Key Account Management

In a major sale there will be at least 3 levels of decision influencer and your sales approach needs to be adjusted for each level.

Most sales training talks about the ‘prospect’. This is fine for relatively small sales, but when
selling to key accounts you encounter multiple decision influencers – each with their own agenda,
each requiring a modified approach.

In this short video you’ll learn how to sell to each level.

This training forms part of LDL’s Key Account Management course.

In any important sale there will be three tiers within the customer account, and it is important to understand what it is that each tier buys. We are going to call the tiers: Box 1, Box 2 and Box 3.

Box 3, this is the buyer, the purchaser, the user of our products and services.

What do these people buy? They buy products and services, price versus performance comparisons, ease-of-use, they are interested in the nuts and bolts features of what we offer.

Box 2 executives, business function managers. Head of sales, head of IT, head of quality control, head of customer service, head of finance.

What do these people buy? They buy solutions to problems. Box 2 executives are surrounded by problems. People problems, image problems, IT problems, quality control problems. Box 2 executives want relief from their problems and they want expanded opportunities for more productivity and growth. So when we are talking to a Box 2 executive, talk about solutions to problems and introduce them to new ways of working, new insights.

We then come to Box 1, top management.

What do they buy? They buy return on investment, financial performance. They are measured by it, they are evaluated by it, they are responsible for it. So we should not waste our time talking about nuts and bolts features to Box 1. If we are going to talk cogently to top management, we must learn to discuss the financial performance of investing in whatever it is that we offer.

A Sales Lesson From Tom Cruise.

You may have seen the Tom Cruise movie, Jerry Maguire. In that movie Cruise plays a sports agent who has just lost his job. So what does he do? He sets up a business for himself; however, he has only one client, Rod Tidwell, who is played by Cuba Gooding Junior. And Cuba Gooding gets an Oscar nomination for his punch line, “Show me the money.” You just need to take the phrase, “Show me the money,” and change the word on the end, “Show me the numbers,” and you have a great punch line for selling to Box 1. Show me the numbers is the language of the major sale.

Read more about LDL Key Account Management Training.