KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Key Account Management (KAM) is a professional sales approach which involves the supplier and client’s business working together to gain understanding of each other business and achieve common goals. Identifying your key clients allows you to then work with their Architects, Engineers and Contractors, taking a more holistic approach to your specification strategy.

This is not a simple Buyer-Seller relationship, you need to involve people from all aspects of your business and work together with your client’s business to find better ways of doing things. Cost savings are achieved by re-engineering processes, reducing inventory and avoiding unnecessary activity. Cost savings are also achieved as a result of a better understanding of each others business, and importantly, are shared by both parties.

Key Account Management allows you to deliver what you customer truly wants.

1 Why should you offer Key Account Management?

Unless your company has the lowest cost base in its sector it cannot expect to succeed with a policy of cutting prices. The alternative is to offer your customers best value. Key Account Management will help you to understand your client’s business, propose new ways of doing things and build stronger business relationships. Making it much harder for your competitors to sell to your customers.

By entering into KAM relationships you will:

• build stronger relationships with your customers • gain an advantage over your competitors • reduce the issue of price (because of the value you provide) • encourage customer loyalty

2 Who should you offer Key Account Management to?

Because of its complexity KAM is expensive to implement and can only be applied to a select (key) number of clients. They need to be chosen carefully. The client’s organisation must be able to understand the process