Account Management is best defined as enabling any supplier of people placements, consultancy, projects, services &/or products) to minimise risk in all that they do with particular focus on developing long-term revenue streams. In addition, there is an ongoing commitment to increasing productivity/profit/margin, client/people networks, trust/integrity, reputation/market standing & morale/pride.
So, as the new business world continues to evolve after Covid we speculate different scenarios as to what might eventually be. However, we already know that the pool of clients and prospects is smaller and that winning new business is much harder and more competitive.
Hence the need to work with greater productivity, delivering on time to the required level of quality and performing risk management activities throughout. Failure to do so will be disastrous, resulting in clients lost to the competition; clients who have much greater ‘value’ post Covid.
However, although the new business environment continues to evolve, the basic principles & processes of business best practice will remain, being even more important than before.
So, the first priority will clearly be for suppliers to retain existing clients and prospects even if they’ve been a pain to deal with in the past, damaged your profit margin or put you under unreasonable pressure – conversely, they may now be very pleased to hear from you, maybe they used to take the credit for your efforts and now feel vulnerable.
Also, as client organisations have become more and more knowledgeable about how and what their suppliers are delivering to them, the importance of the relationship between the two parties has become crucial in modern business. Strong and healthy business relationships and maximising financial performance & growth invariably result from adopting Account Management & Development best practice.
In order for suppliers and clients to develop compatible business relationships, it’s absolutely vital that the client’s culture & psyche, and the supplier’s values & ethos, are understood and accepted by both parties.
In addition, the need for consistency across all clients and prospects is particularly important regarding continuity of working practices when there are changes in personnel (especially if there is a change in Account Manager).
Account Management Goals
There are two levels for each of the 3 long-term objectives:
Level 1
- to retain, expand & manage client business in a controlled & measured way in order to maximise long-term revenue & profit growth.
- to develop & maintain business relationships at all levels of the client organisation based on co-operation, trust and personal integrity.
- to proactively demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement in all areas of account management & development.
Level 2
- to ensure every output is delivered on time & to the required level of quality and that client satisfaction remains paramount at all times.
- to develop & maintain teamwork where both sets of people (supplier & client) work together with openness, commitment & pride.
- to ensure standard working practices & procedures are followed wherever possible and that all areas of performance are regularly reviewed and improvements made as appropriate.
The Account File
The heart of your Account Management & Development process will be the Account File. This file accommodates all the information associated with your Company’s activities for a particular Account in addition to comprehensive information regarding the client. A summary of Account File components makes the scope easier to understand:
- Mission Statement
- Account Manager
- Account Background & History
- Client Overview
- Client Profile (inc market, business, structure/organisation, people, procurement, suppliers & their own Competition)
- Current Position, Scope & Objectives
- Account Blueprint (inc strategy, goals/targets, the Competition & SWOT analysis)
- Delivery Performance (inc financials, balanced scorecard & issues)
- Sales & Marketing (inc orders won & lost, current opportunities, qualification, propositions & pricing)
- Account Progress Reviews with the client (of the Account, not deliverables)
- Satisfaction Surveys
- Reference Site visits
- Risk Management
- Contracts, Service Level Agreements, etc
Critical Success Factors
- nothing is more important than the client relationship and understanding their culture
- teamwork, commitment & pride are the keys to client satisfaction
- the supplier’s Account Manager is pivotal to success or failure; their appointment is the most important decision
- your Company’s values, ethos and image will be the foundation for business excellence
- SWOT Analysis is by far the most important component of account management and is the start-point for turbocharging your business performance, staff morale, reputation & market position
- the Balanced Scorecard is the only tool which enables you to establish exactly where you are and what needs to change in order to stay on course
- Client Contact Management is the vehicle for developing key business relationships at every level throughout the client organisation
- anyone engaging with the client must be absolutely clear on what is expected of them regarding knowledge, professionalism and output
- inadequate qualification of sales opportunities can have disastrous financial consequences and a very damaging effect on morale
Best Practice Quote 1 of 13:
“as nothing is more important than the client relationship, everyone must understand, accept & comply with the client’s culture at all times”
NEXT BLOG: Understanding Your Clients (& vice versa!)
A complete set of account management components can be found at accountmanagementgold.com, all of which aim to significantly improve supplier performance and block the competition.
As an introduction to these components, I’m writing a series of blogs which I hope will be of value and appropriate for the type & size of your client, prospect and target organisations:
- What is Account Management? (today)
- Understanding Your Clients
- Values, Ethos & Image
- Supplier Account Manager
- Relationship Management
- Client Contact Management
- Sales Propositions & Opportunities
- Sales Opportunity Qualification
- Balanced Scorecard
- Risk Management
- Account Performance Reviews
- Satisfaction Surveys
- SWOT Analysis
As these blogs will be geared to anyone engaged in developing new business with clients or prospects, and for ease of context, I’ll regard all readers as account managers as everyone has the same endgame, no offence!
I really hope you, your colleagues & business associates find value in these blogs; please let me know either way. Please also get in touch if you think there might be potential for our businesses to collaborate.
ASPIRE’s MISSION
– to enable suppliers to minimise risk in all that they do with particular focus on developing long-term revenue streams
– to increase productivity/profit/margin, client/people networks, trust/integrity, reputation/market standing & morale/pride
Richard Wright
Managing Director
ASPIRE Account Management
accountmanagementgold.com