What is Key Account Management?
Key account management is the process of building long-term relationships with your company's most valuable accounts. These accounts make up the majority of the business' income. To turn buyers into business partners, a key account manager (KAM) typically provides dedicated resources, unique offers, and periodic meetings.
Key Account Management Skills
Some companies assign their reps as key account managers to one or two customers. Because selling and account management require different mindsets, skills, and objectives, this set-up isn't ideal. Unless your team is prohibitively small, separate the sales and account manager roles.
A key account manager is focused on becoming critical to her customer's operations — not winning a deal.BTS identifies several unique skills critical to a key account manager's success:
1. Get to know the customer.
A key account manager must have an intimate, sophisticated understanding of her account's strategy, market position, finances, products, and organizational structure. They'll use this knowledge to make business cases showing how price changes, customization, and add-ons will add value.
2. Cross-functional collaboration to benefit the customer.
Key accounts don't usually buy off-the-shelf: They want a custom blend of products and services tailored to their needs. With that in mind, it's crucial a KAM can work across the organization to develop these offerings.
3. Effective leadership of key account team.
A KAM needs leadership abilities to guide her team members (which might include a salesperson, marketer, technical support, implementation and/or onboarding specialist).
4. Coordination and planning of activities for complex accounts.
Key account programs have a lot of moving parts. To be successful, KAMs should be capable of planning short-term and long-term plays, carrying them out, analyzing the outcomes, and applying those takeaways to their future strategies.
5. Strong business acumen.
What's business acumen? It's the understanding of how a company makes
money. A KAM should develop dynamic business acumen. According to BTS, this is the "knowledge of how the drivers of customer growth, profitability, and cash flow are changing, of how the customer’s markets are changing, and of how the interrelationships within the customer’s business are changing."
With this knowledge, they'll be able to solidify their position as a trusted resource and advisor for their clients.
6. Ability to use analytical skills to support a variety of clients.
In addition to having business acumen, key account managers should have an analytical mindset. Their analytic skills will help them create and present business cases. They need to be able to think quickly and apply their knowledge to a variety of different clients and markets and be confident when presenting the information.
Source: Hubspot
FAQ'S
- What is Key Account Management (KAM)?
Key Account Management is the process of building long-term relationships with your company's most valuable accounts. These accounts contribute significantly to the business's income, and a key account manager (KAM) provides dedicated resources, unique offers, and regular meetings to turn buyers into business partners.
- Why is Key Account Management important?
KAM is important because it focuses on maintaining and growing relationships with key clients who provide substantial revenue. Effective KAM can lead to increased customer loyalty, higher sales, and long-term business growth.
- What skills are essential for a Key Account Manager?
A Key Account Manager should have strong business acumen, excellent communication and leadership skills, the ability to collaborate cross-functionally, and strong analytical abilities. They should also have an intimate understanding of their client's business, including strategy, market position, finances, and organisational structure.
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