KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

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State Secrets: Inside The Making Of The Electric State

1
Family Secrets: Chris Pratt & Millie Bobby Brown Share Stories From Set 22:08

för 12 dagar sedan22:08

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22:08

Host Francesca Amiker sits down with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, producer Angela Russo-Otstot, stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, and more to uncover how family was the key to building the emotional core of The Electric State . From the Russos’ own experiences growing up in a large Italian family to the film’s central relationship between Michelle and her robot brother Kid Cosmo, family relationships both on and off of the set were the key to bringing The Electric State to life. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts . State Secrets: Inside the Making of The Electric State is produced by Netflix and Treefort Media.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders « »
#022 A Conversation about Race in KAM, with Sharon Amesu

för 4 år sedan 52:45

Dela

MP3•Episod hem

IN THIS EPISODE...

When was the last time you had a conversation about racism?

Perhaps, like so many, these conversations are triggered within your circles, by high-profile cases of injustice in the media or by your own personal experiences on the receiving end of overt or covert prejudice.

Or perhaps… like so many, you have NEVER had a conversation, within your circles, about racism. What about at work, in your business, with your team, or with your customers?

This episode is a conversation about race in KAM. And where KAM is all about effectiveness, I really wanted to explore this important subject that can consciously or unconsciously impair your ability to maximise the success and growth of your most important customers.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE...

With diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and anti-racism high on the agenda in the business world, I think it is so important that we have these conversations.

My wish is that, by listening to this episode, it will spark a conversation within your business, and with your team and that the learning, the growth, and the empathy continues.

We venture into a discussion that includes:

talking about our own experiences of race in the workplace (including the privilege I acknowledge as a white male in business)
exploring how bias may show up in the engagements with customers and business partners
discussing the role of an ‘ally’ and how getting comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations can create truly empathetic relationships

What are your reflections after listing to our conversation?

How are you going to continue the conversation and who with? I wonder what your experiences have been, whether on the receiving end of prejudice or from a place of privilege.

Has race or racism ever impaired your effectiveness with your key accounts?

Understanding the context and communities we are sitting in, day to day, week to week, month to month is key to empowering our teams to maximise relationships

What is your organisational response against racism?

What awareness do you have of your own biases and how can you raise that awareness when interacting with others?

How much attention do you pay to the evolution of language and are you running the risk of using outdated terminology that could offend your contacts and peers?

With understanding being a key driver for KAM relationships - how does this conversation about race help us understand each other and ourselves better to maximise the relationships with key customers?

I’d like to thank you for listening to this episode today and, in doing so, taking part in this important conversation. If you have something you’d like to share or throw into the conversation, please do get in touch.

KILLER QUESTION SEGMENT

In each episode, we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture, and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success.

In this episode I asked Sharon to give us her killer question which was:

“How much better would your account management be if you were to work intentionally on the

biases that might impact your decision making?”

And…how will you go about doing that? Wow. The challenge has been laid folks.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: SHARON AMESU

Sharon is an award-winning leadership consultant and professional speaker. After 16 years as a Criminal Barrister with a successful UK practice, today Sharon runs a consultancy business which supports organisations with leadership development, specialising in diversity and inclusion programmes. Sharon is invited to speak to national and international audiences around the world on Women in Leadership and Inclusive Leadership.

Sharon is a Founding Fellow of the Society of Leadership Fellows, an Honorary Industry Fellow of the University of Salford Business, a member of the Northwest Business Leadership Team and sits on the Board of The Hallé Orchestra.

You can find out more about her on her website, connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.

You can also watch her TEDx talk “Why we should all think like an Ancestor”.

28 episoder

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

#022 A Conversation about Race in KAM, with Sharon Amesu

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

published för 4 år sedan

Dela

MP3•Episod hem

IN THIS EPISODE...

When was the last time you had a conversation about racism?

Or perhaps… like so many, you have NEVER had a conversation, within your circles, about racism. What about at work, in your business, with your team, or with your customers?

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE...

With diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and anti-racism high on the agenda in the business world, I think it is so important that we have these conversations.

My wish is that, by listening to this episode, it will spark a conversation within your business, and with your team and that the learning, the growth, and the empathy continues.

We venture into a discussion that includes:

talking about our own experiences of race in the workplace (including the privilege I acknowledge as a white male in business)
exploring how bias may show up in the engagements with customers and business partners
discussing the role of an ‘ally’ and how getting comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations can create truly empathetic relationships

What are your reflections after listing to our conversation?

How are you going to continue the conversation and who with? I wonder what your experiences have been, whether on the receiving end of prejudice or from a place of privilege.

Has race or racism ever impaired your effectiveness with your key accounts?

Understanding the context and communities we are sitting in, day to day, week to week, month to month is key to empowering our teams to maximise relationships

What is your organisational response against racism?

What awareness do you have of your own biases and how can you raise that awareness when interacting with others?

How much attention do you pay to the evolution of language and are you running the risk of using outdated terminology that could offend your contacts and peers?

KILLER QUESTION SEGMENT

In this episode I asked Sharon to give us her killer question which was:

“How much better would your account management be if you were to work intentionally on the

biases that might impact your decision making?”

And…how will you go about doing that? Wow. The challenge has been laid folks.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: SHARON AMESU

You can find out more about her on her website, connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.

You can also watch her TEDx talk “Why we should all think like an Ancestor”.

28 episoder

Semua episod

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

1
#028 Choose to be a coach, with Lisa Brice 43:53

för 3 years sedan43:53

43:53

IN THIS EPISODE: How well do you empower your people to reach their own full potential, supported along the way with good, timely, and accessible coaching conversations? Now sure how to go about that? Then this episode is for you because I’m joined by a friend of the show, Lisa Brice, NLP Master Trainer and Coach and author of a new book called: “ Choose to be a coach - the be quick guide to coaching in the corridor, at the coffee shop or on the computer .” - - - 𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗔 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗢: Lisa is a certified Master NLP Trainer, coach and business consultant. Her work is focussed on enhancing personal performance and intuitive leadership development. Her specialism is her Equine Assisted Learning which is built into her work with clients. To support her work with Leaders, Lisa also holds a Diploma in Strategic Business Coaching from the CMI; is a Licensed HeartMath® Trainer and Coach; and is also a Systemic Coaching and Constellations Practitioner. (Lisabrice.co.uk) 𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢: David is the principal KAM Consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist in Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK. David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

1
#027 Account Management is Where Marketing Starts, with Bryony Thomas 52:44

för 3 years sedan52:44

52:44

IN THIS EPISODE... Sales and Marketing is like stealing your neighbour’s cat…and in this episode, I talk to Bryony Thomas at Watertight Marketing to find out why. Bryony is the creator of the Watertight Marketing methodology, captured in her best-selling book of the same name which acts as the hub to a suite of thinking tools that have been designed and refined over two decades and across over 2000 organisations. - - - 𝗕𝗥𝗬𝗢𝗡𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗦 𝗕𝗜𝗢: Bryony is an award-winning speaker, author, marketing strategist and the creator of the proven Watertight Marketing Methodology. She stops people from wasting money on marketing. In 2008, she left her corporate role as Director of Marketing for Experian, a FTSE100 company, and set up her own consultancy. She believes that small businesses are a real lever of meaningful and sustainable change in the world, and she has built a proven methodology to help them to do just that. Through her 12-month marketing transformation programme, book and speaking she reaches audiences far and wide, and today also has a team of licensed Watertight Marketing Practitioners. 𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢: David is the principal KAM Consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK. David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

