THIS IS WHERE SAM COMES
IN. Strategic account
management (SAM) is a process
that business-to-business
suppliers use to manage their
relationships with strategically
important customers that deliver
the most benefits to their
business. SAM is a plan. A plan
on how your team will manage clients and the
conversations that happen at all levels and verticals of both
your business and your customers’.
SAM is not the same as sales although it often starts
with the sales departments of a business. Sales has a
narrow focus on creating leads and capturing opportunities
while SAM is put in place to improve and measure
customer satisfaction, creating value for your client and
yes, growth in sales. A sales strategy is short-term while
SAM plans when implemented are for the life of your
business client-relationship, which hopefully is forever.
A SAM plan is implemented at the very end of a sales
cycle and must include every single touch point a client has
in your business, from your marketing, production,
accounts and online platforms. The single biggest value
your business will gain from having a SAM plan is building
relationships with your clients and allowing smooth
transitions of people on and off client accounts with little
to no pain. You will become a partner to your client, not a
supplier.
Who
is SAM?
Your SAM plan should have 10 stages as follows:
1. Develop your customer profile
2. Analyse and understand your relationships
3. Identify clients’ strategic requirements
4. Analyse new opportunities
5. Map the clients decision making process
6. Analyse your competitors to the client
7. Establish objectives
8. Develop the account strategy
9. Coordinate the action plans and tactics
10. Manage the account relationships
You have heard the saying, “Its cheaper to retain a client than it is to acquire a client,” right? Well, it
is and if you are in the business of keeping your business thriving, then holding your clients close
for a very long time is crucial to your company’s survival.
When developing your SAM plan the main task is
developing effective business relationships with senior
customer decision makers and influencers. The stronger
the relationship, the less threats will apply. You want
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relationships that have trust and integrity. Mapping out the
people inside your client who matter, and deciding with
whom you want to have a relationship with early on can
achieve relationship development. Once you are engaging
with the account it’s important to keep measuring the
quality of each relationship owned on a regular basis. This
can be done on simple 1 to 5 scales.
A SAM plan must be measurable, scalable and iterative
in nature and must be managed as a marathon and not a
sprint. SAM is about changing the way people work — it
is not just a sales technique. People who maintain SAM
plans are NOT sales people; they are people’s people. These
people should have a talent on how to build quality
relationships and have the hard conversations with both
client and your team. Matching your account manager with
the client for the best cohesion must be considered at the
get-go.
A well thought out and run SAM plan will:
� Allow innovation with clients.
� Allow the sales and account Manager’s to work to a
plan and process that you can measure.
� Allow you to influence your clients as you have a deep
understanding of their business and markets.
� Almost be a database of the clients company and
should allow the account managers and all
stakeholders who have client touch points, to know the
account inside and out.
� Define and deliver real value to your clients all while
managing expectations.
� Give your business unique access to your clients and
keep your opposition out.
� Identify new opportunities in your clients and allow
you to proactively pitch these.
� Incorporate client on-boarding.
� Reduce clients’ costs and improve your businesses
profitability.
� Understand the risks in your clients’ business.
Given time to germinate inside your clients SAM plans
will allow you to enhance your own profitability, generate
new leads and opportunities, deliver service unparalleled
to your opposition and build partnerships that will last
through all stages of your clients business lifecycle.
Remember, “What gets measured gets managed,” so
start measuring now!
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