Create an Account Management Team
Create an Account Management Team
Sales team has more time available to actively sell rather than manage.
An account manager earns less than a top sales performer, so you can manage existing customers more profitably.
In many industries, account management is a more routine function than sales and is better suited to a different personality profile than a sales position. By splitting the functions, you can ensure that the right person is managing the account.
Challenges that Result
An account manager typically has less sales experience and usually isn’t as successful as a salesperson at growing accounts.
If the salesperson stays on the account team, the customer can get confused about who to contact.
If something goes wrong with the account, the account manager may not have the business or industry experience to address and resolve it as quickly as a salesperson might.
Issues to Resolve
What are the responsibilities for an account manager on a day-to-day basis?
Who is responsible for “growing” an account, i.e. convincing the customer to buy more volume, more frequency, or to expand into other departments?
How will you transition an account from a sales rep to an account manager?
When should an account manager seek help from a sales rep or other team member?
Who will the account managers report to?
How many account managers will you need?
Compensation
Many companies make the mistake of offering commissions to account managers or salespeople to reward them for growing new accounts. They feel that they don’t need to pay commission on “house” accounts, yet it’s ten times more expensive to replace a lost customer with a new one.
A better approach: Provide strong incentives for your team to maintain and grow your existing accounts. If a salesperson can make more money on a new customer versus existing one, the company will suffer and the team will spend far more time acquiring that one new customer than managing existing ones.
Create an Account Management Team - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
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Benefits of Creating Account Managers
Sales team has more time available to actively sell rather than manage.
An account manager earns less than a top sales performer, so you can manage existing customers more profitably.
In many industries, account management is a more routine function than sales and is better suited to a different personality profile than a sales position. By splitting the functions, you can ensure that the right person is managing the account.
Challenges that Result
An account manager typically has less sales experience and usually isn’t as successful as a salesperson at growing accounts.
If the salesperson stays on the account team, the customer can get confused about who to contact.
If something goes wrong with the account, the account manager may not have the business or industry experience to address and resolve it as quickly as a salesperson might.
Issues to Resolve
What are the responsibilities for an account manager on a day-to-day basis?
Who is responsible for “growing” an account, i.e. convincing the customer to buy more volume, more frequency, or to expand into other departments?
How will you transition an account from a sales rep to an account manager?
When should an account manager seek help from a sales rep or other team member?
Who will the account managers report to?
How many account managers will you need?
Compensation
Many companies make the mistake of offering commissions to account managers or salespeople to reward them for growing new accounts. They feel that they don’t need to pay commission on “house” accounts, yet it’s ten times more expensive to replace a lost customer with a new one.
A better approach: Provide strong incentives for your team to maintain and grow your existing accounts. If a salesperson can make more money on a new customer versus existing one, the company will suffer and the team will spend far more time acquiring that one new customer than managing existing ones.
Create an Account Management Team - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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