1
#026 Getting Closer to the Close, with David (Ledge) Ledgerwood 30:43

för 3 years sedan30:43

30:43

IN THIS EPISODE How strong is your account management team when it comes to the skills of closing new business? I’m not talking about taking repeat orders from happy clients here. I’m talking about applying the art of winning new business, creating opportunities, and closing deals , with existing customers. In this episode, I am joined by Nashville-based David ‘Ledge’ Ledgerwood, Managing Partner at Add1Zero, a business that provides lead-to-close sales execution for tech-enabled B2B service companies ready to take the leap from 6 to 7-figure annual revenue. He and his team spend their days, week in week out, sharpening the tools and crafting the processes for maximising revenue and sales opportunities. David truly is the expert here having personally closed more than $40million worth of deals in his career (with an average deal size of $150k plus). HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE: With Ledge’s deep-rooted experience and expertise in predominantly selling software and services, and an impressive track record of having helped several companies grow from $0 to $5million in sales – I was keen to tap into his brain and find out: how he and his team define the sales process, what great onboarding looks like for him and how key account managers can use a methodical approach to insight-led selling (where every team member who interacts with clients is feeding information and intelligence back into the business to enable better marketing, better selling and great account management) How informed is your sales approach? Are you and your team acting as intelligence agents who are able to feed powerful insights into your sales approach back into the business? Thus providing higher levels of value to your key account customers and ultimately creating more opportunities for account growth? For me, Ledge’s approach clearly works well for him and his team, I love the intentionality in his work. You will have your own processes and ways of engaging with accounts and onboarding new customers, and it’s always nice to hear how other people work to then decide if there are any great ideas, new or otherwise, that could enhance our account management approach. Did you hear something you liked? Or perhaps disagreed with? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Do get in touch and let me know what you’d like you to hear more of as well. Like many of the episodes on KAMCast, LEARNING is the running theme and again, after listening to Ledge - we see more examples of how important it is to close the gap between sales and other departments. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: DAVID (LEDGE) LEDGERWOOD David (‘Ledge’) is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Add1Zero, a business that provides lead-to-close sales execution for B2B services and tech companies ready to take the leap from 6 to 7-figures. With start-up founder, executive, and sales experience spanning more than a decade, Ledge has led growth efforts at several companies into the 7-and 8-figure revenue stages. In his career in sales, he has amassed an impressive deal closure sum of $40M, with an average deal size in excess of $150,000. You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

1
#025 Selling Through Partnering, with Fred Copestake 46:10

för 3 years sedan46:10

46:10

IN THIS EPISODE Do you tell your clients that you work in partnership? What evidence do you have to reassure them that the statement is, in fact, true? What are the qualities of a good partnership? Does your team possess the skills required to forge strong win:win relationships, built on trust, transparency, transparency, comfort with change and interdependence and a focus on the future? In this episode, I invite Fred Copestake, a sales consultant and trainer specialising in complex B2b sales environments, to get into this topic with me. He has spent the last 22 years travelling around the world to develop salespeople, in over 200 companies, to move from the transactional selling styles of yesteryear, into the collaborative selling styles of today and shaping the ‘business partners’ of the future. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE: As you will by now know, here at KAMGuru we are big believers in fostering a ‘valued partner’ relationship with your most important customers/clients. Partnering with your clients should be more than just a statement, more than something you simply ‘say’ on your website. It should be lived in the values, attitudes, behaviours, and skills within your teams and consistently demonstrated in your most important customer relationships. In my discussion with Fred, we dig into his concept of ‘PQ – Partnering intelligence’. (He has even written a book on it). We talk about what the concept is, and what qualities we should be developing and demonstrating in our key account relationships. You will hear us talk through: The three biggest challenges that senior leaders will see when they look at their sales teams. As Fred describes - are your teams: Displaying ‘ busy busy busy’ behaviours where busyness is getting in the way of business? Are they thinking in the ‘olde worlde’ ways and struggling to see new, and change, as a force for good and opportunity? Do they have a ‘muddled mindset’ where the focus switches as we get closer to month-end and the targets take over? How we need to get comfortable with serving the customer whilst working together as equals - with mutual trust and respect. How do you feel about the notion that the customer isn’t, in fact, king (despite the old saying) and that we should see them as respected peers who are there to work with us to deliver mutually beneficial win:win growth? What the future of selling could look like in this fast-moving and ever-changing marketplace we work in. KILLER QUESTIONS SEGMENT In each episode we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success. In this episode we asked Fred to give us his killer question which was: “Why would you NOT use partnering intelligence to build relationships with your most important customers?” There you have it. It's logical to just naturally want to build PQ into your sales skills toolkit – isn’t it? Quick ref to a link we mention in our discussion: Fred mentioned his PQ (Partnering Intelligence) Self Audit which you can take. Find out your Sales PQ now using this diagnostic tool. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: FRED COPESTAKE Fred is the founder of Brindis, a sales training consultancy based in the UK. He is a Sales Consultant, Trainer, Speaker and Author with a special focus on teaching selling through partnering skills. He has worked with 10,000+ salespeople in 200+ companies across 36 countries. His work is concentrated on sales professionals working in complex B2B environments. Some of his projects have included: implementing a European sales academy for a leading beer brand; developing sales skills for global healthcare companies in the Middle East; and introducing account development and sales leadership models in Latin America and Europe for IT and engineering multinationals. You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

1
#024 Perfect Your Communication Style with Practice 26:44

för 3 years sedan26:44

26:44

IN THIS EPISODE How ‘in tune’ are you with the qualities, traits and characteristics that make up your personality? How does your personality affect the results you have with your key account relationships? If you are in tune with who YOU are, let me ask: how well can you read other people? Do you use your knowledge and reflection to change the way you behave to better your chances of success? Or…do you act the same in every interaction you have with your customer contacts? In this episode, we take a dive into an important topic in the world of building customer relationships: how well do you adapt your communication style with different customers? I am going to challenge you to consider, for a moment, that rather than thinking of yourself as a classically labelled sales person… what if you were called a sales practitioner . In that vein…you could say: rather than being an account manager you were an account management practitioner. How does that sit with you? Can you see how the change in language brings a change in focus? To be a practitioner, you must continue to practice. To practice indicates that growth, development and improvement is always possible and we cannot sit back and assume that perfection has been attained. Think of this episode as a moment to pause, reflect and decide how you will practice this imperative skill of shaping your communications style and personality preferences to elevate your results with your most important customers. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE: This is a full episode in 30mins of pure notable and actionable takeaways – so get your pen and pad out (and be sure to look at the full show notes on the website - as I couldn't put all the graphics in here for you). To be an effective Key Account Manager in today’s world means more than simply being a well-trained salesperson, adept with the skills to win more business and sustain relationships. Whether you are a ‘hunter’ or, as with many Key Account Managers, a ‘farmer’, the playing field has changed, and we now work in an environment where it is less about ‘how you sell’ and more about ‘why the customer buys’ Some of the topics I share and discuss my views on in this episode cover: Evolving old ABC to new ABC Consider updating Glengarry Glen Ross’ ABC - A lways B e C losing, to a more modern KAM- related ABC of: A nalyse how the customer thinks and works B uild a bridge to their world and C ommunicate in their language not yours The impact your FILTERS have on your brain’s processing of information (Through our five senses, the human body sends 11 million bits of information per second to the brain for processing, yet the conscious mind seems to be able to process only 50 bits per second! An account manager’s true roles is to influence with integrity and support the customer to CHOOSE the right solution for them. Using a psychometric tool to help you to assess and analyse how you “show up” (consciously / unconsciously) – does not give you a ‘free pass’ to behave in ‘stereotype’. Rather, they are designed to help you to (honestly) assess yourself and design your own results through adaptation and flexibility. (I share more below about how we use the Lumina Spark Model we use with clients here at KAMguru – scroll down). If Key Account Management was a little like speed dating, we would need to get pretty good at speed reading someone else’s personality if we are to stand a chance at ensuring we communicate and behave in a way that best suits them. Reviewing the Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic (VAK) model for understanding preferences, on the context of KAM Walk through the three types of buyer needs (and how these can vary when looking through the lens of the 4-colour energies of the Lumina Sparks Model) In essence what I reiterate in this episode, is that we all live in the same territory, but we all have a different map of the world. I’m sure you will agree that, in order to succeed in KAM, we must get better at really understanding the perception filters of our clients to identify their beliefs and fixed positions. To truly become aware of the customer, we must first become aware of ourselves. We must work at becoming a KAM eleon and learn how to dial up, or down, your different energies to enhance rapport and communicate in the customers language. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode, do let me know what you have taken away from it and keep your request for topics and episode themes coming in! MORE INFO: THE LUMINA SPARKS MODEL Here at KAMGuru, some of the work we do with individuals and teams means that we need to do a little “uncovering” to dig into people’s strengths or blind spots. This is particularly useful when supporting teams to honestly evaluate their team and work towards a KAMCulture of inclusiveness and diversity of thinking and in value creation for customers. Looking at our individual personality traits using, what is known as ‘Big 5’ research. This helps us to understand our effective qualities and how these play out in the interactions we have with others. (It will also help us to identify where our less dominant ‘blind spots’ are and help us to consider what changes we may like to make when interacting with our psychological opposites) You might notice that I keep mentioning ‘blind spots’ and not ‘weaknesses’. The reality is that we are all capable of dialling up or dialling down our different psychological energies and therefore it is important to recognise any ‘low preference’ as a choice and not a weakness. Many of the tools on the market will use a typical 4-colour model as the foundation to build on and, for ease of explanation and exploration of the topic, in this episode I walk you through the Lumina Sparks Model, which we often use with our clients. In the episode I talk about the 4 energies of the model and how to recognise the traits of these energies in others and what that means in terms of how you relate to them. I also walk through how your customer’s buying needs may also vary when looking through the lens of the 4-colours. I have also provided some visuals below for you demonstrate these. In the full shownotes on the website ( kamguru.com/podcast/episode-24/ ) - I have included graphics that demonstrate what I talk about in this episode - so be sure to check those out.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

