Companies are increasingly finding that their traditional value proposition is falling short. The strength of their brand has less value in the buying process, and competition is intensifying from well-resource established players and emerging niche players. Pressure to reduce prices is now the norm. So, margins are deteriorating and profits are shrinking.
How can you stop this?
Read MoreMost global B2B companies have realised they need to manage their major customers - who represent most of their future revenue and profit - differently to the rest of their customers. Why? Well if you want to create opportunities to grow with your major customers, and earn the right to keep doing business with them, you need to offer much more than the average supplier. How can you do this?
Read MoreManaging accounts strategically is different to managing accounts operationally. Some of the differences are highlighted in this blog.
Read MoreAnalysts feel pain while trying to convince senior audiences with data. There is a great article that states the solution when persuading executives with data is to frame your message using one or more of the following four topics:
You can find lists of competencies for account managers, for example from the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA). Many of these list the technical knowledge needed. However the most critical skill an account manager needs is persistence.
Read MoreInnovation is not just about ‘out of the box’, ‘blue-sky’ solutions. Sure, we need to use some right-brain thinking to free our imaginations and find creative answers. But, you need to match this with a left-brain process and hard work. Organisations can do a great job and spend lots of time solving the wrong problem. So, it’s important to take the time to understand the real problem that needs to be solved and to make sure the real problem is well defined.
How do you define your problems?
Read MoreTypically, when deciding which accounts to manage strategically, companies use revenue as the main criteria. This makes some sense. Managing accounts strategically requires a large investment in time and resources, so receiving adequate revenue to justify this investment is valid.
However Strategic Account Management (SAM) is about managing the accounts in your business strategically. Managing to achieve your company's strategic objectives, there are many other factors that influence whether an account deserves you investing more time and resources.
Read MoreThe first barrier to change is most people don't like change. They tend to stick to what they know and what worked before. However, change is happening: like it or not.
Read MoreYou must pitch for some business. Where do you start? Most managers answer this question correctly: with the customer and what they want. However most managers get the answer to the next question wrong: What should you do next?
What is the correct answer?
Read MoreHow do you make sure that your pitch is effective? Make your presentations relevant to your customers. Robert Cialdini, persuasion guru has been researching persuasion since 1970. In his 2016 book Pre-suasion, he explains when to use his six universal principles of influence. But how should you apply these during your pitch?
Read MoreSo, you need to persuade a customer you can't afford to lose? Where do you start? If we ask persuasion expert Robert Cialdini how to persuade your customer to act, he would suggest a few ways. Two are scarcity and consistency.
Scarcity is the best known technique, Consistency is not well understood and under-used.
Read MoreThe business environment is constantly changing. These changes in markets, competition and technology are hurting the results of many companies.
The priorities for companies are to create superior customer value, retain high-value customers, be more innovative and be more efficient. However, there is immense pressure to drive down operating costs, compete increasingly on price, and respond to rising customer demands.
Many companies find it impossible to respond to change and simultaneously pursue strategic priorities. So, they end up mainly reacting to change.
How can you use these changes to your advantage and find opportunities for improving your business results?
Read MoreDonald Trump would probably say: Just tell em!
In the real world it's often not appropriate to just tell em! So, we need to have more sophisticated tools available.
At the end of 2016, Persuasion guru Robert Cialdini published his latest book Pre-suasion. To condense his 300 page book into two sentences he says:
So, what's so important about Pre-suasion?
Read MoreImagine you are in an Australian industry with about 200 competitors, how do you compete and grow? Back in 2001, that's the problem faced by John Casella of Casella wines. He quickly concluded that he needed to be more strategic than his well-resourced competitors.
But how did he do it?
Read MoreIt is not just the volume but the complexity of data being collected that makes it difficult for us to analyse and interpret in a clear and simple way. As we are bombarded with data, most people still reach for excel to create charts to explain this data. After all, it's easy. Select our table of data, find the command for insert chart, chose one of the types of chart and then choose one of the options for that specific chart. That's easily done.
But as Samuel Johnson may have written over 200 years ago: charts created without effort are read without insight.
So, with a little time and effort how can we create charts to be read with insight and pleasure?
Read MoreManaging accounts strategically is a proven way to systematically monitor changes in your customers and competitors and make strategic choices for the future. Companies across many industry sectors have successfully applied the Strategic Account Management (SAM) framework to drive relentless positive change in their business.
So, what are the benefits of working more strategically?
Read MoreWith a tsunami of data it is easy to create large tables of data. However, with such large amounts of data, it is difficult to see what the message is. When presenting these tables, some people leave them in the default order. So, if it was a list of sales by country or sales by product then these would be listed alphabetically. Unfortunately, insights rarely occur alphabetically. So, if you sort alphabetically then you are burying your insights and making it hard for your audience to find the insights.
Find out how to make your insights clearer.
Read MoreThe third method of the 'interactive image' is the 'common image'. This special method has several features and benefits that warrant separate discussion.
Read MoreExecutive sponsorship is any change initiative is imperative to success. It is just one of the five risks to managing the change: implementing strategic account management, as discussed in 'What are the risks with organisational change?'
With a SAM program the entire business must own major accounts. There must be genuine commitment and active involvement from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and other senior executives..
Read More
![SAM isn't selling [Strategic Account Management]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5385613ee4b0883f7108f96f/1497568381982-P2Y7XQ7UT2WSL8GQJYPJ/watch+on+wrist+compressed.jpg)
