In a previous post I mentioned my Top 6 List of B2B Sales & Marketing Resources.
One of them was Miller Heiman - a sales performance consulting company,
they publish a well known sales best practices report, and also have a
free newsletter.
My boss forwarded me another terrific Miller Heiman article called Choosing
and Working with Strategic Accounts. I think a lot of B2B companies
struggle with understanding their strategic accounts. How to choose them, how
to keep them, and how to measure their success -- this article provides insight
and answers into those questions.
Also in a previous post called Developing
long-term trusted relationships with B2B customers, I
mentioned an article, Becoming
a Trusted Advisor. In the post I only talked about the first point - Customer
Executive Briefings. The 2nd point was Account-Management Teams and the article
stated:
2. Account-Management Teams
When a customer knows that you have a dedicated account team just for them, it
goes a long way toward establishing partnership and trust. Each account team
typically consists of four functional roles:
· "A
business contact from the solution-provider side (typically the account
salesperson).
· A
technical contact from the solution-provider side (lead senior engineer).
· An
executive manager from the solution-provider side (typically the president/CEO).
· A
representative from the customer side (a senior IT exec).
Keep in mind that one person can fill more than one role, and more than
one person can fill a single role. The key to this approach is that it shows a
deep commitment on the part of the solution provider toward the
customer."
The Miller Heiman article Choosing
and Working with Strategic Accounts brings about this point as well:
“It’s a business initiative versus a sales initiative,” Johnson remarks.
“You need organizational alignment, executive endorsement and metrics to assess
your success.”
When you’re working with a non-strategic account, a strong account manager
relationship can be enough, but when you’re working with a strategic account, a
cross-functional team should be set up for communication at all levels. And,
every person at every level—particularly those at the executive level—should be
on the same page: The relationship should be perceived as a partnership. “If
both organizations aren’t committed to the partnership, you shouldn’t move
forward,” Johnson says.
So here you can see again the executive partnership theme.
However, how do you
see yourself as a Marketer in terms of Strategic Accounts?
I view myself as an additional resource to those customers.
One advantage that I have as an IT B2B Marketing is my technical background. I am comfortable to engage in some degree of technical
discussions. However, technical understanding is not enough. You also have to
be aware of the business issues your customers face, especially the business issues that your
offerings solve.
One year I was organizing a holiday event and we had
low registration. Sales didn’t have anymore time to promote the event and it was
decided that I try to call customers myself. Prior to that, I did very little
outbound calling. I actually did get through to some customers and because it
was more of a relationship event, where I was inviting and encouraging them to
come out (rather than a sales call), I had some pleasant conversations.
After that event, customers commented that they were very happy to hear from another person in the
company. This is when I first learned directly that it was important to customers to have other levels of contact, outside their
direct sales rep.
I try to engage with customers at events as much as possible. Marketers
try to get the right people to an event, but also try to create a professional
and enjoyable experience for them. Sometimes, I feel that marketing people at
events think that means being friendly, courteous, and professional. That is
all very important…however I try to also remember faces and companies, and speak with them about their
issues in a non-sales way. Also, since it is not always possible for sales to
cover each person in the room, I look for gaps and try to fill them.
Over the years I have developed rapport with customers. Now when Imeet and greet them at events, it is beyond a trivial professionally friendliness. My role (beyond event organizer) is to understand their needs, make
them aware of relevant solutions, and point them to resources that will
hopefully advance their buying cycle. I believe some of this has contributed to
the success of sustaining and growing strategic accounts.
My role is shifting from executing events to overall
marketing strategy and planning. However I still look forward to face-to-face
genuine interactions with customers and prospects. Not only to understand who I
am marketing to, but also to help our company sustain and growth our valuable
relationships.
In summary, here are the articles that relate to strategic account development:
Choosing
and Working with Strategic Accounts – Miller Heiman
Becoming a
Trusted Advisor – CRN and Var Business
Developing
long-term trusted relationships with B2B customers – a previous cadenceblog
post.
I apologize for not posting in the past few weeks. I was on vacation, and then in Las Vegas for 
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