KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

IN THIS EPISODE:

How well do you empower your people to reach their own full potential, supported along the way with good, timely, and accessible coaching conversations?

Now sure how to go about that? Then this episode is for you because I’m joined by a friend of the show, Lisa Brice, NLP Master Trainer and Coach and author of a new book called:

“Choose to be a coach - the be quick guide to coaching in the corridor, at the coffee shop or on the computer.”

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𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗔 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Lisa is a certified Master NLP Trainer, coach and business consultant. Her work is focussed on enhancing personal performance and intuitive leadership development. Her specialism is her Equine Assisted Learning which is built into her work with clients.

To support her work with Leaders, Lisa also holds a Diploma in Strategic Business Coaching from the CMI; is a Licensed HeartMath® Trainer and Coach; and is also a Systemic Coaching and Constellations Practitioner. (Lisabrice.co.uk)

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM Consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist in Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

IN THIS EPISODE...

Sales and Marketing is like stealing your neighbour’s cat…and in this episode, I talk to Bryony Thomas at Watertight Marketing to find out why.

Bryony is the creator of the Watertight Marketing methodology, captured in her best-selling book of the same name which acts as the hub to a suite of thinking tools that have been designed and refined over two decades and across over 2000 organisations. 

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𝗕𝗥𝗬𝗢𝗡𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗦 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Bryony is an award-winning speaker, author, marketing strategist and the creator of the proven Watertight Marketing Methodology. She stops people from wasting money on marketing.

In 2008, she left her corporate role as Director of Marketing for Experian, a FTSE100 company, and set up her own consultancy. She believes that small businesses are a real lever of meaningful and sustainable change in the world, and she has built a proven methodology to help them to do just that.

Through her 12-month marketing transformation programme, book and speaking she reaches audiences far and wide, and today also has a team of licensed Watertight Marketing Practitioners.

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM Consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

IN THIS EPISODE

How strong is your account management team when it comes to the skills of closing new business?

I’m not talking about taking repeat orders from happy clients here. I’m talking about applying the art of winning new business, creating opportunities, and closing deals, with existing customers.

In this episode, I am joined by Nashville-based David ‘Ledge’ Ledgerwood, Managing Partner at Add1Zero, a business that provides lead-to-close sales execution for tech-enabled B2B service companies ready to take the leap from 6 to 7-figure annual revenue.

He and his team spend their days, week in week out, sharpening the tools and crafting the processes for maximising revenue and sales opportunities. David truly is the expert here having personally closed more than $40million worth of deals in his career (with an average deal size of $150k plus).

 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE:  

With Ledge’s deep-rooted experience and expertise in predominantly selling software and services, and an impressive track record of having helped several companies grow from $0 to $5million in sales – I was keen to tap into his brain and find out:

• how he and his team define the sales process,
• what great onboarding looks like for him and
• how key account managers can use a methodical approach to insight-led selling (where every team member who interacts with clients is feeding information and intelligence back into the business to enable better marketing, better selling and great account management)

How informed is your sales approach?

Are you and your team acting as intelligence agents who are able to feed powerful insights into your sales approach back into the business? Thus providing higher levels of value to your key account customers and ultimately creating more opportunities for account growth?

For me, Ledge’s approach clearly works well for him and his team, I love the intentionality in his work.

You will have your own processes and ways of engaging with accounts and onboarding new customers, and it’s always nice to hear how other people work to then decide if there are any great ideas, new or otherwise, that could enhance our account management approach.

Did you hear something you liked? Or perhaps disagreed with?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Do get in touch and let me know what you’d like you to hear more of as well.

Like many of the episodes on KAMCast, LEARNING is the running theme and again, after listening to Ledge - we see more examples of how important it is to close the gap between sales and other departments.

  

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: DAVID (LEDGE) LEDGERWOOD

David (‘Ledge’) is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Add1Zero, a business that provides lead-to-close sales execution for B2B services and tech companies ready to take the leap from 6 to 7-figures.

With start-up founder, executive, and sales experience spanning more than a decade, Ledge has led growth efforts at several companies into the 7-and 8-figure revenue stages.

In his career in sales, he has amassed an impressive deal closure sum of $40M, with an average deal size in excess of $150,000.

You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.

Do you tell your clients that you work in partnership?

What evidence do you have to reassure them that the statement is, in fact, true?

What are the qualities of a good partnership?

Does your team possess the skills required to forge strong win:win relationships, built on trust, transparency, transparency, comfort with change and interdependence and a focus on the future?