1
#023 The Loyalty Loop, with Drew Davis 48:51

för 4 years sedan48:51

48:51

IN THIS EPISODE Do you have LOYAL customers? What does loyalty mean to you? Is it a destination where happy customers, who love what you do, gather to bathe in the success that your product or service has brought them? Or is it more than that…? Rather than a destination, is it an on-going journey of moments that inspire your loyal customers to commit to you, time and time again, whilst shouting from the rooftops to all who will hear their recommendation to work with you? How often do you find yourself telling your clients that you are different? And, when you are comparing your business to your competition, could you - hand on heart - say that you truly offer something that no one else does? The likelihood is, as we’ve said so many times here on KAMCast, is that the real difference is in you, our team and the EXPERIENCE you provide your customers. In a journey of moments, how well do you craft an experience that inspires your clients to commit data, time and eventually money before starting the whole cycle again? Do you deliberately and intentionally inspire the emotions YOU need in your clients to motivate them to WANT the products and services you can offer? In this episode, I am joined by Drew Davis, bestselling author and internationally acclaimed speaker. He was dialing in from across the pond, so you’ll have to forgive the odd connection glitch in the matrix on the recording! HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE: In our conversation, we look at how Key Account Managers need to be thinking more like marketeers in the way they inspire their key clients - constantly engineering what Drew calls ‘The Loyalty Loop’ for repeat business and account growth. You’ll hear us talk about the 7 key drivers of the Loyalty Loop and how we can create a series of customer interactions/encounters that leave an impression. (Which ultimately grows the revenue with your key accounts.) Listen to the full episode to hear the detail. The drivers are: Raise anticipation Maximise the honeymoon phase Re-inspire them Answering their trigger questions Scale comradery (at KAMGuru we refer to this as KAM being a team sport) Remove friction from the experience Crucial concern (YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS ONE) Through our really interactive discussion we talk about: identifying moments of commitment engineering the emotions you need your customers to feel at the right moments in the customer journey (Drew suggests quite simply for you to attach the appropriate emoji to each interaction to gauge if you’re getting it right for the customer) how KAM, as a team sport, maximises the value of your brand-to-person relationships (getting the sales and marketing team to work with you on the customer's journey of moments) where to start to craft different experiences that see you really standing OUT from your competition My reflections from this episode… I really loved the 7 drivers of the loyalty loop. I feel like they help us focus our attention on deliberately engineering a seamless and ongoing journey of interactions the leave an impression, increase customer growth and retention and leave a legacy that you and the team can be proud of. One of my big takeaways was a confirmation that if you create a great experience and concentrate on loyalty - you get more of the clients you want and charge more for what you do because the experience is different Your reflections from this episode… When you think about your customer experience… the big moments, the little moments, the micro-moments… how are you engineering the interaction to evoke the right emotions for the right results? Do you consistently and repeatedly inspire your key customers at the right times, to trigger moments of commitment that reward you with data, time or money? How do you truly differentiate from your competitors? As a sales team, are you working to a finite game in a race to this month’s targets and objectives? Or... do you see the key customer experience as a cycle that regularly reinspires to create upselling and cross selling opportunities? Is KAM a team sport in your business? Do you scale comradery and involve the wider team of talents to maximise the brand to person relationships? ( Book a chat with me and I can share more about this with you.) Killer Question Segment In each episode, we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success. In this episode we asked Drew to give us his killer question which was: “What emotion (or emoji) would you attach to the very next interaction you’re having with a customer?” Is it a MEH? SURPRISE? YAY? If it’s a sad, disappointed or ‘grey’ (can’t distinguish) emoji – then FIX IT! FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: ANDREW DAVIS Andrew Davis is a bestselling author and keynote speaker. Before building and selling a thriving digital marketing agency, Andrew produced for NBC and worked for The Muppets. He's appeared in the New York Times and on the Today Show. He's crafted documentary films and award-winning content for tiny start-ups and Fortune 500 brands. Today, Andrew Davis teaches business leaders how to grow their businesses, transform their cities, and leave their legacy. You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter. You can learn loads from his Loyalty Loop Videos – so check those out on his YouTube channel.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

1
#022 A Conversation about Race in KAM, with Sharon Amesu 52:45

för 4 years sedan52:45

52:45

IN THIS EPISODE... When was the last time you had a conversation about racism? Perhaps, like so many, these conversations are triggered within your circles, by high-profile cases of injustice in the media or by your own personal experiences on the receiving end of overt or covert prejudice. Or perhaps… like so many, you have NEVER had a conversation, within your circles, about racism. What about at work, in your business, with your team, or with your customers? This episode is a conversation about race in KAM. And where KAM is all about effectiveness, I really wanted to explore this important subject that can consciously or unconsciously impair your ability to maximise the success and growth of your most important customers. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE... With diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and anti-racism high on the agenda in the business world, I think it is so important that we have these conversations. My wish is that, by listening to this episode, it will spark a conversation within your business, and with your team and that the learning, the growth, and the empathy continues. We venture into a discussion that includes: talking about our own experiences of race in the workplace (including the privilege I acknowledge as a white male in business) exploring how bias may show up in the engagements with customers and business partners discussing the role of an ‘ally’ and how getting comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations can create truly empathetic relationships What are your reflections after listing to our conversation? How are you going to continue the conversation and who with? I wonder what your experiences have been, whether on the receiving end of prejudice or from a place of privilege. Has race or racism ever impaired your effectiveness with your key accounts? Understanding the context and communities we are sitting in, day to day, week to week, month to month is key to empowering our teams to maximise relationships What is your organisational response against racism? What awareness do you have of your own biases and how can you raise that awareness when interacting with others? How much attention do you pay to the evolution of language and are you running the risk of using outdated terminology that could offend your contacts and peers? With understanding being a key driver for KAM relationships - how does this conversation about race help us understand each other and ourselves better to maximise the relationships with key customers? I’d like to thank you for listening to this episode today and, in doing so, taking part in this important conversation. If you have something you’d like to share or throw into the conversation, please do get in touch. KILLER QUESTION SEGMENT In each episode, we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture, and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success. In this episode I asked Sharon to give us her killer question which was: “ How much better would your account management be if you were to work intentionally on the biases that might impact your decision making?” And…how will you go about doing that? Wow. The challenge has been laid folks. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: SHARON AMESU Sharon is an award-winning leadership consultant and professional speaker. After 16 years as a Criminal Barrister with a successful UK practice, today Sharon runs a consultancy business which supports organisations with leadership development, specialising in diversity and inclusion programmes. Sharon is invited to speak to national and international audiences around the world on Women in Leadership and Inclusive Leadership. Sharon is a Founding Fellow of the Society of Leadership Fellows , an Honorary Industry Fellow of the University of Salford Business, a member of the Northwest Business Leadership Team and sits on the Board of The Hallé Orchestra . You can find out more about her on her website , connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter. You can also watch her TEDx talk “Why we should all think like an Ancestor” .…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

