Why would companies increase their costs and decrease their margins? Sounds counter-intuitive, right? But companies do it every day in the interest of serving their best customers. They establish “key account” programs that provide additional dedicated resources to top customers (which increases their costs) while at the same time offering those same customers their biggest discounts (which decreases their margins). They do all of this, of course, in the name of increasing volume.

Key account programs are absolutely worth having, but the questions many sales leaders are asking are, “How can we do this better?” and “What do the best key account management programs look like?” Done right, better key account programs can obtain more customer volume at lower discounts while not adding to costs. It all comes down to the behavior of the key account managers.

At the end of this workshop, participants should be able to:

• Define and categorize key accounts
• Understand the importance of key accounts
• Develop effective strategies for adding, maintaining and developing key accounts to their portfolios
• Discussing the best practices for handling key accounts conflicts
• Build sustainable relationships with key accounts

Course Outline:

Module One

Customer Power

Module Two

Preliminary Selection of Key Accounts

Module Three

Categorization of Key Accounts

Module Four

Customer Retention

Module Five

Customer Life Time Value

Module Six

Key Account Strategies

Module Seven

How Organizations Build Value

Module Eight

Key Account Risk

Module Nine

Key Account Analysis

Module Ten

The Value Chain

Module Eleven

Essential Elements of a Successful Key Account Strategy

Module Twelve

Managing Conflict Productively

Module Thirteen

Developing The Strategic Account Planning Process

Module Fourteen

Characteristics of Key Account Managers

Module Fifteen

Handling Financial Issues with Key Accounts

Module Sixteen

Developing Business Plans For Key Customers

Module Seventeen

Building sustainable relationships with customers

Module Eighteen

Dealing with problems that may arise