The Sales Hunter Key Account Selling Workbook 2011

Key Account Selling Program

2011

Mark Hunter
“The Sales Hunter”
402‐445‐2110
www.TheSalesHunter.com

Table of Contents

Why Key Account Selling ....................................................................... 4
Setting Up the Major Account Plan ...................................................  5‐6
SWOT Analysis ...................................................................................  7‐8
Resource Allocation Grid ....................................................................... 9
Triangle of Needs  ............................................................................... 10
.
Areas of Influence and Power  ......................................................  11‐12
Key Account Plan  ................................................................................ 13

SMART GOALS ...............................................................................  13‐15
Advanced Strategic Sales Questioning  .........................................  16‐18
Gathering Information from Other Sources  ....................................... 19
Executing the Key Account Plan  ......................................................... 20
Our Advocates  .................................................................................... 21

Customer Goals and Buyer Goals  ....................................................... 22
Executing the Key Account Plan Summary  ......................................... 23
Winning the Big Sale / Program  ......................................................... 24
Planning with the Customer  ............................................................... 25
Selling to Difficult Key Accounts / Individuals  .................................... 26
Proposal / Selling Techniques   ............................................................ 27
.
My Best Practices  ............................................................................... 28

Putting Your Key Account Plan to the Test   ........................................ 29
.
Next Steps  ....................................................................................  30‐32
.



   © 2011    The Sales Hunter                                  www.TheSalesHunter.com                                                    2

Mark Hunter
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps individuals and companies identify
better prospects, close more sales and profitably build more long‐term
customer relationships. Since 1998, Mark has conducted thousands of training
programs and keynotes on sales. He is best known for his ability to motivate
and move an organization through his high‐energy presentations.

He spent more than 18 years in the sales and marketing divisions of three
Fortune 100 companies. During his career, he led many projects, including the
creation of a new 200 member sales force responsible for volume in excess of $700 million. Mark has
held sales management roles in teams ranging in size from 20 to 900 members. This level of
experience is at the core of every program he delivers to thousands of people each year in the areas
of sales, communication and leadership.

Mark Hunter not only has expertise in sales, but also knows how to communicate it to others. He is a
member of the National Speakers Association, the premier speaking organization recognized around
the world for its top‐notch communicators.

To find out more about Mark’s selling philosophy, visit his blog at www.TheSalesHunter.com.

We are known by the company we keep…


Why Key Account Selling
Key account selling is all about allowing us to focus the right amount of resources against those
customers that will provide the company with the greatest opportunity to profitably grow the
business.

Focusing on key accounts does not mean we are not interested in helping new customers grow or
smaller customers hold their business.  All customers, no matter their size, are important to the
company; however, to ensure the largest customers are given the level of service they need, it is
necessary to refer to these customers as “key accounts.”

When we spend time with key accounts, it gives us the opportunity to gain critical insights that not
only help us with the key accounts, but also help us with all of our customers.  The ability to test
programs and learn from key accounts is just one advantage we gain from working with them.

What are some other things we can gain from working with key accounts?

In our segment a key account would be defined as:

Who are some of the key accounts in our market?




Setting Up the Major Account Plan
Key accounts have unique opportunities. These are all a result of something they’ve done. At the
same time, they have unique challenges. If they don’t deal with these challenges, they easily could see
their business rapidly decline.  At the same time it is easy to see the big changes in our volume with
the customer.  More risky are the slow trends that are not readily seen but can over time create
significant changes in our business.  We need to understand and monitor both, the major shifts and
the slow trends.

What are the top 3 accomplishments you’ve had with the account in the last year?

1.

2.

3.

What are your top 3 objectives to accomplish over the next 6 months?  How are we doing?

1.

2.

3.


Our Business Volume / Trends With the Customer:
What are our specific volume/business goals for this year with the account? How are we doing?

How are our competitors doing with the key account?  What can we learn from them?

Who would the key account say are their main competitors?  What are they doing that we might be
able to learn from?

Overall business trends for the key account with relationship to their competitors:

How does the customer feel about us?  What are the biggest reasons we aren’t doing more business
with them?


SWOT Analysis:
A SWOT analysis is designed to help us understand what key issues the customer is facing.

When building a customer SWOT analysis, you must look at the business from the customer’s view.
Do not look at the business from our perspective.