1
#021 CX – A serious opportunity to add value as a KAM Pro 34:19

för 4 years sedan34:19

34:19

IN THIS EPISODE How much attention are you paying to the customer experience with your Key Accounts? Do you surprise and delight your clients on a regular basis or, have you fallen into the trap of leaving this up to marketing at the front end of the sales cycle? With customers experiencing thousands of ‘moments’ every day in all areas of their lives, what are you doing to ensure the moments they share with you, exceed their expectations? For me, the thing about experience is that it is too important to be left to chance. Too important to rely on us simply being good at what we do and going the extra mile from time to time. We need to be intentional. We need to take a step back and examine the moments we share with key customers and identify areas of improvement, ensuring we maximise the chances of being rewarded with long-term loyalty. HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS EPISODE I invited Experience Consultant, Victoria Taylor, to join me on this episode, to dig into this topic. Having worked in a wide variety of industries including bespoke travel, media, and advertising, Victoria now works with her own clients including Warner Entertainment Group, Lamborghini, Disney, P&O Cruises, Experian, and a host of independent hospitality brands. She is on a mission to help them to raise the bar in their customer experiences. In our conversation, you’ll hear us talk about: Why Account Managers need to be involved in crafting special moments for key customers (rather than leaving it to the marketing or customer experience team) Flesh out some examples of great customer experience (and what makes it great) The link between the employee experience and the customer experience Creating an EXPERIENCE for your Key Accounts What are your thoughts and reflections on the customer experience you currently create for your key accounts? If you were a client of yours, would you be delighted in the moments you shared? Do you personalise your client interactions so that they truly feel special and valued? When the moments you create for your customers are not driven by the brand, they are driven by you! How would you personally score in a customer feedback conversation? With any experience being personal, how often do you proactively seek a conversation to gain feedback for your key contacts, on a mission to clarify their expectations and how you are performing against them? How are you reflecting your brand? Are you a walking, talking ambassador for your company, LIVING its values rather than just laminating them on the wall ? Remember that the employee experience and the moments we share with each other will directly affect the moments we share with the customer. To create intentional, well-crafted, brilliant experiences for our customers, we cannot leave it to chance. Take a moment to reflect and ask yourself: what do we do now, and how can we make it better? I’ll be exploring this more in upcoming episodes of KAMCast so please do get in touch and let us know your thoughts on this topic and any specific questions you have, which you’d love to see answered in an episode. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: VICTORIA TAYLOR Victoria describes herself as human-centred experience consultant who works with brands to ‘raise the bar’ in experience by differentiating themselves through thinking, creating, and ‘doing’ customer experience differently. Her areas of consulting specialism focus on: audience definition; employee, customer & brand experience. She works exclusively with luxury brands in the hospitality and travel sectors with her clients ranging from independent entrepreneurs with boutique businesses to high-end hotel chains in sunny climes like Dubai. She has enjoyed working with brands like Warner Entertainment Group, Lamborghini, Disney, P&O Cruises, and well as passionate smaller brands like oldpostoffice.uk (boutique holiday studios). Victoria believes that experience is not about the size of the business - it’s always about how well it’s done. She strongly advocates that details matter …especially in the experience of anyone coming into contact with your brand. In today’s world, you can’t dismiss the full journey – whether the touchpoint is a visible action or an intangible emotion. You can find out more about her on her website, connect with her on LinkedIn , follow her on Twitter or join her on Instagram . Download her FREE e-book ‘Points of Entry’ strategy or signup for her monthly ‘In My Experience’ email.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

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#020 The evolution of a key account manager, with Chris Ortolano 39:38

för 4 years sedan39:38

39:38

IN THIS EPISODE This is such an expansive topic, I really wanted to add some context and perspective to the subject here. So, I’m going to really open this discussion up for you with some background to get you in the right mindset to listen to this episode. If you had to be truthful - what kind of salesperson would you say you are? What’s your natural selling style? Do you deploy an intentional methodology to maximise the impact of your interactions? Or are you winging it along the way, relying on personality to build those relationships with key contacts? The evolution of an account manager , over the decades, has taken us on a bit of a journey: Let’s visit the 70s… Where the gift of the gab was enough to see you into a meeting with a key decision maker - armed with a bag full of good stories and friendly chat. Your products could be sold on the dazzling features of the solution, peppered with light-hearted humour to entertain your prospect into submission. By the 1980s… The marketplace was seeing a new breed of sales representatives and sales executives who had polished up their presentation skills to become the informer, the educator, and the ambassadors for their wares. Their projection skills were on-point and their ability to bring products to life whilst selling the features, the advantages, and the benefits were 2nd to none. The real issue boiled down to listening though. They were so good at waiting to speak that they forgot to pause and listen! When a client had the audacity to ‘interrupt’ them – they would quickly be shot down by a range of techniques and gimmicks inspired by books like ‘how to develop a killer instinct’ or ‘101 different ways to overcome and objection’. The 80s sales arena really was the home of manipulation, coercion, and persuasion, and ‘selling’, for many, started to become a very dirty word. Introducing the shift in the 1990s and 2000s… In a bid to move away from the boiler room sales tactics of old and the greasy salespeople that were giving a legitimate profession a bad name, account managers began to focus on a primary ingredient of the relationship dynamic. If all businesses existed to solve a problem, then account managers needed to become problem solvers. This shift saw a development of a much softer, more skillful consultative selling approach with an emphasis on problem-solving and a full understanding of the customer needs, concerns and aspirations through well-crafted open questions active listening, and summarising skills. Unlike their predecessors, problem solvers have shown a genuine interest in the customer’s business. So, in essence, we can see that the gossiping entertainer (who liked talking about others) morphed into the boring informer (who liked talking about themself) and then evolved into the consultative problem solver who finally learned the value of talking to the customer about, well, the customer. What role does today’s account manager play then? How do the problem solvers of the 90s and noughties transition from the consultative selling world of the efficient supplier, to the transformational space of the effective business partner ? A world where account managers are collaborative, not just competitive, and more importantly they: understand the customer’s world focus on the front-end of the sales process, not the backend (closing) talk about return on investment, not products and services say relatively little (as the customer is doing most of the talking) position themselves as trusted advisors work with customers interests in mind as well as their own play it long – understanding that genuine relationships take time understand what customers’ expectations are follow-up and stay connected, even if they do not win the business Today’s key account manager realises that they need to be in the customer's heart, not in their face. To truly win in today’s world of KAM…it requires an intentional approach to the relationship. And to understand the nuances of operating in today’s modern marketplace and customer dynamics. I’m sure you’ll agree that we need to reframe our thinking and challenge some of the norms. To quote my guest on this episode, Chris Ortolano: “we need to make SHIFT happen.” REFLECTIONS ON THIS EPISODE: Chris is a sales process consultant, and it was interesting to hear his views on: The role of a KAM in today’s world How we can understand and manage the different preferences of contacts in a meeting How to foster a collaborative problem-solving conversation with clients to become more of a facilitator in ‘round table’ discussions. Once you’ve listened to the episode, here are some reflections & questions for you: If KAM in today’s world is one-part Strategic Account Manager, one-part technical account manager, one part project manager: how are you managing the different hats that you wear and ensuring that you are showing up intentionally in your customer interactions? If our credibility lies in bringing good ideas to the table and facilitating a conversation, then: what ideas do you have in your toolkit and what skills do you have when it comes to facilitating great conversations? Give yourself some marks out of ten and then ask ‘how can I improve my score?’ I really like the idea Chris talks about in creating a ‘glossary of terms’ An agreed and globally understood glossary that helps us really understand each other’s definition of the language that we will use in our key account relationships. What better way to sanity check understanding and build rapport? How would you rate your rapport building skills? Is rapport building a natural thing for you or are you setting about it as an intentional objective with focus and rigour? Think about your last customer meeting: How well did you ‘work the room’ to include all the different personalities that were present in the conversation? What are the ‘what if’ scenarios that you are using to invite customers into a collaborative space to explore new ideas and new thinking? I’d really encourage you to think about how you can bring a conversation about unknowns into your customer meetings. Tee it up in advance and invite the customer to bring their ideas. How well do you understand your clients’ priorities? Next time you’re in a customer conversation, perhaps you want to try out the What, which, why technique - What are the 3 most important things with regards to X Which 1 of those things is most important? Why is that? With problems being so complex - gone are the days with pre-defined slide decks to demonstrate our solution and now is the time to work with visual tools to bring solutions to life WITH the customer in a collaborative conversation. Start thinking of a review meeting more like a workshop…that requires interaction. Loads of ideas here to get you going on your quest to define the role of a KAM in today’s world and YOUR business. EVENT FOR KAM PROs - KAMCON 2021 We mention this event in this episode, so here are all the details for you. We’re really excited to share that we will be recording some really special content for the show, live at KAMCon London on September 9 th 2021. We are partnering with the event hosts to bring you fresh conversations with innovative, expert KAM voices straight from KAMCon. KAMCon is hosted by a friend of the show, Alex Raymond, and the team at KAPTA and gives KAM professionals the chance to hear from a line-up of expert speakers and industry voices who’ll be sharing innovative ideas, proven methodologies, and personal experiences. The intimate conference brings together leaders in account management from multiple industries to connect, learn, and grow. It’s going to be a great day and, as listeners of KAMCast, you have the option to get a 20% discount off the ticket price by using our discount code of KAMCAST2021 Just head over to the event page to book your ticket. This is an event all about Professional KAM for KAM professionals so don’t miss out. Come and say hello! FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: CHRIS ORTOLANO Chris is the founder of Outbound Edge, a sales process consultancy business, set up in 2017. He comes from a background working in companies in the Energy, Brand Communications, and Lead Gen software sectors, where he held accounting and IT roles. Today he specialises in the sales process and solving complex problems by aligning processes with internal champions, engaging stakeholders, and facilitating strategic decision-making. He specifically focuses on the niche area of Product Tours, which he describes as interactive click-through demonstrations that strategic-minded KAMs can use to create a meticulous customer experience before, during, and after meetings with their key contacts. Chris is also the community manager and founder at SalesStack , an online community for emerging B2B SaaS leaders to exchange and test new ideas. You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

