Course Methodology

The course includes self-assessment tools, planning and analytical templates, and psychometric self-assessment instruments to measure personal abilities to accommodate different personality styles. Group exercises and case studies will also be integral parts of the training methodology used.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Define the functions and process of strategic account management while highlighting its importance for the commercial organization
• Identify and prioritize strategic accounts to measure their profitability and qualify their strategic importance for their company
• Classify the different levels of customer relationships to enhance the way they interface with such customers  
• Develop customer-focused plans and strategies needed in the development of strategic accounts
• Build core strategic account competencies related to research and service management to meet the ever-changing challenges in the market

Target Audience

This course is targeted at cross functional personnel who seek to understand modern customer management practices to improve cross functional support and develop personal careers in strategic account management. The program is also conceived for sales managers who oversee the development of key customers as well as key account managers responsible for managing the relationship and the performance with strategic customers.  

Target Competencies

• Account planning
• Networking skills
• Cost to serve computations
• Account classification models
• Customer retention and loyalty
• Customer research
• Service management
• Developing performance reports

Introduction to Strategic Account Management (SAM) 

• The changing nature of sales force activity
• Definition of strategic account management 
• Differences between 'sales' and 'strategic account management'
• Competencies of strategic account managers  
• The strategic account management process 

Account Analysis: qualifying and profiling accounts

• Account analysis insights
• Account analysis methods:
• The single-factor models
• The portfolio models
• Important criteria for determining account profitability:
• Computing the cost per call
• Break-even sales volume
• Profiling the top 10 characteristics of your SA   
• The strategic account identification and selection software: SAMS
• Guidelines for using SAMS
• Interpreting the SAMS report

Strategic account relational development model

• Business partnership defined
• The partnership skill set
• The strategic account relational development model:
• Pre-relationship stage
• Early relationship stage
• Mid-relationship stage
• Partnership relationship stage
• Synergetic relationship stage
• Reasons for divesting partnerships

The strategic account planning process

• Two layers of planning
• Prioritizing efforts
• Important business analysis:
• Customer analysis
• Past business analysis
• Competition analysis
• Identifying opportunities
• SWOT analysis
• Developing account strategy
• TOWS analysis 
• Monitoring account performance   
• Aligning the account plan with KPIs and metrics
• Using a balanced scorecard to monitor overall account performance

Account research and service management

• Types of data needed to research accounts
• Crafting questionnaires to identify account needs and expectations
• The 'customer expectations benchmark' research
• Reasons for integrating customer service in SAM
• Harnessing actionable service leadership
• The value of customer loyalty and Life Time Value (LTV)
• A road map for building customer loyalty and retention