CRM (customer relationship management) has become an essential business tool in the last decade. A recent statistics roundup from Tech.co found that:
- 91% of companies with more than 11 employees use a CRM system
- Overall CRM usage increased from 56% in 2018 to 74% in 2019
- CRM is expected to achieve over $80 billion in revenue by 2025
For anyone who has used a modern CRM platform, these numbers will come as no surprise. These versatile software toolsets can:
- Bolster productivity
- Increase operational efficiency
- Improve collaboration across teams and departments
- Drive customer acquisition, success, and retention
- Provide 360° visibility into your business
A great example of the way in which a CRM system can achieve this is through strategic account management.
Using the incredible visibility that a CRM provides, companies can identify their key accounts and empower their teams to serve them better, recommend products and services to suit their specific needs, and ensure their long-term success and growth.
In this article, we will provide tips for optimizing your key accounts and explain how a CRM can help.
For even more strategies on managing your key accounts, check out our Key Account Management Playbook.
What is strategic account management?
Strategic account management is a business approach in which a company identifies and prioritizes its most important customers and then develops and implements a tailored strategy to effectively manage and grow the relationship with those customers.
Strategic account management involves a coordinated effort by different departments within a company, including sales, marketing, customer service, and product development, to align their efforts around the needs and goals of the key accounts.
Strategic account management aims to establish long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with key accounts that are critical to a company’s success.
This is typically accomplished by taking a more consultative and collaborative approach to sales and account management rather than a transactional or reactive one.
A strategic account management program may involve conducting in-depth account reviews and needs assessments, developing customized solutions, providing ongoing support and training, and collaborating closely with customers to ensure their needs are met.
Strategic account management is particularly important in industries where a small number of key accounts represent a significant portion of a company’s revenue or where the cost of acquiring a new customer is high.
By prioritizing these accounts and developing a tailored approach to managing them, companies can increase customer loyalty, reduce churn, and generate new business opportunities.
The 3 phases of strategic account management
Strategic account management can be broken up into 3 phases:
- Identifying key accounts
- Analyzing key accounts
- Optimizing key accounts
Breaking the process down into distinct phases provides a clear structure and roadmap for your account management team to follow. It also helps your team understand what success looks like.
Let’s take a closer look at phase 3 — optimizing your key accounts.
Optimizing your key accounts
With a deeper understanding of your key accounts, it’s now time to lay out a plan to grow those accounts and retain them well into the future.
- Create an action plan- Use the information gathered during the analysis to create an account plan that outlines the goals, objectives, and strategies for the account.
The plan should also include a roadmap for achieving the goals, as well as the resources required to execute the plan.
When creating an action plan ask questions like:
- What are the long-term business goals of the account? How can your products and services help them achieve those goals?
- What are the biggest challenges and pain points facing the account? How can your products and services help them overcome those challenges?
- What products or services does the account already use? How could those offerings be expanded?
- What existing products or services could the account benefit from that they aren’t already using?
- What future products or services would benefit the account?
- Make your pitch- Just like with any sales pitch, this step is all about positioning.
Your pitch should be tailored to the specific needs of the account and the tone should speak to the decision-makers.
- Monitor and measure progress- Continuously monitor progress against the goals and objectives outlined in the account plan.
Use KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure success and make adjustments to the plan as needed.
CRM is the best tool for optimizing your key accounts
There is no toolset on the market better for optimizing your key accounts than CRM. A modern CRM platform can help you:
- Centralize data- A CRM system provides a centralized database for all customer data, including account history, contacts, interactions, and sales data.
With this information, you can identify the long-term goals of your key accounts, the challenges they face, and get a better understanding of the products and services they are already using.
This allows you to create a more targeted action plan that speaks directly to the needs of your customer.
- Track engagement- A CRM system can track customer engagement and interaction across multiple touchpoints, such as emails, phone calls, and meetings.
You can use this information to inform your pitch. Reviewing old sales calls and emails can provide insights into what messaging and strategies worked in the past.
- Simplify reporting- A CRM system can generate reports and analytics on customer data, providing insights into trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
With a CRM, monitoring and measuring progress is built right in. Plus, you can create reports and dashboards that visualize results and encourage continued buy-in.
FreeAgent CRM provides deeper insights and better collaboration for improved account management
FreeAgent CRM is designed for today’s world of work and our robust toolset is ideally suited to supporting the varied work processes of modern businesses. FreeAgent is:
- Easy to use: FreeAgent works like you expect modern apps to work, providing a user experience that feels fresh and familiar. Teams love working in FreeAgent, leading to high adoption and greater ROI.
- User-configurable: FreeAgent can be configured by you to work the way you do. This means you don’t need outside support to add a form field, adjust a CRM automated workflow, or try out a new process.
- Customizable: With FreeAgent, apps, forms, and configurations are all completely customizable, allowing you to capture and connect your data in any way you like.
To see FreeAgent in action, get a demo, and discover for yourself how FreeAgent can help you have workdays full of impact.
