Introducing Total Account Management

The Key Account Manager is a fundamental key to success for many B2B companies. He or she is the orchestrator of all interactions with the customer, ensuring profitable business growth and customer satisfaction.

Global Account manager, a key role

Over the years many companies have implemented a Global Account Manager, taking care of the customer´s global and central organization. But in many cases this person has not been empowered to maximize profits from a group perspective and to fulfill customers’ requirements on decision making. Often unnecessary friction and political conflicts are created when people with different agendas and incentive systems needs to agree.

Hence companies today need to (re-)evaluate their Global Account Management approach and to design the Global role in clear synchronization with the local sales organization and selected central units that have an impact on commercial success.

Segment your customers carefully

Many customers require a global handling, but not all deserve it. Global Account Management is costly and any firm must consciously select the customers that they want to work on a global scale with. Decision criteria include hard items such as business volumes, profitability, outlook as well as soft factors such as cultural fit and relations.

Designing a Total Management Account

Based on a correct segmentation, the right staffing and mandate need to be given to both the global and the local teams. The staffing and mandate will differ depending on growth potential, customer actual decision process, importance and competitive situation. One size does not fit all, horses for courses. This also goes for the level of integration with the customer, some should have a limited level of co-operation, standard solutions and only sporadic executive engagement whilst others deserve a seamless working between the companies, joint solution development and a joint executive vision and steering.

Successful firms find the right balance internally between global and local functions, design a decision process based on group P&L and have a deep strategic alignment with key global customers.

Rightly designed the Total Account Management will lead to superior profitability and increased competitiveness, while ensuring that sales expenses are not exploding.