Statistics and surveys show that customer experience is the main source of competition among businesses these days and customers are more demanding than ever when it comes to their experience with a company. These demands often go beyond the offerings of just customer service and have asked more and more of account managers (AMs), the main lines of communication between a client and a business.
A Crucial Area of your Business.
First and foremost, account managers work closely with clients to determine their needs and help their companies develop products and services to meet those needs. During this process, AMs facilitate the conversation, expressing clients' agendas to the company and the company's abilities and concerns in meeting those agendas in turn.
Since account management is more of a high-stakes role than ever, it's good to get advice from the top minds in the field, so here are six great account management tips from sales experts.
1. Listen to the Client
Because customer experience is such a huge point of emphasis, the old saying "the customer is always right" is truer than ever.
Account managers should be more interested in making the client's dreams come true via their business than vice versa. Experts from the world of digital design have some good insight on this issue. Add value where you can.
"An integrated customer experience process within a successful customer-focused organization should know when the customers are at an emotional high or low point (both could be substantial) and what behaviors they exhibit that betray a problem or a root cause." says UX designer Kaushik Gosh, writing for the Toptal Design Blog.
The "management" part of account management includes being attuned to your client's expectations and responses, both fiscally and emotionally. Managing emotions and responding to a client's needs and wishes is a huge part of account management, and it may even reward an account manager with long-term client loyalty.
2. Uncover What Your Buyers Truly Care About
"When the customer makes a buying decision, the risk shifts from the supplier to the customer and the impact on the customer of a poor buying decision is usually greater than the impact on the salesperson of a lost sale," explains Donal Daly, CEO of Altify.
"The seller's ultimate objective is to maximize revenue in an account in a way that also maximizes mutual value. Once you understand the people and the problems and have developed a trusted relationship with your customer, you can identify areas of opportunity--the "white space" in the account--where solutions can add value to the customer's business."
His point being, a structured approach to account planning challenges seller's to uncover the goals, pressures and obstacles that the customer truly cares about, and the initiatives that the customer may be putting in place to relieve these pressures. Mutual value can only be achieved with this understanding, and any other approach isn't putting the focus on the customer.
3. Research, Research, Research
Erica Hansen of Yesler, an elite B2B marketing agency, says,
"Sift through all the intelligence marketing and sales gathered during the lead nurturing and sales process and then augment that with more research--about your customer's business, its markets, challenges, goals, and competitors."
To understand the needs of clients, an AM must research in great depth, utilizing info from within the company and without, such as customer feedback and data, notes, and research from projects for similar clients.
A good account manager will have knowledge not only of the client's background but also of the current climate in the client's industry. Clients want to know they're in expert hands, and having a depth of knowledge about the clients, and their industry will go a long way to reassuring them of that.
4. Collaboration Means Execution
According to Lou Shachter and Rich Cheatham of BTS, a global professional services firm who has worked with companies like AT&T and Chevron, collaboration means "leveraging internal resources on behalf of the customers" as a means of execution and "ensuring successful achievement of each element of the account plan." Given the AM's movement between sales and customer service, and the need to follow through on an account, it is important that the AM and different branches of the company, from advertising to delivery services, are ready and willing to collaborate.
View Source to Continue Reading: 6 Powerful Sales-Acceleration Tips From Account Managers and Sales Experts
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