How can you sustain an account management framework over time?

Understanding customer needs, competitor strategy, evaluating available alternatives, providing customer centric solutions, aligning our products s to suit their requirements are most relevant to keep updated

Recognize and celebrate achievements, both individual and team-based. This fosters a positive and motivated work environment, contributing to the sustainability of the account management framework. Implement customer success programs that go beyond immediate problem-solving. Proactively work with clients to help them achieve their goals, ensuring a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship.

You should never remain in the same space - there is always room for improvement. Environments change and you need to change with it. Knowing what works and what doesn’t is key. You need to collect data and monitor progress, to know what needs to be modified and work on ways to improve. Don’t be afraid to try something and make sure your Team knows they are part of the process and their input is valuable.

Ask the right questions. Metrics are only half the answer when it comes to customer engagement. Invite your top accounts to join your personal board of directors. Offer them a reserved space as a stakeholder in your success and give them a safe place to provide candid and sometimes uncomfortable feedback. Invite them to be critical and let them know how essential they are in your journey to be a better resource for them. Take their feedback and scale it across all your book of business. In doing so, you can strengthen your position as a trusted advisor. At the same time, you learn and grow as a professional and as an account executive. Always conclude with the essential question, "What else can I do to make things easier for you?"

We cannot forget that our organization might have changed during time, and that is important to consider when evaluation our framework. Main questions to ask: are there new competitors in the horizon? Have our products developed correctly in terms of technology? Are there new products/services in the portfolio? How has our service towards clients evolved?

Wer ist eigentlich "der Kunde"? Um vertrieblich erfolgreich zu sein, ist es entscheidend, mit den richtigen Personen zu sprechen und dieses Netzwerk zu bewirtschaften. Es gibt vier Zielgruppen, die zu adressieren sind: a) die Business User, letztlich die Nutzer der offerierten L?sung; b) die Entscheider im Management (C-Level oder C-1); c) der Einkauf und d) Influencer. Letztere sind am schwersten zu identifizieren. Wer wirkt hinter den Kulissen, gibt es eine "graue Eminenz", auf die alle h?ren? Oft sind das Personen mit weniger hohem hierarchischen Level und langer Betriebszugeh?rigkeit oder ein unscheinbarer Externer. Man sollte im komplexen L?sungsvertrieb mit mindestens acht Personen sprechen. Wer nur zwei Leute kennt, macht zu wenig.

In my experience, I see many companies that get this wrong quite often. Communication is key to maintaining a productive client relationship, especially if you are in the SaaS space. Here are a few things that I found useful - Tailor your communication to a clients individual interests, your clients are interested to learn about what can create impact in their organization, so avoid long jargons. - Be clear in your communication, focus on value and not function, think about the outcome you want from the client and construct your message accordingly. - Build a multi layered comm strategy, engage different stakeholders ( IT, Ops, Strategy etc). Communicating effectively means building consensus about your perceived value by the client.

Criar um relacionamento de confian?a com o cliente é um conceito que agrega muita conex?o dentro nas negocia??es pois as empresas hoje possuem diferentes canais e pessoas dentro de um mesmo negócio, isso é fundamental para gerar fideliza??o para sua marca.

Communication may require various style depending the type of information one needs to convey. For example, building a connection or relationship one can start with a friendly introduction. If it is a sales pitch, one may express how is the product helpful.

In my experience, change is constant and adaptive nature is the key skill to do account management. Market analysis, reading about the client change, accepting the change without questioning is essential for account management. Every decagon , technology changes, market trends changes, adapting the change results in strong relationship with clients/customers.

My thoughts are: 1. Stay Updated: Be aware that client needs change due to things like market shifts, tech, or internal changes, affecting their goals and challenges. 2. Be Flexible: Proactively adjust your services and strategies to match their evolving needs. Offer new features, products, support, or consultation to meet their changing requirements. 3. Stay Valuable: Adapting keeps you relevant and valuable, maintaining your competitive edge while ensuring your clients receive what they need when they need it.

Taking the time to truly understand your customer's business and learning what they do and why they do it a particular way will help in dealing with their changing needs. Also understanding their priorities and how their success is measured will make you a better business partner.

Adopt agile methods and principles into the account management framework to be able to react quickly to changes. By adopting agile practices, you can respond more flexibly to changing needs and expectations. This can include regular review of customer feedback, rapid adaptation of processes and iterative development of new features or services. An agile approach makes it possible to respond dynamically to market trends, regulatory changes or technological developments and ensure that the account management framework always meets current requirements.

Evolving Needs: Recognize that customer needs and market conditions will change. Build a framework that allows for customization and adjustments to client-specific situations. Feedback Loop: Actively solicit feedback from clients through surveys, focus groups, or regular check-ins. Use this feedback to refine your processes and ensure the framework remains relevant.

In my experience #4 is where I spend most of my time with my team. The more high functioning my team is, the better they can adapt to clients. Continuous improvement is the goal. Something that took me a while to figure out is how to "push" my team past where they are comfortable, and be a safety net to keep delivering to clients at a high level. It's a fine line between supporting/pushing and micro-managing. When things do not go right, get together, work through the "what, when, why" of the situation. At that point do training, adapt processes, educate, whatever is needed to improve. The demands and expectations of live events are crazy - keep that in mind. Above all - I support my team - I know that I am nothing without them.