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#019 Employee Engagement in a Hybrid Working World, with Robert Hicks & Lou Kwakye 48:32

för 4 years sedan48:32

48:32

IN THIS EPISODE: Do you have a team whose hearts and minds are 100% invested in your business goals? What are the levels of motivation across your account managers and sales team? How ENGAGED are they? For many businesses, the working world has changed and for most - it’s still changing. The concept of remote and Hybrid working is no longer uncommon, and sales leaders are battling the ongoing challenge of managing performance and inspiring excellence in teams that are no longer sat every day in the office, feeding off of each other’s energy and learning from their peers in the room. Employee engagement is not a new thing. It’s long been acknowledged that happy and engaged teams lead to happy and engaged customers which ultimately create happy and engaged shareholders. And…in today’s world, as we edge closer to our own new format and structure of work, engagement has never been so important. Perhaps you are a business leader asking yourself “how do I engage a remote or hybrid team to maximise performance?” Or perhaps you are an account manager who is questioning your own level of engagement and feeling a little disconnected from the business that pays for your peak performance. Whichever camp you are in, there is no escaping the importance of employee engagement and how it really does affect your business’ ability to maximise the success of KAM performance. In this episode we tackle a fundamental mission to MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO WORK. Knowing that if we do that, EVERYONE benefits. To dive into the topic, I invited two guests from the company Reward Gateway - the employee engagement people. More than 2,000 organisations worldwide use the Reward Gateway platform to connect, support and recognise their employees, whenever and wherever they work. Let’s dive straight in! You will hear from Robert Hicks, the Group Human Resources Director, and Lou Kwakye the Sales Director. Between them, they live and breathe the company’s mission (‘make the world a better place to work’), both internally and externally, whilst continuing to push for profitable performance. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE: This is a big discussion about the variations of working as we emerge from restrictive living, and sharing ideas for the best ways to engage sales teams who are working remotely. We explore side topics like: how tech can support sales leaders to engage, excite and empower their teams and what do we think the future looks like? This is one of those episodes where we intentionally blur the line between new business and existing customer management to look at the fundamental building blocks for keeping people engaged. The thing about Hybrid working is that it comes with a whole load of choices. Choice for an employee and choice for employers. What choices have you made in the way you and your teams engage on your key account management mission? Have you considered what tasks are best performed from which locations and environments and are you organising you and your team’s diaries to be most effective? How are you and the team achieving the 4 C’s of: Cooperation Collaboration Coordination and Communication Perhaps a truly engaged team is where a Quality of Life meets Quality of Work. Robert and Lou are a great example of where Sales and HR are working together, not just on the People Strategy for maximising performance but the rich learning that can be accessed when senior leaders share experience across departments. Senior leaders are buyers in their own rights, so how often to you share your own experiences, of being a buyer, with your sales and account managers to support the learning internally? MY THOUGHTS AFTER THIS INTERVIEW... Are your new business teams ALIGNED with your Account Managers? Do they share in the one mission? In my experience, there are many organisations where New Business and Existing Business become disparate and, in a world where resource is finite, friendly fire within the business can be a massive blocker to KAM progress. Motivations will vary across hunters and farmers - whether it be the dopamine hit from the ‘win’ or the kinship of long-term relationships. How well do you understand the motivational drivers of your team and how best to cultivate a team sport mentality across the different disciplines in your sales organisation? For me, there was a big message here about the shared mission that underpins everything the team at Reward Gateway do and I wonder what reflections YOU have on what mission or causes your business and team genuinely care about that help you increase the heart count in your business, where team members hearts and minds are genuinely invested in what you do and how you do it. When it comes to the KAM Culture mission we are on here on KAMCast: how we engage with the people in our teams is a guiding principle. Profit centres are fuelled by passion centres and the people in your business and on your KAM team hold the keys to success with your most important customers. I’d love to hear from more organisations who are leading the charge in creating a KAM Culture in the business, so get in touch and tell us what you are doing to drive engagement and maximise performance with your clients. Maybe you could come along on the show and talk about it. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUESTS: Both my guests work for Reward Gateway, the “employee engagement people” which was founded in 2006. They are a multi-award winning employee engagement platform accessed by more than 2000 organisations around the world. “The world’s most successful companies treat their people differently. They generate stock market returns of twice their peers and they have half the employee turnover. 76% of CEOs recognise that employee engagement is vital to their success but only 24% say they have a highly engaged company. Bridging that engagement gap is what drives us." Check out their website , their self-service platform for small businesses , or follow them on LinkedIn , Twitter or Instagram . GUEST - LOU KWAKYE Lou comes from a strong background working with sales people and, after years of working in the fitness industry for brands like Virgin Active and Pure Gym, he joined Reward Gateway as an engagement specialist in 2014. Today, he is their Sales Director and looks after a group of UK-based Account Executives, Sales Managers, SDRs, Researchers and the global Bid Team. He also works as a coach with Sales Psyche, which positions itself as a “gym for your team's mental health, wellbeing and personal development.” They are a training and development resource community to support and develop sales and commercial teams’ mental wellbeing, alongside performance. You can find out more and connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter. GUEST - ROBERT HICKS With three degrees under his belt, including an MBA from Imperial College, Robert is an accomplished leader in the HR space. His experience spans across sectors like software, property, cloud solutions and information technology. He has worked in and advised on Human Resources globally for 20+ years, for companies ranging from tech start-ups to SMEs, fast growth PE-owned mid-market businesses, FTSE250 and complex matrix global organisations with over 200,000 staff. In 2015 he joined Reward Gateway as an interim Head of HR, but soon rose to accept a position as Group Human Resources Director in 2016 and become overall custodian of the people and experience teams for the organisation. His responsibilities extend over numerous departments like: Employee Engagement; Learning & Development; Reward & Benefits; Diversity & Inclusion; Office Experience; People Ops; Internal Communications and Talent Acquisition. Basically, anything and everything people related. You can find out more and connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

