Develop Key Accounts to Increase Revenue

key accounts
June 12th, 2019 0 Comments

Developing Key Accounts is a skill that needs to be honed to be successful in sales.

Ready to increase your profits and revenues by 30% or more?  It’s time to focus on developing your Key Accounts.

Developing Key Accounts is the process of building long-term relationships with your company’s most valuable accounts. These clients contribute, often, a significant amount of your businesses revenue and can be critical to your growth and sustained sales. Many times, we find there are new business opportunities within Key Accounts that are more likely to close compared to acquiring a new client, at least short-term. They also spend up to 33% more than new customers.

 

Here is a five-step path to get you started on developing Key Accounts to increase revenue:

1. Determine Your Definition of Key Accounts

Key Accounts will receive a great deal of your company’s time, energy and resources. Therefore, you should create an explicit and strict definition of key accounts to make sure that you choose the right ones. The more detailed and specific the criteria, the better.

According to SBI, the best approach is to choose between 3 & 5 of the following criteria to base your definition on:

  • Revenue potential (avoid weighing this too heavily)
  • Centralized purchasing
  • Product fit
  • Solvency
  • Growth potential
  • Existing relationships
  • Possible Channel Management partner
  • Cultural fit
  • Geographical alignment

 

2. Understand Each Company

Develop an intimate, sophisticated understanding of the account’s strategy, market position, finances, products, and organizational structure. Use this information to make business cases that show how price changes, customization, and add-ons will increase value.

 

3. Perform Regularly Scheduled Business Reviews

  • Develop a standardized business review template for each Key Account that not only captures your KPI’s, but more importantly theirs.
  • Use the business review as the impetus to solve problems and to determine new opportunities.
  • Stay up-to-date on the business’s goals, financial health, and current initiatives.

 

4. Know the Key Players

In B2B sales, you are selling to a group of decision-makers who hold different positions in the company. Each have different levels of influence on the purchase. Hence to keep up with these individuals, you can build a Key Account Organization Chart.

On this chart you’ll be able to:

  • keep track of those with whom you’ve had communication
  • know where they stand within the order of things
  • determine the key players involved in the decision of doing business with your company

 

5. Listen with Intent and Be Prepared to Collaborate

Trust is one of the most important components of building ongoing relationships with Key Accounts. The B2B relationship has changed from that of vendor-buyer to partnership. As such, you are no longer selling to a buyer. Rather, you are a buyer’s partner who is invested in helping their business succeed. The great news is that the more your buyer succeeds, the more your product or service is going to succeed at that business.

 

As you move forward, continue to cultivate your key account relationships but also keep an eye on non-key accounts. A customer who is about to experience significant growth may qualify as a strategic account. Earn their loyalty by treating them as a Key Account before another company has the chance.

Key Account Management is an important component that can raise your company’s sales by 30% or more. When you discover the potential these relationships hold, you’ll see these customers through a brand new lens.

Are you ready to develop your sales strategy but aren’t confident about where to start? Contact our experts at 360 Consulting today for a free consultation!

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Summary
Article Name
Develop Key Accounts to Increase Revenue
Description
As the B2B sales process has changed, so has the relationship of seller and buyer. See ways to develop key accounts and how they can increase revenue.
Author
Business Growth
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