Strengths / Weaknesses are those things that are internal for the customer

Opportunities / Threats are those things that are external for the customer

(For large key accounts, it is beneficial to do to do the SWOT twice – once as described above and the
second one from our perspective.  Do not, however, attempt to merge the two together. Treat them
as separate.  The advantage of doing it both ways is it can give you perspective as to how we can use
our resources more effectively with the customer.)

SWOT =

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Opportunities:

Threats:


Build a SWOT Analysis for one of your key accounts.  Remember, the SWOT analysis is the customer’s
SWOT, not ours.  Each item you write needs to be what the customer would say, not what we would
say.

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats


Resource Allocation Grid:
A key decision any key account manager has to make is how to use their time in the most effective
manner to achieve the most good.  It is too easy for us to spend time working on things that may
seem important but really are not important.  It’s also very easy for us to not use the quarter or fiscal
year to our advantage. It can become very easy to spend time on what we want to spend time on
rather than what we should be spending time on.

Below is a grid we can use to help us understand better how to use our time and our resources.   Your
objective is to complete the grid for the same customer for which you did the SWOT Analysis.

Hard

Low High
Cost Cost

Easy


Triangle of Needs:
Triangle of needs is designed to allow us to see the key issues the customer is facing.  Each item listed
must be something specifically the customer is dealing with.  As with the SWOT analysis, this is to be
done from the perspective of the customer.  At the top of the triangle is going to be “profit,” because
this is the most important need for any customer, on‐premise or off‐premise.

The bottom row of the triangle can be used to identify those needs unique to the buyer with whom
you are dealing.  Knowing their individual needs can help you in determining how you want to work
with the customer.

High Need

PROFIT

Low Need


Areas of Influence and Power:
Key accounts know they have power over their suppliers.  They will try to use it in ways we can see
and in ways we can’t always see.  The best way to be ready to deal with this is not only knowing
where the customer has power and influence, but also knowing where we have power and influence.

Power:
Those things a person can use either in a positive or negative manner to affect an outcome.  An
example of power we have might be our market share in those markets where we have a large share.
In other markets, our power might come from the promotions we sponsor or our ability to provide
the customer with signs and other tools to help them build their business.

A customer may have power in their location and/or being the only retailer in a particular area.
Another area of power might be the amount of volume they do and the way they try to use their
volume to get better deals.

Others that may have power could be a competitor of ours or a competitor of the customer that
drives the market with special promotions or pricing.

Influence:
People who have influence have the ability to shape decisions or provide opinions that can impact
other people.  An example of influence we have is with our marketing people and their ability to bring
ideas to a customer.  You, in your position, also have the ability to influence decisions based on your
knowledge and insights.

A customer will have influence depending on the type of people they employ and their ability to use
information.

Other people who may have influence could be a competitor, a government official or someone from
the news who can shape a decision.

On the following page, outline specific examples of where power and influence exist.


Power:
Us:

Customer:

Other:

Influence:
Us:

Customer:

Other:


Key Account Plan:
Having a key account plan is essential if all of the resources are going to be used effectively.   A key
account plan must consist of the following goals.  Goals must also follow the SMART system:

SMART Goals
Specific – a goal that cannot be clearly defined is only a dream. You must be able to define the goal in
a clear way both you and anyone else can understand.

Measureable – if you don’t know how you can tell if you have either made or not made the goal, how
will you know if you’ve been successful?  The process used to measure has to be one upon which you
and your boss agree.

Achievable – this is not an excuse to make goals easy to achieve.  At the same time, the goals you set
must be something you believe you could achieve. This helps you maintain motivation throughout the
duration of the goal period.

Relevant – does the goal fit with where we’re going as a company?  Does it help my boss achieve their
goals?

Timed – what is the start and ending date and are there periods in between where it will be possible
to measure results to date?

All goals no matter what they are must have the following parameters:  Specific / Measurable / Time‐
driven

Volume Goals:

Other Goals:

Other Goals:


Additionally, any account plan must have “internal goals.” These are goals for us to ensure the
customer remains profitable for us.

Examples of “Internal Goals” Might be:
Total dollars to be spent in sales support:

Breakdown of how the money will be spent:

1.

2.

3.

Finally, all account plans must have “customer development goals.”  These are goals designed to
ensure focus is placed on being able to grow the business.

