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Developing a Key Account Strategy
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Bill McCormick
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”Teamwork divides the task and doubles the success.”
- Unknown
This month’s newsletter is the first of a 2-part series on how to develop a sales strategy for a key account.
This newsletter will discuss the three main elements that must be in a sales strategy, with emphasis on whether you should consider using a team approach for a particular key account.
Three Main Elements of a Sales Strategy
 Your sales strategy needs to address thes e three inter-related elements:
1. The criticality of identifying and building relationships with multiple decision makers and influencers. Average sellers tend to stay in their comfort zone and form strong relationships with only one or two lower-level contacts. You cannot win a big sale at a key account if you don’t have buy-in at a senior level.
2. Analyzing the sales opportunities and threats at a particular key account. Average sellers go after “low hanging fruit” and overlook threats that aren’t obvious. By contrast, the best sellers identify multiple sales opportunities and then prioritize them based on risk and reward.
3. The realization that sales opportunities at key accounts are harder to close and win. Key accounts are more competitive than smaller accounts and require you to be especially skilled at selling on value and negotiating.
Should a Sales Team Be Part of Your Sales Strategy?
“None of us is as smart as all of us.”
-Ken Blanchard, author of One Minute Manager
As cited in one of STAR's recent Blogs, as well as a prior STAR newsletter titled “Selling Has Become a Team Sport”, many sales organizations have found that a sales team is an integral part of a sales strategy.
For example, consider how a sales team could help you for each of the three elements mentioned above:
1. Multiple team members can be used to broaden and strengthen relationships  with the various decision makers.
2. A team can do a more thorough job of analyzing opportunities and threats, based on their knowledge of different competitors and their exposure to different divisions and departments within the key account.
3. To the extent that value selling and negotiating are necessary to win a key account sale, a team can do a better job than a solo salesperson. Teams generally are better at presenting better solutions when planning for a complex sales presentation or negotiation.
If you decide that a team approach is warranted, your sales strategy must then consider these additional elements:
1. Who should be on the sales team? There are some obvious considerations, such as adding functional specialties such as technical service, marketing, and production/operations. However, there are also less obvious factors such as knowing which team roles and personalities are likely to generate and sustain a productive team atmosphere.
2. Who should lead the sales team? It shouldn’t necessarily be the salesperson.  Dual leadership is a good way to balance the workload. For example, let the salesperson lead the team during the client meetings, but let someone else lead the internal strategy and planning sessions.
3. How can we assure that we are aligned on goals and roles? Lack of alignment on goals and roles will cause the team to flounder and potentially fail.
Where Do You Go From Here?
The next newsletter will address the four factors that determine whether your sales strategy is likely to succeed or not.
If you or your sales team are interested in developing a sales strategy, STAR’s Key Account Management workshop teaches the skills and concepts to do so.
For additional newsletters and articles on a variety of sales topics, visit our Newsletters and Articles webpages.
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