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Grow your business by retaining and developing strategic accounts

Organizations continue to reduce the number of their suppliers, seeking greater efficiencies and value. Supplier organizations then make bigger bets on those accounts that generate the greatest revenue and profits. To develop such strategic accounts, salespeople move upstream in their clients’ planning process in order to gain greater influence, discover more opportunities, embed themselves in the supply chain, and protect themselves from internal and external competition.

Successful strategic account managers need to be more than great salespeople.

Managing strategic accounts sounds straightforward—but it’s difficult. Orchestrating resources to provide broader services and gather intelligence can be tricky, especially with today’s constrained sales budgets. Also, customers expect more from partnerships than the actual benefits delivered. There are reasons for these challenges:

• The supplier’s functional and line-of-business silos impede moving resources to opportunities quickly
• Cultures that reward individual success each year can also inhibit sales teams with a multiyear focus
• Assigning senior salespeople as strategic account managers—and not selecting or training for required competencies—yields account managers who understand neither the customer’s business nor how they support their own company’s success

Successful strategic account managers need to be more than great salespeople. Because they’re critical to deepening supplier-customer relationships, they must be proficient in multiple roles, and must act as strategic business advisors, business managers, relationship architects, and team leaders.

With proper preparation, sales organizations can manage and develop valuable accounts not just strategically, but also successfully.