Many businesses depend on orders from the small number of clients. This is often particularly true in the capital goods, defense, telecommunications or infrastructure projects sector. Exactly how many clients are available in the market for a nuclear power plant?
If you should be the CEO or VP-Marketing of this type of company you will need to take into account establishing Account Management stephanie nagrodess to target full-time on the most crucial customers. If you do not know the strategy, organisation or Cap ex plans of your key accounts you do not learn how to position your company and its products to win orders.
Appoint a mature, experienced marketing professional as VP-Account Management, reporting to the VP-Marketing as well as the CEO. Yes, the positioning is that important!
Give him a totally free hand to select his team, either from within the organization or by recruitment. Check that they’re all good communicators and have strong inter-personal skills.
Provide them with a published job description that the full top management group has bought into.
The task description must contain the next:
-Create strong personal relationships at all levels of the management in the accounts they are in charge of
-Gain the confidence of his colleagues in your company so they are content for him to lead the relationship with the accounts and make open to him the resources he may need
-Learn concerning the accounts’strategies, clients, products, financial situation, shareholders, and problems. The Account Managers must become experts about your company’s most critical customers
-Be able to own quick access for their accounts management for meetings, breakfast or lunch appointments for many company’s executives like the CEO and Chairman of the Board
-Be able to acquire inside information, ethically of course, about Cap ex , your competitors and anything else to aid you in winning business
-Keep all necessary managers in your company briefed on issues they ought to know about
Know that the establishment of such teams can initially cause some friction within the organisation, since some managers will have less direct contact with the client and may resent this. It is very important to brief the managers concerning the account teams and their purpose. Make a presentation to them with the account managers present. If done well, this may reassure the doubters, and demonstrate which they still have an essential task.