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#018 Mapping your way to success, with Ian Windle 40:40

för 4 years sedan40:40

40:40

IN THIS EPISODE: How successful is your key account management team? What is the definition you have for what success is, for your business? How do you measure the performance of your key account managers? If you find that the answers are all to do with growth, you’re probably looking at it TOO LATE and you are running a massive risk with your most important accounts. Success is a destination, one that is different and personal to each business and each team. And for every clear destination there is a path, a route, and a map for how to get there. Whether you talk about KPI’s, goals, objectives, or metrics – we are looking for early warning signs and alerts that tell you clearly whether someone is on track for success or way off course. We could think of them as the ‘flight deck’ of important gauges to give you a clear overview of what is really going on. These important measures, and the intelligence they give us, will ultimately provide an opportunity to check against benchmarks and fuel coaching conversations with the team. If growth is the end goal: what are the measurable and intentional stepping stones that we can track and guide the way? Are they… frequency of contact customer satisfaction responses the number of decision makers we are connected to and actively engaging with the number of open issues is there an active KAMPlan for the account? These are all quantifiable indicators that would either comfort you that the relationship with your most important customers is all in order or shine a light on the vulnerabilities that present the biggest risks… way ahead of time… ultimately giving you time to sort it out! In this episode I speak to Ian Windle, an award-winning Leadership and TEDx speaker, Executive Coach and team builder. He is the author of Amazon best seller “The Leadership Map: The gritty guide to strategy that works and people who care.” He works with leadership teams on their strategy, vision and values, as well as developing their capabilities to perform at their peak. HIGHLIGHTS TO THIS EPISODE: In this discussion we dig into: What success looks like in business How we measure success and performance across all levels of the business How to foster transparency and accountability team-wide in your organisation Where to start with KPI’s and metrics in a sales team My hope is that after you have listened to this episode, you will seriously reflect on what the definition of success is for you and your team, and how are you measuring performance today. Do you have a MAP that you are following to guide you, the team and the business steadily on course for achieving your strategic goals in the next 12 months? If you haven’t had the conversation around how you are judging success in your business, perhaps that is the best to start. Are you obsessed with targets, with little focus on the granular steppingstones, the route to success? Focussing too heavily on the target, is like trying to win a game of basketball by staring at the scoreboard! For me, learning to lead can be a bit like learning to drive: no amount of training can prepare you for contact with the real world. If you are finding leadership easy then you are probably not doing the right things! What are the KEY things that drive your Economic engine? What are your critical numbers? Are you tracking and reporting information that is useful not just interesting? Do you have a balanced selection of key metrics that support you and your account management team to track the journey? KILLER QUESTION SEGMENT In each episode we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success. In this episode we asked Ian to give us his killer question which is: “What would you have to do …to grow 50 to 100%?” To put this in context, Ian explains that you will get more energy and creative thinking if you asked what would we have to do to grow 5o to 100% this year” instead of “we need to grow by 15% this year, what are we going to do to achieve that.” The former question spurs a jarring in the room which will mean you may get a push back when you ask that sort of question, where your team may say: “hang on, in the past year you only asked us to grow 15%. Aiming for 50% - that’s impossible.” However, Ian’s further advice is to ask the question…then leave the room and ask them to come up with some ideas of what COULD they do to achieve 50% for when you come back in the room. When you do return to the room, you will have a buzzing, excited and energised team filled with what’s possible. The outcome is – you may not reach 50%, but you will achieve 30 or 40%. That’s considerably more than your dry, year-on-year 15% isn’t it? I wonder what reflections you have on Ian’s Killer question and whether you are having regular dialogue in the business about what we would have to do to grow 50-100%? Do you foster creative thinking for those larger ambitions that only come into the conversation when you remove the glass ceiling? I’d love to hear from listeners and know what KPI’s you have found to be most effective in mapping your way to success. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: IAN WINDLE Ian is an award-winning Leadership and TEDx speaker, Executive Coach and team builder. He is the author of an Amazon best seller The Leadership Map: The gritty guide to strategy that works and people who care . He works with leadership teams on their strategy, vision and values, as well as developing their capabilities to perform at their peak. In his first career Ian worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in many European capitals and in Asia; this was in a variety of roles from Political Desk Officer, through to Strategic Change Consultant. He then moved into consultancy with Celemi International, where he was Managing Director for 10 years of the UK business and Head of Global Consulting. You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter. You can find out about his open programme called The Leadership Map , which is designed to help middle and senior managers grow their skills and raise their game.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

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#017 Five Reasons your KAM Programme is Failing 18:18

för 4 years sedan18:18

18:18

IN THIS EPISODE: Key account management is a beautifully simple business basic…one that isn’t that easy ! If it was, we’d all be doing it brilliantly wouldn’t we? Like most working practices in business, there are a handful of common, or typical reasons why a KAM culture struggles to get off the ground in an organisation. In this episode, I seek to shine a glaring light on the assassins of good KAM practice. The intent for this episode is this : we’re big believers in shining a light on vulnerabilities in a business – it serves as a wonderful opportunity to mitigate risks, develop and create new ways of working and foster better ways of thinking. In this episode, David shares the experiences we’ve had in working with clients. Some of these clients have called for our support as a result of experiencing the loss of a customer and realising their vulnerabilities way too late. Others have started their respective KAM-Paigns to implement a KAM Culture and the momentum has dwindled and progress halted, caused by one or several of the reasons shared in this episode. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE: We’d urge you to bookmark this episode and make sure that you listen to it properly – dig really deep and reflect. It could be the spur you need to make a long-term systemic change which could in turn could bring meaningful (and profitable) transformative change. Here are the highlights that David walks you through on the 5 reasons your KAM programme is more than likely failing: #1 Your Key Account criteria lacks focus & clarity Do you and your team know who your key accounts are and why they are qualified as “key”? Yep, a simple one right? But so many businesses miss this. I find that this lack of clarity often comes from a place of assumption. Assumption that the key accounts are simply the largest ones. The accounts that make up the lion’s share of revenue or profit. For me, the true definition of a key account is whatever is, or whatever will be, important to your business. It’s so important to reach a focus and clarity of the defining characteristics of a key account in your business. Without that, a KAM programme runs the risk of becoming something we talk about rather than do. (Listen to the episode to get the 5 reflective questions you need to ask yourself). #2 The customer’s voice isn’t being heard When was the last time you proactively sought feedback from your key contacts at your most important customers? And did that feedback make its way back to the business, into your team discussions and shape the way you engage with that customer going forward? We spend a lot of time making decisions that impact the customer and creating products and services that deliver an end value for the customer… and yet, all too often, we do this whilst sat around a boardroom table, without a customer in sight. In the world of KAM, the customer’s perception becomes your reality … #3 Your KAM strategy is shot down by friendly fire We believe that key account management is a team sport. It’s not a job for lone heroes who go where nobody has gone before, in pursuit of commercial glory. Key account management is, in many ways, part of everyone’s job within the company. Looking at it simply, maybe there are only two groups of people within an organisation? There is a group of people who are (a) servicing the customer and there is another who are (b) providing an internal service to the group of people servicing the customer. So, if we run with the notion that the quality of the service you deliver the customer is directly influenced by the quality of service you deliver each other , we see just how important teamwork is… (Listen to the episode to hear more if this “speaks” to you!) #4 Your Key Account Managers don’t have time The trouble with time management is that it is not possible! Nobody ‘manages’ time, it’s a myth. Time moves by at the same pace for everyone - no amount of intent will slow it down or speed it up! What we do manage, is our own priorities. So, next time you hear ‘time’ being banded around as the excuse for lack of progress on key account activity – take a long look at the prioritisation and level of importance being put on different tasks. Perhaps the team’s definition of ‘important’ is different to yours. Are you going to let time be a reason why your KAM programme fails? #5 You’ve prescribed the plan, but the team haven’t subscribed to the action Like most business initiatives, a KAM Programme starts at the top, or it simply won’t start. The danger with board level sponsorship is that it takes the shape of an authoritative prescription. The sort of messaging that suggests, ‘we’ve discussed this in the board meeting, and we think it’s the best for everyone’, communicated down the chain of command like a memo to ‘all staff’ detailing the new policy for key customers. In our experience, prescriptions rarely work and instead we need people to subscribe to the changes and the ‘movement’. To do this, we must first demonstrate our buy-in and commitment at leadership level. If it sounds like something you want people to do but don’t want to get involved in yourself, it’s likely to fall flat. QUICK REF TO MENTIONED RESOURCES: FREE – KAM Audit Template: If you would like help with devising a KAM Audit for your business – download your copy here from our resources area. Book Recommendation: “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” There are plenty of incredible books and resources on building high performing teams. In this episode David particularly recommends this book by Patrick Lencioni . Not only is it an enjoyable read, written as a fictional story, but it is packed with totally relatable reasons why teamwork falls down and projects and initiatives end up being killed off by our comrades who are supposed to be supporting us on the battlefield. IN SUMMARY... Do you think it’s a good time to think about your KAM programme? What stage are you at? Do you already have a KAM programme in play within the business? How’s it going? Is it a living, breathing KAM Culture that puts the customers voice at the heart of what you do? Do you foster organisational-wide teamwork and collaboration ? Do you provide inspirational sponsorship to the movement ? Perhaps, you are new to building your KAM programme and are using this thinking to flag up the early warning signs for potential failures. Of course, this list of five reasons is not an exhaustive one. There are plenty of other reasons why a programme may fail. What reasons have you experienced or seen elsewhere? And how did you overcome the barriers. If you have a story to share, please do get in touch. As always, our hope is that whenever you are listening to our episodes – you are remembering to hit the PAUSE BUTTON on your day to think about what you can do to take the ideas from the show and bring them to life in your business.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

