“The map of reality is not reality. Also, implied in the word "driving" is a connotation of proactivity. If you can be a source of stability on the one hand and bold ideas on the other, you will earn yourself a lifetime of customer loyalty. Under each competency is a short list of the key behaviors, actions, and/or activities most relevant to that skill. You may need to pass a job test to be hired for a position, improve your chances of making high scores today! Investing in a KAM software will help your Strategic Account Managers save time by reducing repetitive tasks, and focus on generating consistent, and stable revenue that will help in long-term growth and success for your company. Easier said than done. Post-secondary degree in a related field or equivalent experience. The first two episodes of the SAMA podcast address exactly this topic. Read it, From strategic account management to strategic ecosystem leadership. The Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) exposes companies around the globe to tools, methods and processes that enable them to forge closer relationships with their most strategic customers and co-create new sources of sustainable, customer-driven growth. Skills: • Customer orientation • Company knowledge • Industry knowledge • Customer knowledge Competency 2.0 – Strategic account & opportunity planningActivities: • Ability to incorporate business intelligence and determine a go-to-market strategy through internal planning sessions • Define and manage the solution development process, develop a differentiated value proposition and value the ROI for both the customer and the company • Manage funnel of short- and mid-term opportunities and pre-formulate specific project management requirements • Provide for post-deployment customer support and evaluation • Engage the customer in the planning process. “If you know what you understand, you know where you have an edge over others. What is the influence people have on each other? About Our Sales Account Management Methodology. Proven account management skills required to create and enhance long term customer relationships. Strategic account management (also known as Key Account Management) is a process of building value-driven strategic relationships with your key customers that can help in long-term development and retention, thereby maximizing the revenue potential. While there exist some important LinkedIn is a great tool to support this activity. An account manager specializing in key accounts is required to work on various activities like account segmentation that is to understand the relationship health of the key accounts and avoid any setbacks. 1. In this second blog from Ed Bradford, he builds on the Strategic Account Manager as single point of contact theme. To obtain a position as a Strategic Account Manager where I can utilize my skills and knowledge in increasing the market share of the organization. Leadership Skills: A strategic account manager is a bridge between the sales team, a team of account managers and... 2. If you can be a source of stability on the one hand and bold ideas on the other, you will earn yourself a lifetime of customer loyalty. Our methodology for sales account management reveals how to best manage and grow strategic accounts by bringing the entire relationship into view.. Chris shares this and other pieces of hard-earned wisdom from 9/11’s aftermath in the first episode of the SAMA podcast. But as Greg Lowe points out “Most Account Managers don’t listen long enough to get a complete grasp of the situation before starting to spew their solutions. Part 3 of the SAMA book " Listen here. Going hand in hand with the previous skills, your key account managers need to approach every customer relationship with a collaborative and strategic mindset. Read them skills inherent to the SAM/KAM role. Communication Skills: There are so many moving parts and people involved in a strategic … There are a number of initiatives in terms of processes, and technologies available to assist you, but not everything is as successful as having a Key Account Management software. Communication. As a company, you might have different kinds of offerings and your customers have various buying centers spread across departments, locations, etc. have never been more important. They need to build rapport with customers, think strategically about partnership opportunities and solutions, collaborate and communicate with high-level stakeholders and decision-makers, and lead a cross-functional team. As companies look to respond Episode #2 Still trying to predict what coronavirus will mean for your business? Their duties include expanding client database, maintaining a positive relation with existing clients, attaining assigned quotas, and ensuring customer satisfaction. Episode #1 What’s the single most important piece of advice for account managers guiding their customers through crises, like our current one? The role of a strategic account manager exists to fulfill the business objectives of a corporate-level, customer-centric strategy designed to ensure the firm’s future for long-term growth and profitability. Without a strategic account management plan, you approach your customer relationships without a checklist of bases to cover or things to address. Read them. Determined Strategic Account Manager utilizing a wide array of skills to build comprehensive account profiles and expand revenue. This account management methodology provides a road map for strategic customer relationships that have growth potential through the development of a one to three-year plan … As a Strategic account manager, you will represent our company and interact with major clients. He goes on to list five of his favorite: The map is not the territory. Exceptional customer service and interpersonal skills. Even the best maps…are reductions of what they... Circle of competence. The average salary for a Strategic Account Manager with Business Development skills is $80,545. With SaaS technology companies on the rise the strategy of land and expand is on the rise. An account manager