How To Maintain Lasting Relationships With Key Accounts

The sale of key accounts is a classic topic in channel management. How to maintain and develop the relationship with key accounts?

To put it simply, the manufacturer's key account manager must do one thing well: spend 80% of his time and energy to study how to meet the needs of the 20% major customers. This method of meeting customer needs should be unique and should be difficult to be imitated and surpassed by his competitors.

Let's look at a case where an opponent is hard to imitate.

In August this year, there was a typhoon that did not happen in Zhejiang for 50 years in August.

Our main customer's warehouse is exactly 40 meters away from the seawall. Because of its special location, the insurance company also refused to accept insurance.

After the release of the typhoon emergency warning, the dealer still had a fluke that the typhoon might not have landed locally. Our customer manager had warned him in the past that he had to change the warehouse location and take part in the insurance. The dealer had not been able to move, but this time the situation was not very small. Our client manager rushed to Taizhou and again advised him to pfer the goods to a safe place immediately.

The subsequent typhoons and associated tsunamis were rare in the local history. Another customer in the same warehouse was destroyed, and about 1000000 of the cement was rushed into the sea and destroyed in an instant.

Afterward, the dealer was very scared and was very grateful to our customer manager. Fortunately, he accepted the advice of the manufacturer. Although he spent more than 10 thousand of storage and handling charges at that time, he kept about 600000 worth of goods.

Later, he told our customer manager: in fact, manufacturers can not care about it, because this is entirely the dealer buyout goods, regardless of whether the loss is not related to manufacturers, but you treat me as a real family member. In the future, I have any reason not to cooperate well with manufacturers.

Let's look at a case where it is hard for an opponent to surpass.

Zhou boss is a potential customer of our company in Hubei. Its chain store hypermarket is very successful in the province. It is recognized as the leading figure in the industry and intends to enter the development of local politics.

In September last year, the chain store store opened 3rd Anniversary days. The boss invited the local party and government leaders, business friends and manufacturers suppliers to celebrate.

Zhou boss is a very face saving person. He secretly knows that our company's president of the Asia Pacific region happens to be doing business in Guangzhou, China.

Because foreigners with high nose and blue eyes are rare in the locality, and the local government is vigorously promoting the investment promotion campaign, the arrival of a foreigner from the top 500 in the world, whatever the purpose, is a great thing for Zhou boss. It may also have an impact on his political career.

At that time, the customer manager was very embarrassed, because it was entirely outside the president's trip to China, and was also the boss of his boss. But the client manager was fortunate enough to invite the president of the Asia Pacific region to attend the celebration of Zhou's boss.

Local newspapers scrambled to interview and report. Zhou boss not only had a lot of face in front of local government officials and guests, but also made advertisements for his company free of charge.

After that, Zhou boss was very pleased to say to our customer manager: "your company is so proud of me that it is better than giving me 5 more points."

Look at another case.

Visiting the key accounts is the most routine work of the customer managers. In order to visit more effectively, we request the client manager to visit fixed customers on a fixed day and fixed time on a fixed line of visits every week, no rain or rain, and no appointment with customers. This is an agreement that can not be changed easily unless the customer requests change.

This system, which is very rigid in the eyes of outsiders, has several advantages: standardizes the actions of salesmen; customers believe that the brand of his agent is a company that adheres to commitments; it also brings many benefits to the customer's own work arrangements.

Through our subtle influence, our customers also develop good habits of making plans and observing commitments.

The customer said that he would not cooperate with a salesman who visited a company without appointments, appointments, and punctuality, and who could easily promise a beautiful promise. Who knows tomorrow he will say the same thing to others?

Doing the small things that most customers care about most is that you have touched God, but the revolution has not yet been successful. Price disputes are often the last and most difficult part of the management of big customers.

Large customers usually ask for price concessions based on the quantity of purchases. Our customer managers also like to rely on this way to maintain customer loyalty.

But competitors often have lower prices. In fact, in order to win new customers, competitors can even make lower prices than their original distributors.

Of course, we can use the annual deduction point to restrain the big customers. But this condition based on price concessions can only keep the loyalty of the customers one year. What shall we do in one year?

In that case, we must look for ways to satisfy the needs of large customers besides the price, which is difficult to be imitated and surpassed by their competitors.

In fact, the demand for added value by large customers is far greater than the demand for price.

For example, during the peak season, the priority delivery, staff training plan, and communication channels with the upper and various departments of the company are smooth.

Therefore, enterprises should avoid price disputes with major customers, focusing on services, quality, delivery, technological capabilities and other factors that generate new value, and provide products and services that competitors do not have.

Let's take a look at the case: A distributor is an important customer of our company in Zhejiang. Shipping is its main mode of arrival and pportation. Last year, the biggest problem affecting the sales and profits of A dealers was that our shipping date could not be guaranteed, resulting in the phenomenon of cargo break.

The A dealer claimed that due to the untimely arrival of our company last year, it caused economic losses. If the pport condition is not improved this year, it should be compensated for its corresponding price.

Simply giving price concessions is not a good way to solve this problem. After consulting and discussing with the Logistics Department of the company, the customer manager decided to change the ship to the train during the typhoon season, which will increase the company's pportation part. But we think that this investment is worthwhile for the big customers. It is much more advantageous than simply lowering the price and giving the deduction points, because it is safer and more effective to maintain customer loyalty by improving the service level and other added value.

Of course, customers are also very satisfied with such handling.

Most of the products run by big clients are usually very large. Because of the limited management level, it is sometimes impossible to know the inventory and sales status of various products.

Or the A dealer, whose warehousing sales site has several thousand square meters, must use closed-circuit television to manage his goods.

It is the most valuable service to the dealer that the sales representatives of the factory place orders according to the market trend and inventory status before signing them by the customers.

Think of a dealer who enjoys such a close fitting service, and how much courage can he leave you in the arms of others?

If an enterprise does a good job in meeting the value added requirements of its large customers, while paying more attention to the emotional investment in big clients and doing every little thing for the customers, the big customers will have a strong dependence on the enterprises, and the difficulty of the competitors to imitate and replace them will be greater.

Even if your competitors offer lower prices, big customers may be worried about whether they will deliver the goods in time, the quality of products, the communication costs with new manufacturers, and the impact of channel operation. After all, they are familiar with the old ones.