Key Account Management

This is a pragmatic one day course covering tried and tested methods of key account management.  It is based on the work of Professor Malcolm McDonald at Cranfield University School of Management.

Course overview:

The Account Manager not only has to manage the sale, but the strategy to optimize client spend and loyalty. As the relationship between provider and client evolves, the expectations of sale, service and product supply continue to increase. The need to develop long-term relationships relies on the essential ability to understand the client’s business and objectives. This two day course will provide a sound basis of account management strategy, delivery and measurement.

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

• Build on established relationships
• Understand the difference between a consultative sales process and more traditionally based sales
• Implement an account strategy for key accounts
• Approach the sale in a methodological and structural way by exploring customer’s priorities, preferences and objectives
• Build long term partnering relationships based on listening, actions and trust – ‘getting closer to our customer’
• Negotiate each sale using a win-win philosophy to adapt to your key account’s negotiating style

Specific course content:

Pre-course work
Analysis of existing accounts; which do you identify as your key accounts?

Strategic selling
Consultative selling ‘vs’ traditional selling

What is a key account?
The customer perception stages
Moving from stage 1 to stage 4 – where are your accounts?

Discovering opportunities
Identifying client expectations and needs
Researching: PEST/SWOT, Porter’s 5 stages analyses to ascertain long term influences on a client/client area

Relationship Management
Internal and external
A personality profile to enable us to understand how to adapt our style to suit each situation and client

Negotiation Skills to win business
Planning, trading, bargaining, proposing
What is your key account’s preferred negotiating style?
Preparing to work with that style

Post course work – putting it into practice
Each individual to identify at least one area to implement. Agreement to be made on when/how results to be fed back.