Key Account Management (KAM) is one of the most significant business developments to emerge in recent years. It is an organizational process used by business-to-business suppliers to manage their relationships with strategically-important customers. If its importance is recognized, and if it is done correctly, it will increase your company’s bottom line. You will not get more revenue from your key accounts if your program is not set up and operated effectively. Here are some important factors to consider. 

Recognize What KAM Means 

KAM is not a sales technique. Instead, it’s a way of conducting business involving the entire company, not just the sales department. It’s a commitment by the whole company to work diligently with priority customers. For example, if a key account is promised priority access to products or services that are needed urgently, it is the operations department and supply chain personnel that have to deliver, not sales. 

Identify your Key Accounts 

Existing customers with an established relationship with your business are your most valuable asset – the result of time, money, and careful cultivation. Regard them as an investment in your company’s economic future. These customers should meet certain criteria that your business has set. Resist pressure to add certain customers because they play golf with the CEO. 

KAM Needs High-Level Support 

The companies with the most success in KAM have senior executives working on their key accounts. Each executive sponsors several key accounts and visits them regularly. The aim is to make your company’s critical accounts feel important and valued. You want them to feel happy and happy customers will keep increasing your organization’s revenues. 

KAM Needs Trained Key Account Managers 

It’s advisable not to simply move your best sales personnel into key account manager roles. You might end up putting a bunch of people into managerial positions they are not suited for and losing your best sales people. Your salesforce should concentrate on targeting new prospects and your key account managers on working with your key accounts. KAM requires a wide range of skills – planning, interpersonal, financial, consultative. Each key customer should be made to feel that they have an “insider” in the company, someone they trust and can go to with their needs and concerns. Keep in mind that a satisfied customer is one that will stay with your organization even in times of economic uncertainty. 

Set Up the Right Metrics 

If your key account managers have been tasked with building long-term relationships with your key customers, don’t reward them as though they were doing a typical sales job of focusing on short-term sales. Key account managers should be spending their time managing things on behalf of the customer to build long-term value for your business. 

Keep the Program Moving 

Your key account program should be flexible. New key accounts can be added to the program, and former ones moved out if they are no longer matching up in terms of long-term value. You should be actively seeking best practices both within your business and outside to update and improve the performance of your KAM program. It’s also important to continually review your relationships with your key customers, and have your program reflect changes that are important to them. 

Conclusion 

KAM if implemented and carried out correctly can have a profound effect on the performance of your organization and enable you to receive more revenue from your key accounts. We can help your business make a successful transition to KAM and, over time, it will be worth it. Your most valuable asset for the longevity of your company isn’t your sales team’s prospects for new customers; rather it’s the relationships Key Account Managers develop with your existing, most valuable clients. Talk to us and we will advise you how to keep and grow your key accounts.

The fast-paced, ever-evolving world of information technology has an incurable addiction to acronyms. However, SMAC has not yet made it on to Wikipedia’s list. This particular acronym stands for: Social . Mobile . Analytics . Cloud 

SMAC is a rapidly spreading methodology which can have a significant positive impact on a company’s digital marketing strategy. Let’s look at SMAC’s components in more detail.

Social

Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube serve as great “connectors” for millions of people worldwide. Businesses are increasingly using social marketing tools to increase exposure to their products and services and to grow the popularity of their brands. Social media channels are used to engage targeted viewers and to build a marketplace in the social media community. Businesses are able to create “mind-sharing” personal relationships with their customers and thus build targeted and productive digital marketing strategies. 

Mobile

Who do you know who doesn’t own a smartphone? Mobile devices are increasingly being used by consumers to purchase goods and services. Shoppers are able to engage in sales transactions anywhere and at any time of the day or night. Users are provided with much-appreciated shopping convenience and businesses with insights into the preferences and buying behaviors of users on a global scale. Most companies have developed their own business mobile applications in order to take advantage of this low-cost way to connect with their customers and increase their customer bases.

Analytics – “Big Data,” a “buzz phrase” currently in vogue, is the name given to the treasure trove of information which can be collected from social and mobile platforms. By analyzing this massive mountain of data, business enterprises can gain an inside view of their customers’ likes and dislikes and can respond in real time to their shopping preferences.

Cloud – The use of cloud computing will only increase. One advantage is that it enables businesses to reduce their IT budgets by avoiding the sometimes significant financial costs for premise-based hardware and its subsequent maintenance. Cloud computing also provides business flexibility and agility with respect to meeting the demands of customers.

The Power of the Stacking Effect

Each of the four individual SMAC components is a valuable tool in its own right. However, if this quartet is combined to form an integrated “stack,” the stack has more overall power than its individual parts. Harnessed together, the components can provide a broad-ranging view of customer spending habits, enabling companies to more accurately target their customers. For instance, the data gathered from a user’s social media postings can be teamed with location-based information coming from the user’s mobile device. This combined data is then ready for real-time analysis on a virtual cloud platform.

SMAC Helps Provide Personalized Service

A big advantage of an SMAC marketing strategy is that it enables companies to move into high-margin areas with relatively minor financial expenditures. It’s a strategy with low overheads, far-ranging availability, and worldwide reach, creating unparalleled opportunities for organizations to more thoroughly understand, engage, and influence their prospective customers. Because modern, tech-savvy shoppers don’t possess as much brand loyalty as their parents, they will shop by first reading reviews and doing research on a product before making a buying decision. By putting in place individualized marketing and sales strategies, a company can significantly increase its bottom line. Personalized service equals a happy customer. Here are some ideas to achieve this highly desirable SMAC multiplier effect.

Come up with a plan: Assess what stage you are currently at with respect to leveraging the use of each SMAC component. Then, determine where it’s most important to target the delivery of information on your products or services.

Pay attention to the “easy” data: Take a look at each method currently being used to gather insights about your customers and make sure it’s working properly and efficiently. Then put it to use. For example, your customer interface should be straightforward and easy to use so that a new customer has no problem signing up. Then, your system should be constructed so that the data inputted by your customer follows the customer as they journey through your website. So, if a buyer has filled out an application form for one type of product, that person should not be made to enter the same information all over again if they decide to purchase something else.

Examine your level of customer service: Your customers’ experiences of your end-to-end services need to be as trouble-free as possible. For instance, when a customer experiencing problems contacts your call center, an integrated SMAC approach would enable the customer services representative to see exactly the stage that the customer has reached and help move the transaction along to the next step. 

Don’t regard the norm as good enough: There should be a continuously evolving process in place to develop the best products or services tailored to the insights gained from your customers’ preferences. Evaluation teams should be set up to keep on top of how your program is performing. You could even employ a specialist whose assignment would be to design internal best practices incorporating best practices used by other businesses.

Bottom Line

Using SMAC as a digital marketing strategy can be a transformative experience. Never before has it been possible to obtain so much information on your customers’ preferences and buying habits and put it to good use. Please contact us for a consultation on how we can help your company increase its revenues.