Is Strategic Account Management for you?

Over on one of the LinkedIn discussion groups, a question came up about the steps of strategic account management. One approach I’ve been using this year with clients has a 5 step, project-driven cycle that can be done again and again:
1. Increase account knowledge and connections by calling more widely.
2. Do account planning with the customer from a collaborative vision.
3. Discover, diagnose and design projects that advance the vision; pre-establish the project’s value to the customer before starting.
4. Coordinate customer and internal teams to deliver project and achieve goals.
5. Present and validate project’s value to customer through executive level.

There’s a lot more to be said, but if you practice these five steps, you’ll be listening more to find out what the customer’s business problems are. Your solutions will include more than just product. As you deliver, you’ll build trust and credibility that will encourage the customer to tell you more, because they’ll know you care about them and their business goals.

This is not a short-term fix, and it won’t work with every customer. Some companies with really strong purchasing organizations won’t accept the value of projects when negotiating the terms of the next deal. Qualify the customer (and your own management!) before initiating this approach:

• Are other vendors treated as strategic partners, even if your company is not yet?
• Are the people you deal with capable of influencing purchasing to make this type of selling worthwhile? Do they give you signals before you start that project that it’s worth doing vs. other places you could put resources?
• Does your organization have expertise beyond product that will help you deliver value, and will it be made available to you?
• Are you calling high enough in the account that you’ve reached people who care about strategic business results, as opposed to product attributes?
• Will you be in the account long enough that this approach bears fruit vs. traditional selling?
• Is your account large enough that it will yield a return from the amount of time that this selling approach takes?