10-Step Strategic Account Alignment Process

Editor's Notes

1. 1
2. WHAT ATTRACTS MANY COMPANIES TO OUR APPROACH IS THE COMBINATION OF A SYSTEMATIC AND COMPREHENCIVE 10-STEP APPROACH WITH THE FLEXIBILITY TO ADAPT TO FOR DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES AND MARKETS. SO WHETHER YOU ARE A PHARMA COMPANY MANAGING LARGE HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS OR A GLOBAL SEMICONDUCTOR COMPANY OUR 10-STEP PROCESS WORKS CONSISTENTLY TO ENABLE YOU TO DELIVER THE REVENUE AND ACCOUNT SHARE THAT ONLY 26% COMPANIES SAID THEY WERE GETTING.. ANOTHER THING WE WANT TO POINT OUT IS THAT SOME PEOPLE CAN GET PUT OFF BY HAVING 10 STEPS, WITH MULTIPLE ACTIVITIES AND TOOLS IN EACH STEP. SIMILARLY, COMPANIES VERY OFTEN COME TO US ALREADY USING ANOTHER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT APPROACH, SUCH AS MILLER HEIMAN, HUTHWAITE, ETC. THE FLEXIBILITY IN OUR PROCESS MEANS THAT YOU CAN APPLY THOSE PARTS OF THE PROCESS IN A PRIORITY WAY AND WE CAN ADAPT THE PROCESS SO THAT IT FITS WITH ANY EXISITNG SALES METHODOLOGY THAT YOU MIGHT BE USING. I THINK THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS THAT THE ACCOUNT MANAGERS WHO HAVE TO APPLY THE PROCESS LIKE THE RELEVENCE TO THEIR SPECIFIC ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT AND SELLING SITUATION, WHICH MEANS THAT THEY WILL APPLY IT. FOR US THAT’S MORE THAN HALF THE BATTLE. WE HAVE ORGANIZED THE 10 STEPS INTO 4 STAGES WHICH ALTOGETHER COVER EVERYTHING NEEDED TO DRIVE BUSINESS IN YOUR STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS I WANT TO EMPHASIZE HERE THAT THE EXCEL TOOL THAT WE WILL DEMONSTRATE HERE IS AN ENABLER AND SUPPORT FOR THE PROCESS. WE FEEL STRONGLY THAT THE ACCOUNT PLANNING TOOL SHOULD DRIVE THE DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF THE ACCOUNT AND ENABLE THE TEAM TO FORMULATE ACTIONABLE GOALS, STRATEGIES AND PLANS. SO TO DO THAT WE HAVE BUILT OUR TOOL WITH VERY CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO DO THE ANALYSIS AND FORMULATE THOSE ACTIONABLE PANS LET ME GIVE YOU A QUICK TOUR OF THE TOOL…
3. FOR EACH OF THE 3 CRITICAL ALIGNMENT FACTORS SIMPLY INDICATE THAT YOU THINK YOU CURRENTLY DON’T DO THIS WELL DO THIS MODERATELY WELL DO THIS VERY WELL
4. THIS FIRST STAGE IN OUR PROCESS WHICH COVERS STEPS 1-3 IS WHERE YOU CAN ADDRESS THE GLOBAL ALIGNMENT ISSUE AS WELL AS THE SECOND CHALLENGE PEOPLE RAISED – CREATING STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS
5. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER STARTS WITH UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER’S MOST IMPORTANT STRATEGIC PRIORITIES. ANY GOOD ACCOUNT MANAGER SPENDS THE TIME READING THE ANNUAL REPORTS AND QUARTERLY ANALYST BRIEFINGS. HOWEVER, THAT’S REALLY NOT ENOUGH. SAMS AND THEIR TEAMS NEED TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS OF THESE STRATEGIC PRIORITIES, FIRST FOR THE CUSTOMER AND SECONDLY FOR THEIR OWN COMPANY AND THEN THEY NEED TO DETERMINE THE ACTIONS THEY SHOULD TAKE, BASED ON THE IMPLICATIONS WHICH ARE DRIVEN FROM THEIR ANALYSIS. ALL OF THIS ANALYSIS AND PLANNING BE DRIVEN BY THE CUSTOMER PROFILE AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS EXAMPLE, THE ACCOUNT MANAGER AND TEAM START WITH A STRATEGIC ANALYSIS, FOLLOWED BY A SWOT ANALYSIS THE FINAL STAGE IS TO ANALYZE THE IMPLICATIONS FROM THE ANALYSIS (THE SO WHAT) AND THE ACTION PLAN (WHAT NOW)
6. THE OTHER CHALLENGE THAT CAN BE ADDRESSED WITH THIS CUSTOMER PROFILE IS DEVELOPING STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS. WHAT WE SEE, WHICH WAS REFLECTED IN YOUR COMMENTS AS WELL WAS THAT THIS HAS 2 DIMENSIONS DEVELOPING STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE ACCOUNT OVERALL AND DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS WITH STRATEGIC DECISION MAKERS, I.E. CXOS THE STARTING POINT TO DO BOTH IS THE CUSTOMER PROFILE SINCE THAT IS WHERE WE DETERMINE THE CUSTOMER’S STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THEIR SENIOR MANAGERS. THE NEXT STEP IS TO USE YOUR INSIGHTS FROM THE CUSTOMER PROFILE TO GAIN ACCESS AND MAINTAIN RELATIONSHIPS WITH SENIOR MANAGERS AND DECISION MAKERS ONE OF YOU IDENTIFIED YOUR CHALLENGE AS GETTING TO VITO, THAT VERY IMPORTANT TOP OFFICER. WE SEE THIS AS A 2-STEP PROCESS, GETTING IN THE ROOM AND 2. ENGAGING VITO ONCE YOU ARE THERE.
7. TO DO THE FIRST STEP, YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO LEVERAGE YOUR EXISTING NETWORK, WHICH YOU FIGURE OUT BY CREATING YOUR NETWORK ASSESSMENT TYPICALLY RELATIONSHIP ASSESSMENTS FOCUS MOSTLY ON THE TARGETED PEOPLE WE WANT TO GET TO, THEIR NEEDS, MOTIVATIONS, ETC. AND THIS IS IMPORTANT BUT WE ALL KNOW THAT TO GET INTO THE EXECUTIVE SUITE YOU HAVE TO WORK WITH THE NETWORK YOU HAVE ALREADY, SO WE HAVE FOUND THAT A CRITICAL COMPONENT IS IDENTIFYING THE PEOPLE THAT WE KNOW ALREADY THAT WOULD BE WILLING TO HELP US GET TO THE CXOS (MIKE) WE WORKED WITH ONE GLOBAL ENGINEERING FIRM TO HELP THEM CAPTURE A LARGE SERVICE CONTRACT. THEY STARTED THEIR CAPTURE TEAM PROCESS WITH 1 CONTACT AT A MIDDLE MANAGEMENT LEVEL. BY FIGURING OUT HOW TO CONNECT THIS PERSON TO ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE THEY NEEDED TO GET TO AND BY INFLUENCING HIM TO HELP THEY WERE ABLE TO CATCH UP TO THE OTHER COMPETITORS AND WIN THE CONTRACT.
