The Academy for Chief Executives, a leading provider of experiential business learning® facilitates groups of CEOs and Managing Directors who meet together every month to network and take full advantage of experiential learning. Part of membership involves members taking their issues to the table and discussing them with their peers.
At a recent meeting, one of the CEO members wanted to explore ideas on customer retention (having just lost a significant business customer).
The ideas generated included:
– Communication across the organisation who the the Key Accounts were;
– Appointing a “champion” for each Key Account;
– Having a thorough understanding of what is important to each Key Account.
Academy speaker, Phil Jesson (pictured, right), provides some really useful advice on building an effective key account management strategy. His top 4 tips are:
- Find out how your customers feel about you by conducting regular key account audits. Focus these particularly on where the key account feels you are exceeding, meeting, or falling short of their expectations.
- Become an expert in the key accounts world. Build on one piece of paper where the key account is today, where it wants to be in the future and how you can help them get there.
- Treat key account management as a team sport. Establish different levels of contact between your organisation and their organisation.
- Set objectives for each key account that will (a) add value; (b) improve your own business; and (c) develop relationships between your two organisations.
Free downloads on Key Account management are available from Phil’s website at www.philjesson.com.
For confidentiality reasons we cannot divulge all of the advice provided by our members – however, we do hold open meetings where guests are able to attend and experience for themselves the real power of shared experience and experiential learning alongside fellow leaders, CEOs, MDs and entrepreneurs. To find out how you can take advantage of advice like this every month, visit www.chiefexecutive.com.