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Many people regard chess as the most fascinating
and intriguing game that can be played......
.........................in our view it is child's play:
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| Chess |
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involves only 16 players |
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with only 6 types of predefined 'personality' |
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you know exactly how they could move
at any one time |
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you know exactly where they are today |
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you have only one opponent and know
exactly what their position is |
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what constitutes 'winning' is very
clear; everything is black and white! |
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Selling or Real Account Management: |
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is not black and white |
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'winning' is not always obvious |
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there are many opponents |
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sometimes our opponents are actually
our allies |
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other organizations have a bearing
on our success, to which they are often ambivalent |
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we are dealing with numerous players,
who are all individuals and who can react in often unpredictable
ways |
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it is unclear to us as to exactly what
is our positioning with the customer |
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generally the customer does not act
as one entity.............. |
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We are passionate about all aspects of selling
in working with our clients, and REAL SELLING or REAL ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
is one of the aspects that is the most intriguing, challenging and
rewarding for us all.
In our view, Account Management is one of the most misunderstood and
abused terms used in selling today.
For many people 'Account Management' means 'looking after' or 'farming'
the relationship with an existing customer, and will be measured in
terms of on-going revenue and customer satisfaction. In our terms
this is 'Account Servicing' and while a valuable function, does not
by itself constitute Real Account Management.
By Real Account Management, we mean the Account Manager being responsible
for the total relationship between your organization and another,
and in particular for managing the development of the relationship
to meet business goals which have been set.
Our strong belief is that Account Management is the key activity that
will differentiate successful 'selling' organizations involved in
complex offerings to clients in a business-to-business environment.
Most Sales Managers and Account Managers understand very well Pareto's
law, that 80% of our business will come from 20% of our accounts,
and are also painfully aware of the difficulties and costs involved
in opening up new customers. Yet it is relatively few organizations
whom having spent considerable time, effort and money in establishing
an early success with a customer, proactively then generate the business
relationship.
We base many of our tools and approaches on a simple model of what
actually happens in any complex account situation.
All business starts with conversations, which open up possibilities
for both parties, which lead to real potential opportunities, which
following some actions will give us and our customers the results
that we desire. In long term Account Management, we are constantly
using our relationships and actions to feed off each other, creating
a virtuous cycle.
Traditional 'sales / interpersonal / influencing training' concentrates
largely on the actions that we take (our face-to-face skills). Over
the last few years a number of excellent methodologies have been developed
which allow us to better qualify and plan potential business (single
sales opportunities or sales bid planning).
While we need to continually review and refine our face-to-face skills,
and our single sales opportunity campaign planning, it is in the longer
term area of managing the whole account that predictable, profitable
business will accrue in the areas that we want.
Real Account Management is about 'Managing Our Business', rather than
'Our Business Managing Us'. It involves us in developing relationships
at a personal and business level, that will generate possibilities
that can turn into business for us and into business advantage for
our clients.
REAL SELLING
or REAL ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT requires
the implementation and use of Demand Creation (or Solution Selling)
and Account Planning Methodologies.
For further information on our Solution Selling Methodology download
the S3Overview
Brochure.
For further information on our Account Planning Methodology download
the MAP3Overview
Brochure. |
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