Successful Key Account Management In A Week

Be A Brilliant Key Account Manager In Seven Simple Steps

Grant Stewart

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781473608542
• eBook ISBN: 9781444159189
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Customer Relations
• Index: Business

Key account management just got easier
'This little book is a real gem' Professor Malcolm McDonald Key account management is increasingly important and must keep pace with its customers as they continually develop and evolve, often resulting in increasingly sophisticated buying structures. The key account manager therefore requires a wide variety of skills in order to be successful; this is not only an important job role in its own right, it is often a stepping stone to career development, leading to more senior management jobs. Successful Key Account Management In A Week is a week long course. On Sunday you are encouraged to Know your customer as success depends on a relationship that is both rewarding and valuable. On Monday you will Analyse your growth opportunities. The competitiveness of the company must be appraised to enable the identification of sales growth opportunities and all major accounts should be compared in appeal and position to give an indication of the strategy to be adopted for customers. On Tuesday you will Measure profits by account. You will be shown how to measure the profitability of major customers and to draw up league tables to enable profit improvement strategies. On Wednesday you will Plan for success, building on the analysis of growth opportunities and profit measurement already considered, to result in a best judgement final plan. On Thursday you will learn to Negotiate to win-win; success relies on understanding the difference between negotiation and selling and being able to conduct negotiations to produce a win-win situation in which the objectives of both sides are considered. On Friday you will look at Control activity levels and the monitoring of standards of performance to enable the presentation of plans and progress, allowing the measurement of success against these plans. And finally, on Saturday you are reminded to Manage relationships with an introduction to the Relationship Model which describes how business with a customer changes as it moves from a transactional or short-term sales achievement, to collaboration with long-term customer value and retention.'This little book is a real gem, which you should read, use and keep handy for continuous reference. If you follow the straightforward guidelines in this book, your company's future is assured' Professor Malcolm McDonald, Former Professor of Marketing and Deputy Director, Cranfield University School of Management

‘If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.’

The key account manager must develop objectives, strategies and tactical plans to formulate a set of action priorities; to plan for success and prevent competitive threat. This plan must build on the analysis of growth opportunities and profit measurement as considered earlier to result in a final plan that is the best judgement, taking all internal and external factors into account. In the following section, the key account manager is shown how to format an account plan which takes in factors such as key facts, the SWOT analysis, customer strategy and action plan, servicing, pricing and distribution. The use of this plan in the company’s own management control and information system is highlighted along with how to benchmark and report on performance. It is good practice to complete the plan to a standard format and the importance of a consistent link between objectives and performance monitoring is also explained, both of which may be facilitated by a sales plan checklist. A detailed example of such a checklist is given, with prompts for products, merchandising, promotion, servicing, pricing, distribution and communication/motivation, which relate to the headings used in the account plan format example.

Account plan format

It is best for each key account manager in a company to complete the plan to a standard format. This enables comparisons to be made between plans for different customers. It also allows the best plans to achieve the greatest resource allocation from senior management. There is no standard format for a key account plan, but an example from a fast-moving consumer goods company provides a typical set of headings in a pro forma.

1 Key facts

1.1 Market sizes by product group in value, volume, market share, and growth

1.2 Our sales by product group

1.3 Percentage distribution levels of our key products in customer outlets

1.4 Our profit contribution with this customer for the last two years

2 Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats(SWOT analysis)

As per the model from Monday.

3 Customer strategy

3.1 Customer appeal and our position, as shown on Monday. Summary of the customer’s appeal to us (high, medium or low) and our position within the customer’s business (strong, medium or weak).

3.2 Key issues to be addressed in the planning period.

4 Detailed customer strategy and action plan

4.1 Product strategy

• Product priorities for sales development

• Range development plans

• Packaging, size or feature changes planned

4.2 Merchandising

• Product space allocation plans for...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title
• Contents 
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Sunday Know your customer
• Monday Analyse your growth opportunities
• Tuesday Measure profits by account
• Wednesday Plan for success
• Thursday Negotiate to win-win
• Friday Control activity levels
• Saturday Manage relationships
• 7 × 7
• Answers
• Copyright