In this episode, I invite Fred Copestake, a sales consultant and trainer specialising in complex B2b sales environments, to get into this topic with me. He has spent the last 22 years travelling around the world to develop salespeople, in over 200 companies, to move from the transactional selling styles of yesteryear, into the collaborative selling styles of today and shaping the ‘business partners’ of the future.

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𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗖𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Fred is the founder of Brindis, a sales training consultancy based in the UK. He is a Sales Consultant, Trainer, Speaker and Author with a special focus on teaching selling through partnering skills.

He has worked with 10,000+ sales people in 200+ companies across 36 countries. His work is concentrated on sales professionals working in complex B2B environments.

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

In this solo episode, I take a dive into an important topic in the world of building customer relationships: how well do you adapt your communication style with different customers?

I am going to challenge you to consider, for a moment, that rather than thinking of yourself as a classically labelled sales person… what if you were called a sales practitioner. In that vein…you could say: rather than being an account manager you were an account management practitioner.

How does that sit with you? Can you see how the change in language brings a change in focus?

To be a practitioner, you must continue to practice. To practice indicates that growth, development and improvement are always possible and we cannot sit back and assume that perfection has been attained.

Think of this episode as a moment to pause, reflect and decide how you will practice this imperative skill of shaping your communications style and personality preferences to elevate your results with your most important customers.

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𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

Do you have LOYAL customers?

What does loyalty mean to you? Is it a destination where happy customers, who love what you do, gather to bathe in the success that your product or service has brought them?

Or is it more than that? Rather than a destination, is it an on-going journey of moments that inspire your loyal customers to commit to you, time and time again, whilst shouting from the rooftops to all who will hear their recommendation to work with you?

How often do you find yourself telling your clients that you are different?

And, when you are comparing your business to your competition, could you - hand on heart - say that you truly offer something that no one else does?

In a journey of moments, how well do you craft an experience that inspires your clients to commit data, time and eventually money before starting the whole cycle again?

Do you deliberately and intentionally inspire the emotions YOU need in your clients to motivate them to WANT the products and services you can offer?

In this episode, I am joined by Drew Davis, bestselling author and internationally acclaimed speaker. He was dialing in from across the pond, so you’ll have to forgive the odd connection glitch in the matrix on the recording!

𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗪 (𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗪) 𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Andrew Davis is a bestselling author and keynote speaker. Before building and selling a thriving digital marketing agency, Andrew produced for NBC and worked for The Muppets. He's appeared in the New York Times and on the Today Show.

He's crafted documentary films and award-winning content for tiny start-ups and Fortune 500 brands. Today, Andrew Davis teaches business leaders how to grow their businesses, transform their cities, and leave their legacy.

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM Consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

When was the last time you had a conversation about racism?

Perhaps, like so many, these conversations are triggered, within your circles, by high-profile cases of injustice in the media or by your own personal experiences on the receiving end of overt or covert prejudice.

Or perhaps… like so many, you have NEVER had a conversation within your circles, about racism. What about at work, in your business, with your team, or with your customers?

This episode is a conversation about race in KAM. And where KAM is all about effectiveness, I really wanted to explore this important subject that can consciously or unconsciously impair your ability to maximise the success and growth of your most important customers.

𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗦𝗨 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Sharon is an award-winning leadership consultant and professional speaker. After 16 years as a Criminal Barrister with a successful UK practice, today Sharon runs a consultancy business which supports organisations with leadership development, specialising in diversity and inclusion programmes. Sharon is invited to speak to national and international audiences around the world on Women in Leadership and Inclusive Leadership.

Sharonamesu.com

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM Consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist in Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author, and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment, and telecoms industries.

IN THIS EPISODE

How much attention are you paying to the customer experience with your Key Accounts?

Do you surprise and delight your clients on a regular basis or, have you fallen into the trap of leaving this up to marketing at the front end of the sales cycle?

With customers experiencing thousands of ‘moments’ every day in all areas of their lives, what are you doing to ensure the moments they share with you, exceed their expectations?

For me, the thing about experience is that it is too important to be left to chance. Too important to rely on us simply being good at what we do and going the extra mile from time to time.

We need to be intentional. We need to take a step back and examine the moments we share with key customers and identify areas of improvement, ensuring we maximise the chances of being rewarded with long-term loyalty.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS EPISODE  

I invited Experience Consultant, Victoria Taylor, to join me on this episode, to dig into this topic.

Having worked in a wide variety of industries including bespoke travel, media, and advertising, Victoria now works with her own clients including Warner Entertainment Group, Lamborghini, Disney, P&O Cruises, Experian, and a host of independent hospitality brands. She is on a mission to help them to raise the bar in their customer experiences.

