Here’s Why Finance Needs Key Account Managers

To get a seat at the table and to become the business partner that Finance has an ambition to be, we need to change how we interact with our business stakeholders. While there’s genuinely only one kind of customers to a company i.e. the one you sell your products and services to, Finance needs to start treating our business stakeholders as customers. Changing the way that you view your business stakeholders will help you focus on how to improve your relationship with them. Just like Sales has key account managers for key customers you need to start acting as a key account manager for your most important stakeholders. That’s what we look at next in the Finance Business Partner Toolbox series. Because to get to what’s important i.e. value creation you need that coveted seat at the table first. 

How can I work as a key account manager? 

Let’s first define what a key account manager is. 

“ Key account manager is assigned to a company headquarters to oversee the account team assigned to a particular account. Key account management includes sales but also includes planning and managing the full relationship between a business and its most important customers”

The way we see it is a one-point of entry into Finance that takes care of all the business stakeholders issues and help him or her deliver on their objectives. In other words, it’s what we term a “Finance Business Partner”. Now knowing you need to work as a key account manager we can also look at some of the tools to use to develop the relationship with your business stakeholder. Essentially you need an action plan that details. 

• Customer needs
• Actions to deliver those
• Prioritization
• Deadline
• Resources needed to deliver
• Latest status

Put those headers into a simple table and start defining your stakeholder’s needs. Depending on your preexisting relationship with him or her you might have to do this on your own if no relationship. If you have a good working relationship already you can have an open conversation about it. This is bound to be a living document where you pick up all directly as well as indirectly expressed needs. Each time an issue has been solved you should evaluate with your stakeholder how well the issue was solved. Each evaluation will help you further improve your delivery and ultimately your relationship. Over time you will surely form a true partnership with your stakeholder by following this approach. 

To succeed you need to know your function 

You cannot succeed with this on your own. Being a key account manager and the only point of entry into Finance for your stakeholder means you need to know your own function. You need to know who in the finance function can help you solve your stakeholder’s issues. Those issues could be some of the following. 

• Who does the accounting to reporting and how are errors corrected?
• Who else in the finance function talks to the external customers like collectors, etc. (same question for vendors)
• Who’s in charge of new developments in your business intelligence universe
• Who does credit evaluations (if not yourself)?
• What tools and templates are you required to use by the finance function and how do you submit feedback to having them changed if needed?

Likely there are many more questions you could need to ask other people in your finance function. The key principle to understand is that it’s your responsibility to know who can solve your stakeholder’s issues. Don’t take it upon yourself to solve everything because that leaves no time to drive value creation together with your stakeholder. 

Now it’s time for you to create your action plan. Don’t over-complicate it and follow a simple structure like outlined in this article. Once you’re done you’re more than welcome to send it to Anders at [email protected]. Take charge of helping your stakeholder meet his or her objectives today! Are you already using a key account manager approach? If so, do you have a specified action plan? 

This was the fourth article in the Finance Business Partner Toolbox series and you can read preceding articles below. Previously we’ve looked at how benchmarking can be used to develop various insights. 

How Finance Business Partners Cut Up A Whale

Here’s THE Tool To Challenge A Sales Manager

The Price Is Right. Or Is It? Ask Finance!

Anders encourages you to take a tour of his past articles on finance transformation, finance business partnering and not least “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” which is really the starting point for the transformation. You should join our Finance Business Partner Forum which is part of the Business Partnering Institute's online community where we will continue to discuss this topic and you can click here to follow him on Twitter.

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Anders Liu-Lindberg is the Head of Global Finance Program Management Office at Maersk and has more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. Anders is also the co-founder of the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with close to 5,000 members. My main goal at Maersk is to create a world-class finance function not least when it comes to Business Partnering. I am the co-author of the book “Skab V?rdi Som Finansiel Forretningspartner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 20.000+ followers.