Existing Account Development

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One of the best ways to increase sales is to strengthen your relationship with your existing customers. You have a lower cost of sales, you can leverage your current relationships, and you can upsell or cross-sell from your products and services you already have in place. This environment will give you a competitive advantage if you are delivering client-centric support. 

Client account management teams play a critical role in making this happen. The recent changes in B2B sales have been so significant, and so fast, it requires an entirely new model and approach to growing existing accounts. The account team needs a model that will allow each team member to meet the increased demands of clients and address new requirements for thought leadership.

If they are not satisfying client demands and performing at their maximum efficiency, the door opens for customer satisfaction erosion and competition to step in. There are three areas where a company can improve and enhance its account revenue process. 

Improve Capabilities of Account Management Teams

These teams need enhanced relationship skills to interact with client stakeholders, improved articulation of value when positioning solutions to clients, and effectively understand your companies sales process to marshal company resources for success.

Sales Growth Discipline

Account management teams must incorporate an overall account plan that addresses their clients' needs while ensuring their company's total value. This plan must include a robust opportunity pipeline that will leverage existing products and services, enhancing your client's competitive position.

Relationship Cultivation

Accounts teams must create a comprehensive client relationship plan, including knowing who is essential, how they make decisions, and what their motivation is, enabling you to move up the internal value chain. 

FHS Associates has developed a comprehensive method that includes eight critical elements that work together and creates a sustainable, highly competitive business model that will assist your company in growing overall account presence and deepen client relationships.

This service is a contributor-mentor model that has over 20 years of implementation success and has a flexible integration that we adapt to your existing account sales process. The following has eight critical elements that work together and creates a sustainable, highly competitive business model that will assist your company in growing existing accounts with unique thought leadership.  

1. Client Personas - Qualify Potential
2. Client Buyer Criteria - Discern Progress
3. Comprehensive Relationships - Agendas and Motivations
4. Competitive Analysis - Strategies and Tactics
5. Value Proposition Calculation - Compelling Benefits
6. Presentations Completeness - Client Issues and Solutions
7. Business Qualification - Consistency
8. Sales Process - Win Rates

When assisting clients in expanding revenue within existing customers, FHS utilizes a concept called Contributor-Mentor. This concept is not advisory but rather a hands-on execution model. We take the lead and bring our tools, templates, sales experience, and execute our proven methodology within your existing account environment, expanding revenue, relationships, and new areas of opportunity. 

Baselining

• Account vision and business context: Where we want to be tomorrow? Team's collective statement of what they hope to achieve in the next three years in the context of the client's industry trends, business priorities, and IT strategy

• Detailed financial aspirations: What are the financials in terms of revenue, margin, and revenue productivity over the account planning period?

• Current account situation/challenges: Where are we today? A factual assessment of where the team stands on multiple dimensions, including the network of relationships, strength of pipeline, capability, and structure of account team and delivery performance. What are the key hurdles that we need to overcome to go from where we are today (status) to where we want to be tomorrow (vision)? Challenges are captured and organized into categories.

• Action plan to realize a vision: What are the team's strategy and action plan, endorsed by the management, to overcome the identified challenges? Each challenge has a separate set of action items that form a portfolio of initiatives for the account over the next three years, including a risk mitigation strategy. Create an opportunity pipeline to pursue.

• Investment Plan: What are these actions going to cost, and what are the expected returns.

Opportunity Pipeline Execution

Develop opportunity pursuit plans (this is an interactive process that must develop competitive insights creating tactics to move the pursuit forward) 

• Develop messaging content for pursuit campaign (qualify the problem premise)
• Execute relationship cultivation plan (build relationships with buying community)
• Create call plans that align your offering win-themes to client business problem
• Develop presentation material that complements your strategy and address all members of the client buying community

Continuously evaluate all moving aspects of the pursuit and ensure they are moving forward to closure

• Problem/solution alignment
• Relationship Building 
• Competitor position within the account
• Decision-making process
• Pricing strategy

Customer Account Plan Review 

Execute a detailed monthly review of the account plan on the following items:

• Revenue (pipeline)
• Relationships
• Competition
• Investment
• Account Challenges

• A significant increase in the win-rates of pipeline opportunities
• Disciplined execution that keeps pursuit acquisition predictable 
• Improvements in the size of deals closed 
• Access to more key stakeholders who influence buying decisions