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#016 The ‘Next’ Normal, a KAM Industry reflection with Warwick Brown 42:16

för 4 years sedan42:16

42:16

IN THIS EPISODE Are you 'ready' for getting back to normal? And…what is normal? For many of us, the effects of the pandemic have been going on for so long that we can’t quite remember what normal is anymore. So, as we start to 'unlock' society, here in the UK, and begin thinking about how we will reengage with our key accounts, many of whom we won’t have seen for over a year, how ready do you feel to hit the ground running'? Have you thought about who you need to see first, what you want to achieve and how you will need to adapt? In this episode of KAMCast I welcome back my good friend and fellow KAM activist, Warwick Brown, as we set about answering some listener questions and talk about some common themes we are hearing with our clients at the moment. Our aim for this episode is to pause and reflect on what we may need to do - to be “match fit” for the NEXT normal, and fast track the performance of our most important accounts. HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS EPISODE: I’d be really interested to hear what your thoughts are on this topic, when you are finished listening to this episode. ( Email me and let me know. Also – has it spurred another topic you would like to hear us chew on, in an upcoming episode? Or do you have more burning questions? Let me know.) Warwick and I get into a great discussion on: How we best engage with C-Suite decision makers going forward? How we can sense check our understanding of the decision-making process and fill any gaps we might have? (Post-Covid changes) What the next normal will look like and what will we need to adapt and change as we re-emerge into society Whatever you are planning next when it comes to engaging with your key contacts, and however close you feel to a sense of normality, I’d really encourage you to hit the pause button and reflect. Use these prompter questions to sense check your strategies, systems and your team’s skills: What can you do to be more intentional and impactful in your client interactions? How will you approach engaging key decision makers you are yet to meet? Do you have a clear view and understanding of the decision-making structure in your key account’s organisation? How are you going to managing the transition, continuing to be mindful of social distancing, without becoming ‘socially awkward’? What ‘traditional’ practices will now become tactical for you? Maybe you can really relate to the challenge of engaging with C-suite execs, so there’s an extra question to ask: What changes do you need to make in your approach to improve your impact when building new relationships with high level decision makers? Like anything we talk about on KAMCast, I really value those opportunities for honest reflection before deciding what to do next. My wish is that something we have talked about in this episode has triggered and ignited some positive action for you. If it has let us know…please! FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: WARWICK BROWN Warwick is a Key Account Consultant and Founder of The KAM Club, has led business development and account management teams in Australia and Europe for more than 15 years. He has worked with some of the world's most prestigious firms including Merck & Co, Deutsche Bank, McKinsey & Company and Vodafone. His mission is to support in-house KAM Professionals with the right advice, tools and learning resources to boost their results. He also spends time educating organisations about the importance of leveraging the power of key account management which in turn to accelerates higher performing KAM Professionals, improved client retention and increased revenue. You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter. You can find out about his learning community, The KAM Club as well.…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

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#015 Mind the Intergenerational Gap with Henry Rose Lee 47:46

för 4 years sedan47:46

47:46

In this episode… Have you ever found yourself struggling to understand, or get along, with people who are older or younger than you? Perhaps a clash in communications style, working preferences, belief systems, values or motivational needs? Many of the business leaders that we talk to in our work at KAMGuru tell us how difficult they find driving higher levels of motivation and engagement from younger sales teams. They say that age is just a number… except it isn’t, is it? GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES ARE REAL The nuances of dealing with people across the generations can prove to be challenging, whether consciously or unconsciously, and the solution, as we’ve talked about so many times on KAMCast, is in the ability to raise your awareness, understand yourself, understand others and then choose if and how to adapt your behaviours to get the best out of your relationship interactions, whether it be with your teams or Key Customer contacts. Whether you are working closely with the external customer base or whether you recognise your internal customers, on your team and colleagues across the business, you are likely to come up against the ‘generation gap’, highlighted by the notable differences across the different age groups. In this episode of KAMCast, I talk to Henry Rose Lee - one of the few inter-generational diversity experts in the world. Henry works with all generations in the workforce and particularly with Millennials and Gen Z - to help them become more productive and effective. As an author of three books on maximising today’s young talent, (consisting of Generation Z and the Millennial generation), Henry busts myths and provides business leaders with practical tactics for attracting, recruiting, engaging and retaining your youngest employees. I hope you enjoy it – let me know what you think! HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE: When I was preparing for this conversation, I was conscious that for many, this is a burning topic and I was keen to get a deeper understanding of: What the differences across generations really are How those differences play out in the workplace, particularly in a virtual working environment How communication styles, techniques and strategies will vary across the ages and where ‘clashes’ are likely to happen How, as leaders, we can drive higher levels of engagement and motivation from our younger teams Ultimately understanding how we can MIND THE GAP in generational diversity across our key accounts and sales teams. I wasn’t disappointed! When you listen to this episode – you’ll gain some really pragmatic and practical advice from Henry Rose Lee who helps us look through the intergenerational lens from a position of understanding. ENGAGE THE MOTIVATIONAL NEEDS OF YOUNGER TALENT I particularly liked Henry’s thoughts on engaging the motivational needs of younger talent on our teams. With three quarters of Gen Z yearning to start their own business - I wonder if you have a team of entrepreneurial salespeople? And how you harness their enthusiasm and creativity within the remits of your organisational structure? Do you build a COMMUNITY that your talent can feel part of? What are the CAUSES that you, you teams and your business care about? And what CAREER progression opportunities are available to your team to grow and develop in their role and bring higher levels of commitment, enthusiasm and contribution to your business? CHECK "IN" RATHER THAN CHECK "UP" I’m often amazed at the lack of trust between sales leaders and their teams. Henry gives us some great advice on how to build trust and I love the notion of checking IN, not checking UP. She shares that you can do this by coaching your team with open questions like: What have you experienced in the last week that’s good and bad? Of those good and bad things, what do you think you’ve learned from that? How are you going to use what you’ve learned going forward? What do you need from me? MONEY MATTERS When it comes to young talent, I found it so important to recognise that money DOES matter – the youngest generations have the least money and the least savings. We need to find a way to pay them right and take the worry of financial pressures off the table. Perhaps this will earn their focus, loyalty and commitment. For me, money really is a hygiene factor and too many sales organisations use it as a motivational tool, designed to encourage salespeople to ‘try harder’. In my experience, money neither motivates the best people, or the best in people. WHILE YOU LISTEN, ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS: How do you feel about the way you are currently managing the generation gaps on your teams and with your most important clients? Do you know which generation you fall in to? Do the theories we talk about in this episode resonate with you? How do you feel about it? What have you learned about yourself, and your teams? Let me know how you will look at things differently after hearing Henry’s insights. What action will you take, which behaviours will you alter and how will you bring more understanding into the workplace? Drop me an email , DM me on Twitter , or connect with me on LinkedIn . If you have a great example of applying this learning – who knows, maybe I’ll get you on the podcast to share it with us! FIND OUR MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: HENRY ROSE LEE Henry Rose Lee is a speaker, author and consultant specialising in Intergenerational Diversity, an emerging science and management skill of maximising the engagement, collaboration and productivity within and across the five distinct generations in today’s workplace. She is one of only a few sought-after intergenerational diversity experts in the world - helping organisations to improve the contribution and profitable performance of the youngest talent in the workplace today. Henry worked for 15 years in business development and sales positions for brands like Filofax and Salter, where performance and results were essential. Since 2004 Henry has worked as a CIPD qualified HR consultant and Master ICF qualified Coach and specialised in researching and developing diagnostic tools on human motivation, and generational attitudes and behaviours at work. She is passionate about busting the many myths people have about Millennials and Gen Z, and has written three books on maximising today’s young talent. She focusses her attention on providing business leaders with practical tactics for attracting, recruiting, engaging and retaining their youngest employees. You can find out more about her on her website, connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter. You can find out about her theory on intergenerational workplaces .…