specializing in key accounts is required to work on various activities like. We believe the effectiveness of the strategic account management plan depends upon selecting the account managers with key skills and following the best strategic account management process discussed below. In this excerpt from “Customer Value Co-Creation,” Francis Gouilliart makes five predictions for the future of SAM. SAMA’s Certified Strategic Account Manager (CSAM) certification is the gold standard of strategic account management. It’s important for strategic account managers to subordinate a desire for a quick win for long term success. • SAMs will develop new processes and skill sets that will make the future one of leadership, rather than of management. Strong analytical skills with a focus on account development. You can have multiple types of relationships with clients, and they can be either Tactical, Cooperative, Interdependent or Strategic. Listen here. Maintaining transparency within the business ecosystem and coordinating with C-suite executives requires excellent communication skills. become invaluable assets. What if the SAM leaves, and you’ll be left with no choice. That is the reason, why managing Strategic Accounts is not every account manager’s cup of tea. become invaluable assets. It’s important for strategic account managers to subordinate a desire for a quick win for long term success. here. The most successful strategic account managers are also skilled at relating to the needs of a wide range of individuals in the account and building consensus among them. Strategic account managers should be both analytical and personable. Strategic Account Managers are usually responsible for maintaining relationships with current clients, as well as finding opportunities for expanding client database. The Strategic Account Management Association, The eternal tug-of-war between short-term and long-term, Having access to an effective strategic planning tool, Having a good relationship with all key customers (other than that one key customer) within each Strategic Account, Interacting with enterprise-level organizations and key buyers at the top level, The actual implementation of the Strategic Account Plans, Formulating a fair and comprehensive compensation policy for Strategic Account Managers, Training and skills in strategic account management. Maintaining transparency within the business ecosystem and coordinating with C-suite executives requires excellent communication skills. No doubt, it is difficult to stick to the Strategic Account Management best practices, considering the complexities of these accounts. Competency 1.0 – Understanding organizational priorities Sometimes they get lucky and hit it, but most times they miss the mark”. The idea is to start small like a free trial, have a foot in the door with the key accounts and expand your network within the account across departments. Working with these companies may boost your credibility and reputation, but unless these accounts are profitable enough, and you have a good relationship with the stakeholders, it would be wrong to classify them as Strategic Accounts. Key Skills of a Strategic account manager 1. Mistakes that organizations usually do, is by focusing on big companies such as Fortune 500, or a cool new start-up. Strategic Account Manager Job Description Writing Do’s and Don’ts Do include rich-media content such as videos, articles and images. Part 1: The SAM Process Part 2: The Strategic Customer-Centric Organization. Once the managers start practicing the account plans, they realize the real-world problems or rather, challenges that they must face while creating strategic account plans. • Strategic account management will be liberated from the shackles of the seller-buyer dynamic by transforming from account management to ecosystem or stakeholder management. and pivot, suddenly the SAM’s deep customer and industry knowledge, It’s important to add value at the right time and the right place to win big deals. Skills: • Corporate customer relationships • Process discipline • Business outcomes. Never has there been a better opening for SAM programs and strategic account managers to take on a bigger role in securing the future of their organizations. Once again he uses ‘SAM’ as its anchor term, but GAMs, KAMs and account managers will all recognise their role in this discussion. Strategic planners also need to be active listeners. This is important because too many SAMs view their role as winning opportunities that, essentially, fall on their desks. As with just about everything in business and sales, when you have a plan in place, you can stay organized more easily while ensuring that no projects, customers, or clients are neglected. An organization is supposed to have a clear-cut understanding of how it wants to manage its strategic accounts, in order to yield the best results. If you are connected to your SAM and your SAM is connected to contacts in the account, you will have visibility into these contacts and the ability to link with them. You can always make use of the relationship that you’ve built to get insights about the problems your client is facing. In order to build the strongest possible relationships with their key accounts, KAMs must become more than just an account manager; they need to become a strategic partner. 