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Tag: trusted advisor

Strategic account manager skills and competencies

The Challenge of Selling Expertise (Not Product)

An interview with Michael Thomas by Harvey Dunham, Managing Director of Business Development at SAMA

Michael Thomas is the founder of Magnetic Services. He also spent years as a managing consultant for Microsoft’s global consulting organization. This interview is based on a recent SAMA podcast.

Join us for a Next Practice Symposium on September 15 when Michael Thomas will be speaking more on this topic. Register here.

Becoming a Trusted Advisor

Harvey Dunham: We are asking the smartest customer-facing people in B2B how to become trusted advisors to customers they cannot afford to lose. How do you think SAMs can learn to sell expertise and not products and transform themselves into trusted advisors?

Michael Thomas: There are two ways to look at this. First, there is how SAMs communicate, articulate and exchange their expertise based on their sales and professional experience. Second, you can view a SAM as a broker or bridge to the expertise that lives within their organization. While the first topic is interesting, the second is more germane.

There are exceptions but generally SAMs are used to thinking of themselves as a bridge to products and solutions for their customers. This is historically the role they have played. SAMs however have a much more important role to play. When we talk about expertise, you could label it as knowledge-intensive business services or expertise-based services that don’t show up in a product catalog. These services are not documented like products, technologies or platforms that have solution sets customers can find online and have at their disposal. So, the SAM is critical to connecting the customer with the expertise inside the seller’s organization.

Service teams generally have that expertise but can’t scale as broadly as your SAM community. So, from the customer’s and service team’s perspective the SAM represents the expertise and can make things happen for those customers.

Continue reading “The Challenge of Selling Expertise (Not Product)” →
June 30, 2021July 6, 2021digital content, selling expertise, Strategic account management, trusted advisorLeave a comment
Case study, Strategic account management program organization, Uncategorized

Lessons from a Winning Global Account Management (GAM) Program

By Danielle Matteson, Vice President, Strategic Accounts Program, AVI-SPL

AVI-SPL is a digital enablement solutions provider that serves 86 percent of the Fortune 100. It designs, integrates, manages ad supports on-site and cloud-based communications and collaboration technologies for organizations around the globe. AVI-SPL was the recipient of the 2021 SAMA Excellence Award for “Outstanding Mature SAM Program.”

Establishing a Customer-Centric GAM Program

The [GAM] program’s core mission is to form and maintain a trusted partnership with our clients that produces mutual innovation and value resulting in measurable outcomes.

Here at AVI-SPL we established our GAM program to drive long-term value through strategic alignment with our most valued global clients. Our program is oriented around three core, client-focused pillars:

  1. Culture: Create a customer-centric culture
  2. Trusted Advisor: Serve as a strategically aligned, trusted advisor
  3. Global Delivery: Optimize our client experience to consistently exceed expectations

Since the inception of our GAM program, we have seen more than 40 percent growth over projected revenue had we not created a strategic accounts program. We have exceeded industry benchmarks in revenue growth rates, wallet share expansion, customer satisfaction, and client engagement.

Continue reading “Lessons from a Winning Global Account Management (GAM) Program” →
June 14, 2021June 14, 2021client management, customer-centricity, global account management, kpis, revenue, savings, scaling, trusted advisorLeave a comment

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