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

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#014 KAM and COVID, One Year On 16:02

för 4 years sedan16:02

16:02

IN THIS EPISODE... How has the last 12 months been for you and your business? At the time of recording this episode, it’s been a year… to the day that I delivered my last ‘in person’ seminar for a group of Chief Executives in Leeds. By then, we had already stopped shaking hands with people and we were pouring copious amounts of antibacterial gel over our hands at every opportunity. We were beginning to come to terms with the idea that we would likely need to ‘hibernate’ in a home working environment for a few weeks while it all ‘blew over’. Little did we know that as we watched on as other parts of the world plunged into draconian lockdowns, we were only at the beginning of what would turn out to be a very strange time to be alive and a hard time to be in business. Wherever you are in the world and whatever the last 12 months has been like for you, I’ve no doubt it will have been a rollercoaster of emotions and adaptation as we settled in to a ‘new normal’ whilst constantly asking ourselves what the ‘next normal’ was likely to be like. Compassion and empathy have been the currency in many of our client relationships and we have all become well versed in the ways of asking ‘how are you?’… ‘no, how are you really ?’ In this episode, I wanted to look at what we’ve seen in our KAM practices in the last 12 months. What have you noticed in your client relationships? How have you adapted your communications styles and contact frequencies to adapt to the situation? I wanted to share with you some of my reflections. Some things I’ve seen, some things I have learned and some thoughts on where the ‘next normal may take us’. HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE: Moving to a virtual world, where even those who hadn’t used video conferencing before, now became Zoom and MS Teams’ experts, took real adjustment for some people. Let’s face it, for most Key Account Managers, one of the things that keeps us going in our work, is the person-to-person interaction that we get when partnering with important customers. The best ongoing, trusted relationships that we build tend to be accelerated when we have the opportunity to sit down over a coffee, a lunch or even play a round of golf at an away day. So, the move to working online screamed disaster as we fumbled our way through finding a balance between relationship building and the business agenda. TWO THINGS I NOTICED: At first, the business agenda, for many, went out of the window and the early iteration of the ‘Zoom call’ was primarily a ‘check-in’ and an opportunity to share experiences and see how each other’s businesses were shaping up. (If anything, this was a good opportunity to really connect with clients, from a vulnerable position and fast track the connection you have and the rapport between you.) Then it flipped the other way… small talk about the ‘crisis’ was dropped and the business agenda took centre stage. (The pace at which we needed to work accelerated and our diaries were packed with back-to-back video calls and we simply didn’t have time to dwell on the niceties.) Now is the time to combine the two – ensuring that partnerships in a virtual environment really do cater for the person-to-person connections as well as the business agenda. Listen to the full episode to hear my specific reflections about your video call behaviour (timestamp around 4mins 45secs) REGAIN THE WIN:WIN BALANCE For many, who found themselves worrying about what the future would hold, uncertain about the stability of the business, their industry or their job, they allowed desperation to take hold and started a frantic race to the bottom. Compassion meant compromising the win:win balance and many organisations started to devalue their time, service and products by giving them away for free, perhaps in a veiled attempt to win the long-term loyalty of the customer. The thing about something that is free, is that it often lacks a perceived value.. creating the danger that customers will undoubtedly question the price when it’s reintroduced later in the day. Value-for-free has it’s place in a marketing strategy and, indeed, as an ‘extra mile’ tactic for existing, paying customers. And, at the same time, we need to be careful that we don’t obliterate the value for money offers and services that need to remain a staple in our product suite. A key account relationship needs to be WIN:WIN to retain and maintain repeat business. In this episode I ask you some critical questions around what you have done to perhaps create an imbalance in your WIN:WIN scale. (Timestamp: 8:20) ASK THE TOP 3 FEEDBACK QUESTIONS (timestamp 8:56) How have you proactively sought feedback from your key customers on how you have performed against their expectations in the last 12 months? We need to really get a handle on what the perceptions, feelings and thoughts of our clients are and ask them the three big feedback questions: Where are we meeting your expectations>? Where are we exceeding your expectations? And Where are we falling short of your expectations? Quite often the answers are often littered with assumptions and guesswork and tainted with our own perspective and what WE would expect if we were the client. In a key account partnership, we want customers to feel comfortable telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so that we can really understand how the customer perceives us, our business and our team. I give you three questions that you also need to ask YOURSELF (and your team) – listen for all the detail (Timestamp 11:26) HOW DO WE GO FORWARD FROM COVID? I talk about some of the frustrations, challenges and fatigue many businesses have experienced in the last 12 months and then ask: Looking at the pandemic now, as we start Q2 of 2021, what opportunities do you see, as a result of COVID? How is today’s version of normal affecting the way you engage with your important customers? What will the NEXT version of normal be for your business and are you prepared for it? I’d encourage you take some time and reflect on some of the questions and hit the pause button on your busyness, to think about your business. The juggle struggle has been real and balancing work, family, home-schooling, friendships and our own mental health has often felt like too many things to do! For many, there have been moments of joy, basking in the glorious sunshine in the spring of 2020, trying to become ‘Tik Tok famous’ and starting lockdown or furlough projects. And for others, the last 12 months has been incredibly tough, trying to stay optimistic and upbeat in difficult market conditions, knowing that their performance really will determine the survival chances of the business. Whichever camp you find yourself in, I’d really encourage you to reflect on how the last 12 months with your key customers has been: How has your experience affected the value you bring to those partnerships? How has their experience affected the value they need from you? How do you see the next 12 months in these relationships and what will the ‘next normal’ look like for you, your business and your client engagements? COMING UP... In the next episode of KAMCAST, we will be talking to Henry Rose Lee, an Inter-Generational Diversity Expert, and we’ll be digging into the future of work and creating harmony in our client relationships across the generations.…

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