Get your FREE 30-day trial.
Please complete all fields.
Who’s your best customer? The one that pays you the most? One that you’ve sold to the longest? Neither? Both? Sales organizations that don’t know the answers to this question are probably not making the best use of their resources.
Strategic accounts are not always the largest, but they are significant for reasons unique to your company. Identifying these accounts allows you to focus on the initiatives most likely to generate revenue.
Miller Heiman’s research has shown that 85% of what we call “World-Class Sales Organizations”—the best of the best—have established specific criteria to define a strategic account. In fact, this practice is one of the factors that make these organizations successful.
High-value customers expect, and deserve, special consideration. But in many companies, the default practice is to lavish attention on new clients, regardless of their strategic value, while taking a “maintenance mode” approach to established accounts.
The way to turn this around is to use objective, fact-based, non-political criteria to categorize accounts. Your best accounts need to be managed, nurtured and grown. Review your sales history with each customer and consider:
Then regularly review accounts to decide dispassionately where allocating your limited resources will have the most impact. Remember, relationships carry a cost. The various types of sales resources assigned to strategic accounts are expensive and scarce in most organizations. Don’t waste them.
About the author
Joe Galvin leads the Miller Heiman Research Institute as Chief Research Officer. His mission is to continuously research, measure, and analyze the best practices, innovations, and emerging trends for complex B2B sales organizations to provide clients with the insights required to make strategic decisions.
Read how CRM can help you nurture and grow your customer relationships in this free e-book.
