Building and Optimising Client Relationships

Managing and Developing Key Accounts

Account Management - It's Big Business

  • The profile of a key account
  • Selling and account management - the difference
  • Account manager - your role and responsibilities

Prioritising - Who are the Key Accounts?

  • Researching your customer's profile and position
  • Investment versus return - get your priorities right
  • Assessing your strengths, weaknesses and unique advantages
  • Understanding the marketing process and where you fit in

Planning a Key Account Strategy

  • Being clear about the potential of each account
  • How to develop a key account over the long-term
  • Longer buying cycles and their impact on your sales strategy
  • Recognising threats and dealing with them
  • Setting specific goals and objectives for each meeting

Relationship Management

  • Understanding the organisational structure of your account
  • Influencing and negotiating with multiple contacts
  • Identifying cross selling opportunities
  • Networking within your account
  • Identifying and gaining future sales
  • Client centred selling - focusing on the real needs
  • How and when to adapt your account management style
  • Productive meetings and how to achieve them

From Relationship to Partnership

  • Strengthening the relationship through regular contact
  • Alliances across an organisation to maintain preferred supplier status
  • Constructing strategic service level agreements

Developing a Business Plan

  • When and how to support presentation
  • Effective presentations and the essential skills behind them
  • How to ensure large contracts bring in large profits

Teamwork to Support Key Accounts

  • Planning how to support your key accounts
  • Identifying and overcoming internal barriers that prevent quality support
  • Ensuring all support staff play a key role in servicing your major accounts
  • What to expect of your customer service staff