A customer development goal might be to meet each key employee in the account and ensure they
know you.  Another customer development goal might be to help them strategically grow their
business.

Each key account should have 2 – 3 customer development goals.

Customer Development Goals:
1.

2.

3.


Measurement of Goals:
All goals must be specific, measurable and time‐driven.

The failure to follow‐up and follow‐through on goals in a timely manner is the number one reason
they are not achieved.  The most important element is reviewing the goals in a timely manner that
allows you enough time to make the necessary corrections to ensure they can be achieved.

What were the results of last year’s goals?

Why were they either achieved or not achieved?

What can you learn from these that can help you with this year’s goals?

Current Year Goals:
How will I measure each of my goals this year?

(Yearly goals should be reviewed monthly.  Quarterly goals should be reviewed weekly.  Monthly
goals should be reviewed 2 times per week.)


Advanced Strategic Sales Questioning:
You’ve now developed background information on your key account and written a basic business plan
and objectives.

Next step is to now use the information to your advantage.  One of the best ways to do this is by using
the information you have to ask the customer questions.  The objective of the questions you ask is to
accomplish the following:

1. Verify the information you’ve already gathered.

2. Understand the customer better by getting them to share more insight about what you
already know.

3. Learn new information about the customer.

4. Allow the customer to see you as a strategic asset they need to help run their business.

To make your questions as impactful as possible, be sure they are strategic in nature and always
followed by another question that gets the customer to explain even more.

Using the tools you completed in the previous sections, develop 5 questions you can
ask the customer over the next several months.

SWOT Analysis:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


Resource Allocation Grid:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Triangle of Needs:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


Areas of Influence and Power:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Account Plan:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


Gathering Information from Sources Other Than the Customer is
Critical
Other sources of information can come from both inside the company and from other customers.

Sources of information we can gather from inside of our company include:

Sources of information we can gather from “outside” include:

Information by itself is worthless. Information is only valuable when we know how to use it.

How can we use each of the information sources listed above?


Executing the Key Account Plan
Understanding how and when to communicate with each person with whom we need to deal in a key
account is essential.  Each person has a primary communication method and a secondary communication
method.  Attempting to communicate with someone using anything other than their primary or at least
secondary communication method can and will create poor outcomes.

Name / Communication Method:
Name: Primary:     Secondary:

Key influencers are those who people look to for direction in making a decision. Knowing who each person
in a key account turns to for influence will help you understand how to present large programs.  Some
people may have more than one influencer; however, few people have zero.

Name / Influencer:
Name: Who / What do They Influence:


Our Advocates
Having as many people in a key account as possible who are strong advocates of ours gives us the
ability to sell in programs faster and to be able to gain valuable information.

Key Account:
Person / Key Info.     Role: Contact Information:

How can you use each of the people listed above to help you do your job better?

What is the number one thing you can do to improve your relationship with them?

Are there areas in the key account where we do not have any relationships?  What are they and how
do we find the right person with whom to develop a relationship?

If the person you deal with the most at the key account were to leave their position or the company,
who would replace them?   How well do you know that person?  What can you do now to get to
know them better?


Customer Goals:
In order for us to achieve our goals, we have to be in a position to help the customer achieve their goals.
Too many times customers say vendors don’t listen or understand the needs they have.

What are the key account’s objectives, not just for what we’re involved with but also for their entire
company?

How are they doing in achieving them and what can we do to help them?

Buyer / Contact Goals:
Your buyer has their own set of goals. What are they and how are they doing in achieving them?

What can we be doing differently to help them achieve their goals?

How is your buyer/contact evaluated and compensated?


Executing the Key Account Plan Summary:
Information by itself is useless. It’s only when we do something with it that it becomes valuable.

What have you learned in this section of the training program that you can now use to help improve
sales with this key account?

1.

2.

3.

4

5.

What will be your plan for acting on it?


Winning the Big Sale / Program
Many times, winning the big sale requires a different approach with the customer.  For some key
accounts it might mean having to sell to multiple people. In other key accounts, it might be to gain
support from different groups. Each account will be different.

Using a team to sell to a group or team:

Do not allow yourself to become surprised or shocked if the customer asks more people to attend a
meeting.

Each person you have attending must have a reason for being there. Do not bring people just to make
it look important.

