Whether you’re looking for a new challenge or need to understand who you’re hiring to manage your accounts -you’re in the right place. Key account management requires various skills. From closing sales, nurturing relationships, excellent communication skills and market expertise. But it doesn’t stop there. Below, we’ve outlined the 9 attributes of a successful key account manager.
In this article, we explore the questions:
- What is Key Account Management?
- Why is Key Account Management important?
- What does a Key Account Manager do?
- Key Account Manager vs Account Manager: What’s the difference?
What is Key Account Management?
Key account management is a long-term strategy for delivering significant value to “key accounts”. It’s a systematic approach to managing, retaining and growing your most valuable customers. As well as maximising mutual value alongside achieving mutually beneficial goals.
When key account management is effective, it can be an even more profitable investment than creating new sales. Your “key accounts” are the clients who bring in most of your revenue. As the saying goes, “80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients.” So, it’s essential to make sure that the 20% is well taken care of to generate long-term revenue.
Why is Key Account Management Important?
Revenue generation is the lifeblood of any organisation. As a result, Key Account Management seeks to increase revenue by retaining top-earning accounts. Moreover, KAM’s importance links to the 80–20 Principle. This suggests that 20% of your accounts are responsible for 80% of the outcome (revenue.) This fact is true for most companies. Yet, there are a lot more reasons to focus on key account management; discover the benefits below:
4 Benefits of Successful Key Account Management
- Increases customer satisfaction: Not only do satisfied customers become repeat and loyal ones, but they recommend your products and services to their peers and other industry connections.
- Helps gain competitive advantage in the marketplace: By building strong relationships with key accounts, KAM provides a strategic advantage to businesses over their competitors, which leads to superior financial performance.
- Increases lifetime customer value: The more value you show to your customer, the more they’re willing to invest in your relationship.
- Builds better customer relationships: By getting to know your customer’s you’ll build better relationships, allowing you to meet their needs and solve their problems with ease – creating a cycle of trust.
What Does a Key Account Manager Do?
Some business accounts will always be more valuable than others. Most organisations usually use a Key Account Manager (KAM) to manage these accounts. They’re skilful, personable individuals who ensure key customers stay loyal to your business.
A typical Key Account Managers’ role is to build long-term relationships with valuable accounts. As well as turning buyers into business partners. They keep top customers by nurturing relationships over time, usually by providing dedicated resources, unique offers, and periodic meetings.
Over time, they become strategic advisors to the customer. Working to discover new opportunities to work together for mutual benefit.
But, Key Account Managers aren’t only responsible for sales. They’re also for planning and managing the entire relationship between the company and customers. Key account management is a more profitable investment than chasing new sales when done well. As a result, Key Account Managers are often one of the company’s most valuable investments. Hence, why their compensation often reflects this.
Also read: A Guide To The Key Account Planning Process
6 Roles of Key Account Management
Aside from the blanket definition, account managers must fulfil several roles to keep and grow key accounts. Below are examples of the roles they need to play for successful key account management:
- 1. Results Driver: All successful KAMs strive for growth and are often anxious to drive things along to see and achieve the result. They’re obsessive about growing accounts and really don’t need to have the fire lit under them to make things happen.
- 2. Relationship Leader: Successful KAMs are also relationship leaders who create and strengthen relationships while also helping to defend against competitor intrusions.
- 3. Visionary: Also known as innovators, visionaries must articulate what changes your company can create for clients and the value they can co-create with clients.
- 4. Collaborators: Internal team builders that create bridges of trust and help to involve the right people at the right time to produce the most favourable outcome.
- 5. Technical Expert: Helps technical buyers understand new ideas by facilitating deep-dive solution discussions.
- 6. Project Manager: Organising the process of capturing revenue from the account by getting the necessary resources in place, formulating an account plan alongside tracking actions and their outcomes.
Key Account Manager vs Account Manager: What’s the Difference?
Although the skills and responsibilities of traditional account managers and KAMs are mostly the same -the two roles are different.
Key account managers have a lot more at stake than account managers. They work with high-revenue clients to build and maintain relationships. Both roles focus on post-sale relationships and repeat sales, yet the account manager usually deals with smaller revenue.
Next, the account manager will treat every customer the same. In contrast, the key account manager needs to know how to customise products for each customer’s unique needs. Since the key accounts bring most of the revenue, the KAM needs to understand their customer’s company. As a result, they offer products and services to fit those needs.
Overall, the main difference between an account manager and a key account manager is their responsibilities. The key account manager has more to lose (and gain) than a traditional account manager.
9 Attributes of a Successful Key Account Manager
If you are going to be a successful key account manager, it’s important to be knowledgeable, efficient, and a great communicator. Here are the 9 attributes you should have in order to be successful in this role.
