Account management strategies are an important ingredient in businesses that requires the goodwill and support of clients. Having strong client support and analysing their needs is an important method of taking a business on the road to success.Â
Most organisations make their revenue from client sales. Managing these clients’ loyalty and attention is a tougher task. For any client based business to be successful it requires a good client-based relationship. Hence, it is important to implement smart account management strategies for long term success of your business.
Why are Account Management Strategies Important?
Account Management Strategies are an important practice to build and maintain long term relationships with important clients of an organisation to foster a long term relationships and generate higher revenue from clients based on trust and satisfaction.
It is also known by different names such as Strategic account management, key account management, etc. Whatever the names the main objective is to build value driven client relationships with key customers of the organisations to contribute to a long term growth of an organization.
Also, Check Which career you should choose in Accounting or Finance?
6 Steps for Account Management Strategies in BusinessesÂ
Account management strategies are a win-win solution for both clients and organisations. With effective account management strategies in place, clients might get personalized service and recommendations.Â
While organisations get valuable customers which boosts sales and revenue. Let us know how we can make it possible through some of the key account management strategies below.
1. Select Key Accounts
Organizations must shortlist a handful of clients important to their organisations. It is important to analyse well before selecting an account. Some of the important criteria are location, potential revenue, objectives, client needs, etc.Â
It is important to evaluate what better possibilities lie ahead and take even if there is only one. Select a customer who not only shares large wealth but rather goes for clients who might potentially invest in your new and additional products in the future.
Also, check What is Personal Banking?
2. Select Account Managers
For bigger organisations it is important to have expert personnel on the desk to foster strong relationships with the organisation clients. Account managers are the salespersons who promote an organisation’s products and services.Â
They need to maintain strong relationships with their clients by assisting them, providing them with personalised recommendations, and more. Some of the important skills of account managers must beÂ
- Creative and Familiar with the right practicesÂ
- Have the Patient listen and resolve the issues of clients
- Intuitive and creative
- CollaborativeÂ
- Easy to connect and collaborate with people
- Humble and kind
3. Know your clientsÂ
Account managers have the responsibility to research their clients to better understand the organization. Learning more about clients can help an organisation put forward a more personalised recommendation and services to their clients.Â
There are certain aspects that account managers must research about their selected clients. Account managers can create different profiles and put them in relevant categories. Analyse the business, goals, competitors, etc of the clients to make a decision. The major objective is to understand the goals and issues clients are facing.Â
4. Master CRM Tools
There are advanced customer relationship management (CRM) tools with a wide range of features to maintain a strong relationship with clients. CRM tools are software solutions used to maintain interaction with clients by analysing their contact information, sales opportunities, contracts, invoices, and feedback.Â
CRM tools can help to streamline the workflow and automate various repetitive tasks in customer relationship management. You can have access to real time insights of your clients. Based on these analytics you can tailor your services and recommendations for your clients.
5. Train your Team
It is important to conduct a training session more often to keep your team updated with the latest developments. This also helps track the overall performance of the team in a specific time range and collect insights and reports.Â
Provide your team with learning materials, workshops, webinars, courses, mentoring and feedback to keep them highly motivated and effective toward a consistent performance. Frequent training and coaching can enhance their efficiency, performance, and retention.
6. Review and ImproveÂ
A timely review of your team’s performance and improvement is important to assess your employees weaknesses, strengths and identify areas where they can improve and bring better results. Take feedback from your clients, analyse customer satisfaction, retention, revenue, and referrals to understand the performance of your team.Â
Regular feedback and improvement can help improve your team efficiency, quality and performance. This will also increase customer satisfaction, retention, and directly affect the revenue.Â
How to Develop Personalized Recommendation for Your Clients?
Data collected from various sources based on the activities of your client can create a personalised planning to define their needs and recommend effective solutions. Let us check how you can implement it below.
- Assess your selected accounts (Clients) based on the data collected from various sources.
- Narrow down their concerns and needs.Â
- Develop long term goals tailored especially for your clients to ensure success along the way.Â
- Try to communicate your client needs and connect them with a decent proposal that can deliver queries and solutions frequently.
- You might target market changes and present your clients with alternative opportunities to expand, hire staff, launch new products or more.
- Analyse your clients working domain and suggest them with new opportunities after analysing their current practices.Â
Also, check Top 10 Highest Paying Finance Jobs in 2024?
Why Communication is Important in Account Management Strategies?
Setting up a smooth communication flow with your clients is the primary importance in account management strategies. Clients are the most important asset of your organisation as they are the people who would invest in your products and services. Also, good customer satisfaction can increase customer interaction and open gates for mouth-to-mouth advertisement.Â
Develop a schedule through regular meetings or normal calls with your clients. Get to know their thoughts and feedback. Listen to them patiently, filter their concerns, and provide them an effective solution.Â
Creating a smooth flow of communication with your clients can help them freely share their concerns and get comfortable with you. If your clients get comfortable they might put forward a more honest discussion.Â
Learn Accounting Management with PW Skills
If you want to build your career in Finance, then enrol in our Finance and Taxation Certification Course and prepare yourself for a wide range of opportunities at various job profiles. This 4 month course is prepared in collaboration with PwC India, one of the big four.
You will learn in-depth about the principles of finance, accounting, taxation, and more. Experienced mentors will guide you throughout the course and when you complete the course properly you will receive a certification in knowledge partnership with PwC Academy only at pwskills.com
Account Management Strategies FAQs
Q1. What are Account Management Strategies?
Ans: Account Management Strategies are value driven approaches to foster strong relationships with your key clients. This helps create more opportunities for long term development, retention and revenue maximisation of an organisation.
Q2. What are the key account management strategies?
Ans: The six major account management strategies are listed below.
Select your valuable clients
Hire Account Managers
Know your Clients
Master CRM Tools
Train your team
Review and Improve
Q3. What are the four pillars of key account management?
Ans: The four major pillars of a key account management practice are given below.
Target long term relationship with your clients
Build and increase trust
Set growth and retention goals
Develop a consistent planning