8. ANOTHER TECHNIQUE IS CALLED THE KANO ANALYSI, WHICH COMES FROM A JAPANESE QUALITY Noriaki GURU WHO SUGGESTED THAT THERE WERE 3 LEVELS OF CUSTOMER NEEDS THE FIRST LEVEL, BASIC REQUIREMENTS AS WE ALL KNOW ARE THE ENTRY LEVEL. YOU GAIN NO COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BY MEETING THIS LEVEL THE NEXT LEVEL, MORE IS BETTER IS WHERE A COMPANY CAN START TO DIFFERENTIATE ITSELF BY DETERMINING WHAT THEY COULD DO MORE OF THAT WOULD SEPARATE THEM FROM THE COMPETITION IN MINDS OF THE CUSTOMER AND THE LAST LEVEL-DELIGHT FACTORS ARE THOSE SURPRISES THAT THE CUSTOMER NEVER EVEN IMAGINED (MIKE) THINK ABOUT THE TYPCIAL EXPERIENCE AT AN APPLE STORE. EVERY CLERK CAN CHECK YOU OUT – THERE ARE NO CHECK OUT LINES. THE KANO TOOL ALSO HELPS YOU TO IDENTIFY HOW TO CREATE VALUE FOR THE CUSTOMER, WHICH TAKES US TO THE NEXT STAGE OF THE 10 STEP PROCESS, CREATING QUANTIFIABLE VALUE
9. THE TERM VALUE SELLING HAS BECOME SO OVERUSED, THAT CUSTOMERS OFTEN IGNORE SUCH CLAIMS UNLESS YOU CAN BE LIKE JERRY MAGUIRE AND …
10. Unless the sales person can clearly describe how his solution delivers quantifiable value in the form of financial impact, customers will never accept the value price positioning and will treat the supplier’s offer as a commodity – almost regardless of the true value of the offer. So how does the sales person ‘show the customer the money’? Well, they have to do just that – connect the dots from the customer’s financial results to their offer 3 tools that we use to help clients make those connections are the VALUE OPPORTUNITIES ANALYSIS COMPETITOR ANALYSIS TO DEMONSTRATE THE DIFFERENTIATED VALUE AND THE VALUE BUYER CHECKLIST
11. THE VLAUE OPPORTUNITIES ANALYSIS SUPPORTS THE PROCESS OF QUANTIFYING VALUE, WHICH HAS TO START BY FOCUSING ON THE CUSTOMER’S BUSINESS RESULTS THAT YOU CAN IMPROVE THE ACCOUNT MANAGER THEN DETERMINES HOW TO POSITION THIS VALUE CONTRIUTION IN THE ACCOUNT, WHO IS THIS IMPORTANT TO, HOW DOES THE CUSTOMER CAPTURE THE VALUE, ETC.
12. LASTLY THE ACCOUNT MANAGER NEEDS TO IDENTIFY WHO IS THE REAL VALUE BUYER. THIS IS BECAUSE THE OTHER PROBLEM COMPANIE HAVE WITH VALUE SELLING IS PROCUREMENT PEOPLE WHO SELL TO PROCUREMENT KNOW THAT PROCUREMENT IS NOT ALLOWED TO LISTEN TO VALUE ARGUMENTS. SAMS HAVE TO DETERMINE WHO IS THE REAL VALUE BUYER – THAT PERSON WHO WOUKD APPRECIATE THE QUANTIFIABLE VALUE OF THEIR OFFER
13. THE THIRD CHALLENGE THAT PEOPLE RAISED CONCERNED HOW TO STRUCTURE GOALS AND STRATEGIES AS WELL AS THE OVERALL PROCESS FOR MANAGING STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS. I THINK WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT THE INPUT WE RECEIVED IS THAT PEOPLE ARE THINKING ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANAGING STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS AND SAMS AND THE SA TEAMSAND THE TYPICAL SALES FORCE. COMMENTS LIKE BALANCING SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM GOALS AND ACTIVITIES AND EVEN DECIDING WHICH ACCOUNTS SHOULD BE STRATEGIC