As the key account manager, you must open and close the meeting, handle all of the introductions
and be the one to ask for the order.  Do not allow others to assume this responsibility, as it will appear
as if you’re not the person with whom the customer should be dealing.

Take notes. Even if you ask someone else to take notes, they will not be as good as yours because of
how well you know the customer.

Allow plenty of time for questions and do not be surprised if the customer brings up other topics for
discussion.  Allow the customer enough time to share their views.  A key reason why a customer will
bring several people to a vendor meeting is to allow them to ask questions and deal with other issues
that many times do not get discussed in a meeting of only the salesperson and buyer.

Make sure to collect business cards from everyone, as it’s your job to send a follow‐up note to each
person who attends within 48 hours of the meeting.   View each person you meet as a new
relationship to be developed.

Prior to going into the meeting, take the time to review with everyone the exact objectives of the
meeting and what topics will be discussed, as well as topics you do not want discussed.  Make sure
everyone is clear as to what each person’s role is.

After the meeting, as the key account manager, you need to be the one to recap the discussion and
send to the customer a follow‐up email or letter.  Putting it in writing helps to minimize the
confusion some people may have when leaving a meeting with several people.


Planning with the Customer
Never enter into a planning session with a customer without first knowing the following:

 Your goals, including the minimum amount of performance you’ll accept.
 Your investment level, including the maximum amount you might invest.
 Specific dates / key milestones of importance.
 A clear understanding of what is expected from everyone involved.
 Strong confidence in being able to say “no” to a customer’s request that is out of line.
 Having had the time to evaluate past business with the account.

When entering the planning session, be sure to have the following:

 Information to support each one of your positions.
 Examples developed as much as they need to be for the customer to understand the ideas you’re
communicating.
 Documentation of the successful programs we’ve had in the past with the customer.
 Documentation of successful programs other accounts have run that the customer will view
positively.
 Calendar showing all key dates / milestones.

Sell First / Negotiate Second!
Never attempt to negotiate with a customer on the first call. Best practice is to not negotiate with the
customer until they have rejected your offer on two other occasions.

Steps to follow to do planning with a specific key account:


Selling to Difficult Key Accounts / Individuals
 Allow the customer to feel they’ve won.
 Allow the customer to make the final decision by always providing options.
 Seek out others who you can use to influence the difficult person.
 Be prepared to walk away to ensure the customer knows you have limits.
 Always be prepared to give the customer twice as much information as you believe is necessary.
 Be prepared to go in “high” allowing the customer to feel they’re getting a deal when you agree to
lower the price.
 Allow the customer to believe they’re educating you.
 Use the “soft” closing technique.
 When starting a new meeting, always refer back to something they told you in an earlier meeting.
 Build the presentation / program around their most critical need as indicated in their “triangle of
needs.”

The techniques I need to use with my most difficult account are:


Proposal / Selling Techniques
 Tailor all of your programs against 2 – 3 of their key needs as listed in the “triangle of needs.”
 Know how what you’re presenting fits into the customer’s SWOT analysis to provide you with an
idea as to how they will respond.
 Have each presentation build off of the previous presentation.
 Use each sale as a starting point to make the next sale.
 Work with the customer to establish objectives for each activity.
 Evaluate each event after it has run and share the findings with the customer.
 Never leave more information with the customer than is necessary.
 Follow up each contact with a recap.
 Never accept a “no;” always gain a “yes” on something.
 Follow up on everything in a timeframe earlier than the customer would expect.

What are the steps I need to take to improve my selling techniques with the customer?


My Best Practices:
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.


Putting Your Key Account Plan to the Test:
 Review all of the material you’ve developed in this program with your partner/group.
 Ask them to share with you what they would see as the two biggest opportunities you have and
the two biggest problems you have with this account.
 After they’ve shared what they see, share with them what you believe the biggest opportunities
and problems are.
 Working with your partner/group, develop a very specific plan as to how you should handle at
least one of the opportunities or problems you identified.  (Answer the 3 questions below.)
 Be prepared to share with the entire group the plan you and your partner/group developed.

1. The opportunity / problem I am going to solve is:

2. How will I know when I’ve solved it?  What is the expected outcome?

3. What is my plan?  (Be specific)


Next Steps:

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The Sales Hunter Key Account Selling Workbook 2011

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