1. Expert Communication Skills
The top skill any key account must have is excellent communication abilities. So if you’re an expert communicator, you will make a great key account manager. Anyone in this sales role needs to have a knack for verbal and non-verbal communication to interpret how the conversation is going.
Key account managers must also be comfortable addressing the c-suite and be confident in their company and demeanour, as they often work directly with other business executives. Moreover, because Key Account Management is a process that doesn’t just include sales, KAMs will have to liaise with other departments to meet customer expectations across the board.
If your confidence or communication skills are lacking, it’s a good idea to improve them to be a successful key account manager.
2. Market Expertise
If you’re going to be a successful liaison between your major customers and your company, you must know how to help your customers.
Think about it this way. If you were purchasing a product and your primary contact had no idea what you were talking about. Would you continue to use that company? Most likely not.
Hence why you must master your industry. Overall ensure you know the ins and outs of your company and your clients to help keep these accounts long-term. Since key accounts are usually customised clients, it’s essential to know what they are all about. That way, you can offer products that might better suit their needs.
3. Strategic Perspective
The ability to strategise is where the responsibilities of Key Account managers and Account managers differ. Account managers focus on short-term gains. In comparison, Key Account managers create strategies. Those that promote long-term revenue by retaining customers.
KAMs juggle many moving parts to orchestrate deals with long-term plans. They do so by identifying beneficial arrangements between their company and the clients.
As a result, most salespeople aren’t the best fit for Key Account Management positions. As while selling skills are essential, KAMs must prioritise long-term relationships. Rather than prioritising opportunities over short-term gains.
Also read: How to Work with Channel Partners to Maximise Sales Volume
4. Leadership Skills
Key Account Managers are visionaries. They don’t only envision different products and services for their clients. They keep everyone in the organisation excited about what’s possible. That’s why individuals in these roles need to create an environment of respect between their company, clients and staff. Yet to do this, they must have impeccable leadership skills. Did you know that there are eight types of leadership styles? We’ve curated a summary of each type of leadership style – check it out now to find out what type of leader you are!
5. Masterful Negotiators
The ultimate goal of any successful KAM is to build the lifetime value of their customers. To achieve this, they must have honed negotiation tactics and know the ins and outs of closing a deal. A significant detail, as you will need to ensure that your key account manager can close deals that benefit both parties. Overall, this requires understanding the importance of an adequately timed offer, persuasive presentation skills and the confidence to push forward or fall back with a sale
6. Value Providers
Customers want to know that they are getting the best deal possible. So it’s crucial to offer them a deal they can’t refuse. While ensuring that they know they are getting the best deal possible, of course. Statistically, customers you can sell on value are 25% more likely to be repeat customers. Hence why Key Account managers should understand your industry and business. Otherwise, they won’t be able to communicate why the product they offer is the best deal. More so, be able to back it up with facts and statistics to drive their point home).
7. Relationship Savvy
Key Account managers’ primary focus is building an intricate web of relationships. One between the client’s people and their company. Hence, they are incredibly socially savvy in understanding when to lead relationship development. But also know when to leave it to another professional.
Moreover, key account managers understand that partnering is the highest quality selling relationship and know that success depends on:
- A relationship is born on shared values
- Everyone clearly understands the purpose of the partnership and is committed to the vision
- Shifting their approach from selling to supporting
8. Lifelong Learners
All successful key account managers should have a keen appetite for learning. However, key account managers understand that markets, industries, and trends are constantly changing. As a result, becoming more complex and creating a competitive landscape that requires learning a stream of constant knowledge to keep up.
For this reason, they’re always open to ideas of training and development in the workplace – creating even more trust and respect from others who see they are consistently improving their abilities. That’s why you’ll often find these lifelong learners looking for opportunities to improve in areas they have identified as necessary.
9. Results-Oriented
Successful key account managers are laser-focused on the end goal -getting results for the customer. For this reason, they often possess a “fail fast” mentality to ensure that they are always ahead of customer expectations. To achieve their goals, they must coordinate multiple resources to reach the decided-upon outcome – and will often take the blame for failures and give credit to their team for successes because overall, they prefer results over-inflating their ego.
Also read:
- Why Relationship Selling Is Essential For Increasing Sales
- 9 Tips For Developing An Effective Follow-Up Sales Cadence
- Building a Referral Network: How To Generate Leads Using Connections
Get the skills to protect accounts, provide value & push revenue growth
Key Account Management training supports account managers in developing the application skills needed to systematically review and grow their most valuable accounts. While also helping them create actionable plans to grow long-term relationships as trusted advisors who provide immediate, measurable, sustainable business results to key clients.