This is an extremely important point when setting up a framework for your team to work within. I would define the how, the why, the when, the what: these are all relevant points, and require the manager's attention. The how: train your account managers on how to effectively work within the framework, and especially if it includes the use of a CRM. Define the Why: this will help your team empatize with the structure they'll need to work within. Set the goals and objectives within their time framework: for example, define how often opportunities need to be updated, how often certain customers need to be contacted/visited. This will foster collaboration, set the necessary boundaries, but also leave space for the team to work creatively.

Added to this, your team needs to understand the impact of not performing outside of a cash generative sphere. For instance, the supply team needs to understand, if you do not order x product from overseas on time, it will not reach the Dairy customer on time. Besides loosing the sale, the customer will be forced to source locally from someone who has stock, which usually comes at extra cost because there is no set relationships with that trader and the trader does not have our buying power. So in two months time Dairy Catagory Buyer, you go buy your usual dairy products and cannot understand why it is almost 20% more with no other economic factors at play.

I've found those who have a combination of becoming great educators, sharing their knowledge, and mentors who build others with skills, foster a respectful culture, and empower a consistency of great balance of work well done and welcoming new ideas.

The saying goes “great leaders aren’t the best at everything. They find people who are the best at different things and bring them all to the same table” Making sure that your team knows that they are valued, respected and that together, we can be successful is critical. Create a Leadership group within the team structure with heads of each discipline. Bring them together every week. Make those engagements a safe place for honest conversation, a space to work through situations together, or just share something new. Most importantly, be sure you are leading from example and that your team always know that you have their back and will help them work through any situation.

First, I really dont like to leverage the word "failure" because most situations are not. What I communicate with my team is that there aren't losses, only lessons. If we are committed to understanding how to improve, seek objective feedback and are humble enough to know that perfect doesn't exist-- we sign up for a continuous service improvement model that allows us to continue to grow, learn, and achieve.

A long time ago I had a manager who used to say "never step in the same poop twice". Anyone who has ever stepped in poop (real or figurative) knows, this is not a fun experience. I am a true believer that we have to take an honest look at our mistakes to understand how we made them and what we can learn from them. We all make mistakes, it is how we adapt after, that demonstrates what we are made of.

Knowing the value of failure- being able to review the why in that outcome and changing that process, is invaluable… Acknowledging achievements also brings strength and confidence- we don’t hear enough positive words in what we do. Keep striving and be open to feedback…

Keep evolving by learning from what works and what doesn't. Use tools like surveys, interviews, and case studies to understand successes and failures. Share these lessons with your team and clients, asking for their input. This way, you spot what works best and areas needing improvement. Encourage a culture where everyone keeps learning and growing, making your framework better every step of the way.

For me the biggest contributor to success and growth has been failure. Hear me out! While you can definitely learn from what works, you kinda already knew it would work. Being able to take risks and not to fear failing empowers you to try something completely out of the ordinary, which - yes, might mean you fail - gives you the chance to succeed on a whole new level. Something else I like to do is to look at my framework once every quarter and see if the processes still fit my needs or if they have evolved. For that I also implement feedback from my team and the client to get a well rounded perspective.

While it is important to have your framework aligned with your own company's vision, it is even more important to have an understanding how your framework is aligned with client's vision and objective. There needs to be a balance and the customer has to understand how your proposed solution/product is not only unique but also supports their framework and vision

I would say that this should not be the sixth step but the first one. It has to take a Top Down approach which begins from delivering value and then creating a framework around it. To retain and expand an account, what matters at the end of the day is the value you have been able to generate for the account. That’s what everything comes down to at the end.

If you don't know or understand the vision and value of your company, you will repeatedly fail at trying to communicate them to your customers. You need to have a clear understanding of what it is that your company is thriving to achieve and be able to express that to every customer. Your ability to do that will support your company's brand identity and that in turn will increase your retention of customers.

Establishing clear goals and objectives, regularly review and updating the framework, providing ongoing training and development, monitoring performance and metrics, reward and recognize success, staying agile and adaptable.

One thing I’ve found helpful is ensuring the Voice of the Customer is actively sought and acted upon. When clients feel they have a voice that is heard, framework, team, and product changes can be enacted to drive the highest and most profitable retention.

In my experience it is essential, even in the B2B business to see your clients as humans and individuals. It doesn't take a lot of time or effort but it gives so much. A good connection with the client can soften the blows and make the celebrations just a little bit more special and make the client feel listened to and appreciated.

To sustain an account management framework, prioritize customer segmentation, scalability, cross-functional collaboration, data security, proactive issue resolution, customer education, long-term relationships, global adaptability, ESG integration, competitor analysis, agile methodologies, and regular audits. This ensures a comprehensive, adaptable, and future-ready approach for lasting success.

Die Schlüsselaspekte sind: ? Kontinuierliche Anpassungen: Best?ndige Ver?nderungen erfordern flexibles Handeln und eine kontinuierliche Anpassung unserer Strategien, um den aktuellen Anforderungen und Zielen gerecht zu werden. ? Effektive Kommunikation: Ohne sie leidet nicht nur die Performance, sondern auch alles andere. ? Aufbau einer starken Unternehmenskultur: Langfristiger Erfolg basiert auf einem unterstützenden Umfeld. ? Kundenfeedback einholen: Direktes und vor allem ehrliches Feedback ist unsch?tzbar für die Verbesserung. ? Schulungen und Weiterbildungen: Der Markt entwickelt sich st?ndig weiter, daher müssen wir das auch.