Strategic account management
Strategic or National Account Management
has evolved over the past 20 years out of the need for sellers to devote
specialist resources to large, complex accounts having special requirements.
Historically, accounts that qualified
for differential status were characterised by several common traits: a
centralised, co-ordinated purchasing organisation with multi-location purchasing
influences, a complex buying process, large orders, and a need for special
services. Today, SAM is practiced on the national, regional, multinational and
global levels according to complex seller and buyer organisational
characteristics and operational behaviour.
The practice of SAM is now a profession, an ongoing focus of study and a
matter of keen practical interest to companies seeking to achieve competitive
advantage and create future growth.
Above all, companies are striving to preserve customer relationships that are of
strategic importance to their future financial health.
Installing a comprehensive SAM approach requires significant resource
investment, long-term focus and multi-functional capabilities along with
possibly restructuring of the sales organisation.
Many organisations struggle to do this without professional outside and
experienced support.
PACE Strategic Account Management Consulting Services
As organisations have learnt that key
client management is a strategic imperative (it's not a 'nice to do' but
a 'need to do') then the subject has been elevated to a 'science' in its own
right. The literature is awash with concepts, ideas, techniques and tools.
It can be quite bewildering!
The Strategic Account Management
Association (SAMA) of North America, of which PACE is an accredited consulting
partner, has one of the most prolific sources of literature and educated writers
on the subject. Major corporations practising SAM nationally and globally,
universities and academics, consulting firms, and training companies have
created a significant forum of research, debate, case studies and experience
that is quite staggering in scope and depth.
Organisations today need support and a
guiding hand to leverage all of this knowledge and to guide in designing,
building and implementing a focussed Strategic Approach. This is where PACE
excels.
PACE consultants have many years of
experience in working across a variety of industries acting as project manager
for organisations focused on the design and execution of improved SAM processes,
tools and skills. We understand what is needed.
Strategic Account Planning cannot be
exercised by the usual "fill in the forms" approach we see in many
organisations, nor the "but we have a CRM ..that does it for us" approach.
Critical Success Factors for Strategic Accounts
Critical success factors for effective
strategic account planning are those combined elements that provide a powerful
model for building a comprehensive, long-term and profitable relationship
management program. The sum total of these elements equals a sustainable
competitive advantage. Underestimating the importance of any one factor can have
a substantial negative effect on the program's potential and success rate.
Examples of critical success factors for
strategic account management include: creating the business case for SAM,
ensuring top management involvement, selecting the right strategic customers,
organisational alignment, securing and growing strategic customer business both
routine and opportunities, locking out the competition, scanning and
understanding the customer decision making process, getting to the right C-Level
decision makers and influencers, selling, creating and measuring value,
implementing the right program metrics, assigning the right Key Account Manager,
the right team across multi-departments and removing the silo effect, driving
the role of technology as an enabling support, identifying key issues for the
future, and ultimately realising the benefits of strategic customer
relationships (ROI).
PACE Australia will guide you through
the business case, the design and the execution process.
That's how we are different ...
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