Account Management Training

Account management is the process, activity and practice of providing your customers and clients with service, support and opportunities to increase the volume of orders that they make through cross-selling, up-selling and by retaining their custom. Ultimately it’s about the account manager maximising the profitability from the accounts that they manage.

Our training looks at how to build long term customer relationships so your existing clients will stay with you for longer, spend more with you and are open to cross and up-selling opportunities which are “sold in” through the excellent relationships that you have with them.

Our 1-day Account Management Programme is a highly participative workshop, which will combine short trainer engagement, facilitation, individual and group activity to encourage ideas and actions for implementation in the workplace.

The course will also help you to conduct a competency assessment on your current account management skillset, which will involve evaluating your sales ability, approach to account planning and problem-solving skills.

You will be asked to identify how readily clients talk with you about their issues, how often they provide you with feedback and whether they have relationships with your competitors – which will enable you to identify how well you are performing in your role and against the essential criteria for a successful account manager.

Whether you are new to an account management role or are an experienced sales professional, it is important that you can influence the client and your own organisation to drive actions that are mutually beneficial to both parties.

Here are some skills you need to be a successful account manager:

• An understanding of the difference between selling and account management
• Relationship building skills
• Strong verbal and non-verbal communication skills
• Influencing skills
• Strong product/service and industry knowledge
• Personal organisation
• Time and diary management skills
• Strong questioning skills
• Active listening skills
• Presentation skills
• Objection handling skills
• Closing skills
• Authenticity

You will know if you are successful at managing your accounts if the client seeks your advice on a range of issues (not just those linked to your business relationship) and if they incorporate your feedback into the decisions they make – as this shows they trust you and respect your opinion.

Clients will be open to your ideas and suggestions and will recommend you to others, enabling you to maximise the potential of the account and gain referrals to other decision makers to further embed yourself within the business.

Whilst most sales activity is about bringing new clients onboard and closing new business, account management is more about maximising the monetary value of existing clients and securing repeat business from people who know and trust you/your company.

Account managers often work with a set number of clients at any one time and may be responsible for managing clients within a set region/territory, industry, or value. These clients will likely have had a relationship with the company for several years and will be seen by the company as a long-term account.

Account management requires you to grow and develop a client account, ensuring that the client not only continues to spend with you year on year but that they are also open to purchasing other products and services from you outside of what they have originally bought from you.

To be truly effective as an account manager, you need to have a solid understanding of the different personality types of your clients so that you can identify how best to communicate with and influence each decision maker within the account.

You will need to understand the different communication styles (including conceptual, social, direct, and analytical) and approaches to influencing in order to grow and develop an account over the long term.

From new salespeople to strategic account managers, it is vital that you have a structured plan for how you will farm your accounts.

When creating an account plan you need to be focused on gathering, assessing and analysis the facts of the organisation itself and their situation within their own marketplace.

This course covers a wide range of account planning tools, including performance vs potential analysis, quality indexing, SWOT analysis and SMART objectives and milestones.

The training will also provide an opportunity for you to evaluate your current accounts and identify how they are currently being managed, areas for improvement and develop an account plan for each.

The workshop will provide you with advice and support on how to move from a supplier to a trusted advisor, to secure and maintain a long-standing partnership with each client.

The course is a formally endorsed qualification by the Institute of Sales Management and the Continuous Professional Development certification service.

Upon attending the course, you will receive 2 certificates, including the “Key Account Professional” certificate from the ISM and a CPD Certificate at no extra cost.