 In our conversation, you’ll hear us talk about:

• Why Account Managers need to be involved in crafting special moments for key customers (rather than leaving it to the marketing or customer experience team)
• Flesh out some examples of great customer experience (and what makes it great)
• The link between the employee experience and the customer experience

Creating an EXPERIENCE for your Key Accounts

What are your thoughts and reflections on the customer experience you currently create for your key accounts?

If you were a client of yours, would you be delighted in the moments you shared?

Do you personalise your client interactions so that they truly feel special and valued?

When the moments you create for your customers are not driven by the brand, they are driven by you!

How would you personally score in a customer feedback conversation?

With any experience being personal, how often do you proactively seek a conversation to gain feedback for your key contacts, on a mission to clarify their expectations and how you are performing against them?

How are you reflecting your brand?

Are you a walking, talking ambassador for your company, LIVING its values rather than just laminating them on the wall?

Remember that the employee experience and the moments we share with each other will directly affect the moments we share with the customer.

To create intentional, well-crafted, brilliant experiences for our customers, we cannot leave it to chance.

Take a moment to reflect and ask yourself: what do we do now, and how can we make it better?

I’ll be exploring this more in upcoming episodes of KAMCast so please do get in touch and let us know your thoughts on this topic and any specific questions you have, which you’d love to see answered in an episode.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: VICTORIA TAYLOR

Victoria describes herself as human-centred experience consultant who works with brands to ‘raise the bar’ in experience by differentiating themselves through thinking, creating, and ‘doing’ customer experience differently.

Her areas of consulting specialism focus on: audience...

Do you deploy an intentional methodology to maximise the impact of your interactions? Or are you winging it along the way, relying on personality to build those relationships with key contacts?

The evolution of an account manager, over the decades, has taken us on a bit of a journey from the gossiping entertainer of the 70s (who liked talking about others) morphed into the boring informer of the 80s (who liked talking about themself) and then evolved into the consultative problem solver of the 90s & 00s who finally learned the value of talking to the customer about, well, the customer.

The question is how do the problem solvers of the 90s and noughties transition from the consultative selling world of the efficient supplier, to the transformational space of the effective business partner? That, my friend is the question.

Be sure to read my full shownotes on this one!

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𝗖𝗛𝗥𝗜𝗦 𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗢𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗢 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Chris is the founder of Outbound Edge, a sales process consultancy business, set-up in 2017. He specialises in the sales process and solving complex problems by aligning processes with internal champions, engaging stakeholders and facilitating strategic decision-making.

He specifically focuses on the niche area of Product Tours, which he describes as interactive click-through demonstrations that strategic-minded KAMs can use to create a meticulous customer experience before, during and after meetings with their key contacts.

Chris is also the community manager and founder at SalesStack, an online community for emerging B2B SaaS leaders to exchange and test new ideas.

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

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Do you have a team whose hearts and minds are 100% invested in your business goals?

What are the levels of motivation across your account managers and sales team?

How ENGAGED are they?

For many businesses, the working world has changed and for most - it’s still changing. The concept of remote and Hybrid working is no longer uncommon, and sales leaders are battling the ongoing challenge of managing performance and inspiring excellence in teams that are no longer sat every day in the office, feeding off of each other’s energy and learning from their peers in the room.

Employee engagement is not a new thing. It’s long been acknowledged that happy and engaged teams lead to happy and engaged customers which ultimately create happy and engaged shareholders.

In this episode I speak to two guests from rewardgateway.com/uk – Group HR Director Robert Hicks and their Sales Director, Lou Kwakye. I hope you enjoy it!

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𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗘𝗥𝗧 𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗦 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

With three degrees under his belt, including an MBA from Imperial College, Robert is an accomplished leader in the HR space. His experience spans across sectors like software, property, cloud solutions and information technology. He has worked in and advised on Human Resources globally for 20+ years, for companies ranging from tech start-ups to SMEs, fast growth PE-owned mid-market businesses, FTSE250 and complex matrix global organisations with over 200,000 staff.

Today he is the Group Human Resources Director and overall custodian of the people and experience teams for the organisation.

𝗟𝗢𝗨𝗜𝗦 𝗞𝗪𝗔𝗞𝗬𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Lou comes from a strong background working with sales people and, after years of working in the fitness industry for brands like Virgin Active and Pure Gym, he joined Reward Gateway as an engagement specialist in 2014.

Today, he is their Sales Director and looks after a group of UK-based Account Executives, Sales Managers, SDRs, Researchers and the global Bid Team.

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

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