2. You can then cross-sell or up-sell with your skills, or develop a completely new product that caters to your client’s needs. The SAMA Best-in-Class SAM Competency Model identifies five areas of job competence or capability as well as the three or four primary skills associated most strongly with each one. Don’t get bogged down in jargon. Skills: • Strategic thinking • Financial/business acumen • Value analysis and opportunity insight Competency 3.0 – Joint solution development, co-creation & reaching agreementActivities: • Ability to communicate credibly and effectively at the customer CxO level, demonstrating understanding of the customer’s financials and financial strategy • Provide thought leadership about the customer’s business issues and priorities, uncovering and validating key challenges • Engage the customer in the account planning process and work collaboratively to identify value-based solutions • Co-create innovative solutions in areas of highest joint potential and innovation … Quantify the differentiated solution/value proposition vis-à-vis competitors demonstrating mutual ROI • Sell high and wide throughout the customer organization, managing Procurement and multilevel relationships with the support and coordination of the account team • Negotiate and reach agreement on company engagement and specific deals, specifying resource commitment and allocations internally and at the customer. The SAMA PodcastIf anything, your customers expect more from you than ever. Customer Value Co-Creation The practical manifestations of becoming more strategic will take three distinct shapes: • SAMs will take alignment to the next level by becoming drivers of strategic development cross-functionally and inter-organizationally. Activities: •Ability to understand your company’s and the customer’s industries, markets, and • Determine customer’s buying behavior and metrics for supplier relationships • Map organizational structure and relationships to identify champions, influencers and decision makers • Understand your company’s corporate strategy and business objectives, and those of the customer • Document knowledge of everywhere the customer “touches” your company and everywhere your company could potentially touch your customer • Profile the customer’s competitive position vis-à-vis its competitors as well as your competitors’ positions vis-à-vis the customer • Identify the key internal company stakeholders and functional resources currently and potentially required for effective management of the customer’s business and opportunities. One of the most important aspects of Strategic Account Management and leadership is to always look for new opportunities to help grow your client’s business. If you want to drive the greatest account growth, make sure you develop your team’s project manager, innovator and results driver competencies. and Whether we should focus on Farming or Mining growth? However, identifying, cultivating, and maintaining those long-term relationships requires specific skills and a thorough knowledge of … No doubt, it is difficult to stick to the Strategic Account Management best practices, considering the complexities of these accounts. The best strategic and key account managers outperform average ones by a factor of 3X. Or, you can opt for the most viable solution by investing in a Key Account Management software, that not only provides visibility into your account plan but also helps to manage and grow your strategic accounts with minimum effort and training. Here are some key questions that need to be answered at this stage: What is the hierarchy in your key account organization? Strategic perspective. • SAMs will develop new processes and skill sets that will make the future one of. differences in the implementation of strategic account management A Skilled account manager uses the best practices and strategies to plan and create the account mana… strategic thinking abilities, interpersonal skills and more have SAMA's Harvey Dunham interviews Whetstone Inc. President & CEO Adrian Davis in episode 2 of the SAMA Podcast. A leader is required to set the right vision for the team and design the strategic plan for customer success. Most of the organizations have existing account managers who have skills and are either been trained or are naturally talented in the art of Strategic Account Management platform. SAMA welcomes you to Account management skills for sales: How to create growth and retain your most important customers, a fully virtual training program that equips the new-to-role account manager and/or sales professional to:. The strategic account manager is required by an organization to expand and adequately maintain good business relationship between the organization and its large number of customers. The idea is to start small like a free trial, have a foot in the door with the key accounts and expand your network within the account across departments. It’s important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. • Establish trust, motivate and … As the liaison for the customer and the rest of the company,... 2. with your skills, or develop a completely new product that caters to your client’s needs. By far the most mentioned skill. Key account management requires handling the accounts of priority customers who are a long-term asset to your company. Strong Microsoft Excel skills. If it is really impacting your revenue number and profitability, that account is likely to qualify as a Key Account. The strategic account manager’s role is to identify those key customers that generate maximum revenue and profitability as compared to other regular accounts. While many traditional SAM traits will remain, the overarching trajectory will see SAMs having to become even more strategic than they are currently. The skills and attributes stated above can also be used in the skills section of the strategic account manager resume. Skills: • Interpersonal relationship skills • Team leadership • Cultural knowledge and sensitivity Competency 5.0 – Overall relationship & outcome managementActivities: • Requires accountability for the sustained health and improvement of the overall customer relationship through regular business reviews against the performance dashboard and customer communications • Maintains and augments role as a trusted thought leader in individual customer relationships and owns the customer satisfaction/loyalty metrics • Maintains the internal network of relationships and aligns the internal and external commitments leading to execution of company and customer requirements and the achievement of desired business outcomes. There are a number of initiatives in terms of processes, and technologies available to assist you, but not everything is as successful as having a Key Account Management software. 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