14. What attracted Dex to us as it does with many companies is our 10-step process. Clients like the completeness and the step by step. But within this is a lot of flexibility. Those implementations with Alstom and Schneider, for example were customized for their business and also for the areas they wanted to emphasize. What we understand so far is the emphasis you want initially is more on the networking and relationship building, so that is where we plan to start. One of the other elements of our process is that there are easy-to-use, but compelling tools for these steps, which likewise can be customized Many companies adopt a monolithic approach to Strategic Account Planning, insisting that SAMs work through every step in their process, creating objectives and actions for each step, updating regularly, etc. As a result, we find that most organizations are not able to get their SAMs to do the account planning. Some managers impose the discipline by refusing to meet with customers unless there is an up to date account plan. Most managers, however simply give up. When SAMs ask their managers:
15. Sales people are busy with lots of opportunities Account managers have fewer opportunities, so what shou
16. THE OPPORTUNITY PRIORITIZATION MATRIX FORCES ACCOUNT MANAGERS TO IDENTIFY AND SYSTEMATICALLY PROGRESS OPPORTUNITIES BOTH SHORT TERM, MEDIUM TERM AND LONG TERM THINK OF IT AS A TIME MANAGEMENT TOOL WHERE THE SAM AND THE TEAM ARE WORKING EVERY DAY IN ALL FOUR QUADRANTS THIS ALSO HELPS ADDRESS SALES MANAGEMENT’S NEED TO BALANCE SHORT AND LONG TERM GOALS AND ACTIONS. AS LONG AS THEY KNOW THAT THE SAM IS WORKING SYSTEMATICALLY TOWARDS ACHIEVING QUANTIFIABLE GOALS, THEY CAN BE CONFIDENT THAT THE INVESTMENT IN RESOURCES TO SUPPORT STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS WILL PAY OFF
17. THIS TAKES US TO THE LAST STAGE IN THE 10 STEP PROCESS, CAPTURING SPECIFIC OPPORTUNITIES THERE ARE A NUMBER OF APPROACHES FOR CAPTURE PLANNING, WHICH WOULD REQUIRE A SEPARATE WEBINAR WHAT OUR PROCESS EMPHASIZES THAT WE THINK IS ACTUALLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN DOING THE CAPTURE PLAN IS CHALLENGING THE PLAN WE SEE ALL THE TIME SITUATIONS WHERE A COMPANY HAS USED THE BRIGHTEST MINDS IN THE ORGANIZATION TO PUT TOGETHER A CAPTURE PLAN. BUT BECAUSE THEY WERE THE BRIGHTEST MINDS NOBODY REALLY ASKED THOSE TOUGH QUESTIONS. SO IN OUR PROCESS WE INCLUDE A CHALLENGE PROCESS AND SET OF QUESTIONS.
18. THE PROCESS AND QUESTIONSARE IN 3 CATEGORIES: HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN YOUR ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY AND WHY? HOW WELL HAVE YOU THOUGHT THROUGH THE IMPLICATIONS OF YOUR ASSUMPTIONS AS WELL AS YOUR CAPTURE STRATEGIES AND ACTIONS AND DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT SET OF ACTIONS THAT YOU WILL TAKE BASED ON YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL AND IMPLICATIONS?
19. HERE IS THE SECTION OF THE CHALLENGE QUESTIONS THAT DEALS WITH THE CUSTOMER’S ISSUES DRIVING THEIR DECSION PROCESS THE CAPTURE TEAM OR THE ACCOUNT TEAM WORK THROUGH THESE QUESTIONS FIRST AND ASSESS THEIR ANSWERS ON A 1-5 SCALE. THEN, THIS WORKS BEST IF AN INDEPENDENT ‘SPOILER’ WHO IS SOMEWHAT FAMILIAR WITH THE ACCOUNT, BUT DISTANT ENOUGH TO BE OBJECTIVE, DOES THE SAME. AND THE SCORES ARE DELIBERATELY LINKED TO A RED, YELLOW OR GREEN COLORING SO THAT ANYONE CAN QUICKLY SEE THE STATUS. BY THE WAY, WE TELL CLIENTS THAT IF THEY HAVE ALL GREENS ON THEIR FIRST PASS, THEY ARE PROBABLY FOLLING THEMSELVES
20. AND OUT 10 STE PROCESS WE APPRECIATE THAT THIS WAS A FAST OVERVIEW, BUT WE DO WANT TO GIVE YOU A CHANCE TO ASK SOME QUESTIONS