According to a CSO Insights study, companies that engage in effective ongoing key account planning have win rates nearly double that of companies without a formal process.

Moreover, companies that use a solution designed specifically for account planning have an 11-point advantage over those using manual efforts and a 9-point advantage over those using homegrown or CRM applications.

What would a 9 to 11-point increase to your key account growth mean for your organization? How much revenue could you be missing out on this year without that advantage?

The Strategic Cost of Key Accounts

Customers expect value co-creation. Vendors need to operate from inside their customers’ strategic ecosystem. The process of value creation requires multiple functions to get involved and engaged, with accountability and deliverables clearly defined for all players in the account planning stage.

Ask yourself:

If you got a meeting with one of the CEOs at a key account an hour from now, could you walk in and have a strategic conversation about their business and your organization’s long-term value to them?

 The Business Cost of Key Accounts

Key accounts are often untapped reservoirs of potential business. The larger, more global, and more diversified they are, the more profits your KAM team can derive from them.

An enablement platform purpose-built to manage these large enterprise relationships will allow you to uncover these missed opportunities almost immediately.

Ask yourself:

How many deals are slipping through the cracks because current systems cannot connect the dots between  decision makers, buying units, functions and geographies?

 The Operational Cost of Key Accounts

Managing and growing key account relationships is a resource-intensive process. Large teams spread across functions, verticals, geographies and levels need to be aligned to a few common strategic goals. Customer engagement happens at multiple levels and contexts. Leveraging people to accelerate the buyers journey is crucial.

Ask yourself:

Are highly paid key account managers spending their time on strategic activities or operational tasks like creating reports, collating data, tracking down people, and version control?

Are their strategy meetings more like clarification sessions?

Is leadership hands-on or only “monitoring” the situation?

Are you over-dependent on individuals who own all the account intelligence and relationships?

Driving Key Account Growth with a KAM Enablement Platform

In the next blog post of this series, we will discuss how you can mitigate these risks and capitalize on the revenue that’s being left on the table by leveraging a specialized KAM enablement solution.

Related Key Account Management Resources:

• Blog Post: KAM Enablement – Why CRM is Not Enough
• eBook: Drive Revenue Growth with Customer-Centric Clarity
• Blog Post: Why Account-Based Planning is Mission Critical NOW