemented price increases.

5. Measure and communicate success. This starts with taking a baseline measurement of whatever you’re trying to improve and then sharing across the organization how it’s tracking, even if it’s a small pilot in one part of the organization.

Action Step: Suggest adding a Finance representative to the team. Very few improvements can be completely isolated from other parts of the business, so when the idea becomes successful, other functions will lay claim to the results. You’ll hear, “It wasn’t your initiative that drove the increase in profitability. It was sales/operations/marketing/fill-in-the-blank.” A Finance rep will serve as an independent third party who can add credibility to the innovator’s claim.

6. Change systems and processes. You want change to last, but it won’t unless the innovator changes the functional processes that support it.

Action Step: Think through how sales are measured and incentivized. If the goal is to increase profit margin but pay salespeople solely on revenue, then there will be a misalignment that is hard to overcome.

The proven process above has helped innovators quickly build momentum for ideas while also establishing themselves as thought leaders with their customers. To sell successful and lasting change, we must be thoughtful about how we build consensus for our ideas. ■

Brian Doyle is President of Holden Advisors. You can find him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianadoyle/.

April 26, 2022March 30, 2022Financial/business acumen, Influence customer decision making, InnovationLeave a comment
Strategic account management process, Sustainability

Sustaining profitability: Measuring and quantifying the ROI of a strategic account management program

This article is based on a panel discussion that took place involving Frederic Kahn, Vice President Global Sales at Wavelength Pharmaceuticals; Alessio Arcando, Professor at Bologna Business School and former Director of Strategic Key Accounts for West Europe for 3M; and Harvey Dunham, Managing Director for Strategy and Marketing at SAMA. Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Measuring ROI is vital in today’s world

It is essential in today’s world that SAMs prioritize measuring the return on investment (ROI) of their programs. Whereas approximately one third of attendees at SAMA’s 2020 Pan-European Conference measure and share their SAM program’s ROI metrics with key leaders in their company, 100 percent of SAMs should be continually assessing their program’s ROI.

There is pressure on SAMs to not only design, define and implement a strategic account management program but also to prove its value. By measuring ROI, SAMs safeguard their programs from cost-cutting measures. Often, the first areas to be targeted for cost cutting are central functions. SAM programs typically reside in these areas and thus are at risk. By having solid metrics at their disposal that demonstrate a return from the current level of investment, SAMs are better equipped to defend their programs.

Continue reading “Sustaining profitability: Measuring and quantifying the ROI of a strategic account management program” →
March 29, 2022December 2, 2022Leave a comment

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