STRATEGIC ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

In the post-COVID era, B2B salespeople face unforeseen challenges: customers are reluctant to meet, and even if they do, they might prefer a shorter meeting online. During the meeting they are frequently disrupted by notifications on multiple channels. How can we plan a purposeful meeting to attract and retain the attention of the right people with the right topic and meeting type? The Strategic Account Management course introduces the concepts of the buying cycle and the decision-making unit (DMU) – highlighting that the critical, successful behavior of the salespeople depends on the customer‘s role in the DMU and their attitude depends on where they are in the Buying cycle.

During the entire Strategic Account Management course participants learn these behaviors in working with one, gamified case study: a hygiene company prospecting a hotel. The management team members of the hotel are in various roles of the DMU, in different stages of the buying cycle, with different interests and expectations. Participants, divided into three, competing teams negotiate with the management team members for 5 fictitious weeks. They earn money by improving their skills and behaviour, and by persuading customers to choose higher value products. Besides learning different meeting types, participants continuously work with DEVELOR’s SAM (Strategic Account Manager) Matrix, which serves as a tool and a guideline for strategic account management. From time to time, they step out of the game and discuss the implementation of the Strategic Account Manager Matrix and the learnings in their real life. They continuously receive and provide instant feedback and they learn new skills seamlessly, inspired and engaged in learning.

What are the topics of the “Strategic Account Management” training?

• Your personal sales brand and purpose
• The Buying Cycle and its stages
• The Decision Making Unit (DMU)
• The Glamour Guru Challenge – a Strategic Account Management Case in 5 rounds
• Meeting with a purpose: meeting types
• Needs Assessment Meeting: understand client motives and expectations
• Educational Meeting: become an industry consultant
• Challenging Meeting: bring in new perspectives
• Product Presentation Meeting: convince using personalized benefits
• Solution Presentation: convince multiple people with the right message

By the end of the “Strategic Account Management” course, participants:

• learn critical behaviors to adjust to the customer’s role in the DMU and their stage in the buying cycle
• learn how to plan different types of meetings depending on the objective
• use DEVELOR’s SAM Matrix as a planning tool to build stronger and deeper customer relationships