Revenue growth is the driver for all business. The Acrelic Group team will explore many facets and approaches to enhancing revenue. Over the next several weeks, I want to share thoughts on Account Management.
Over many years I have watched companies, of all sizes, invest millions upon millions of dollars to acquire (“selling”) new customers (clients), typically Business to Business. Some do it better than others, but everyone does it. And there are plenty of methodologies, hawked by consultants, aimed to help improve the sales process and sales success. There are equally enough Sales and Marketing Automation solutions to keep track of every contact, prospect, activity, and pipeline. This is good! It’s how we grow; and we all have learned that if we are not growing we are declining.
Ted’s personal pet peeve however, is that after all the sweat, heartache, energy and money spent on acquiring the next “important” customer, many organizations will just turn over the hard earned relationships and trust to their operations and delivery teams. Yes the delivery folks are professional and yes they will treat the customer with respect. But, their job is to deliver; whether it’s a complex computer system, sophisticated call center or managed trucking route, the operations people are held accountable to deliver the products and services on time, within budget, and with the highest quality that the company can provide. Often they are neither trained nor incented to care for the client (customer), at a broad or business level. They have more important things to do, and enough issues to resolve in just delivering what was sold.
We commonly find that when the customer is ready to make another purchase, their existing supplier is viewed at the same level or worse than they view the new prospective suppliers. The supplier who invested all that energy, sweat and tears to become the supplier of choice is relegated to the pack and asked to respond to an RFP and to follow all the detailed rules and jump through all the same hoops, again.
There is a way to prevent this. I wish I had a sexy name for it, but we just call it Account Management. Account Management is a science (with methodologies and rules) and can be taught. It’s also a bit of art that depends on experience, culture and motivation. It is, none-the-less, an important business practice. Why? Because through effective account management, the business will keep those hard earned customers, (Assets of the Company), longer, and earn more revenue and profit from the relationship.
ASSETS you ask? Most accountants will tell you your assets are on your balance sheet, and insist that they be managed and tracked. Many HR pros will tell you your assets are in your key people and will have many ways to develop and keep them. Your legal staff will tell you that your key assets are in your Intellectual Property, and will develop all kinds of agreements and legal tools to keep them safe. All true. But your customers are equally your asset and one of your biggest.
Over the next several months, I will explore Account Management as a key business tool in this blog. I invite you to share your thoughts and experiences on the subject. Account Management is only one part of an overall approach to pursuing rapid revenue improvement for any firm, yet I believe it can be a key source of revenue for most companies.
Ted Ehling Acrelic Group, Rapid Revenue and Profit Improvements, Sales Optimization