This five-day course will show you how to adopt a practical approach to planning, analysing and implementing a closer relationship with your strategic accounts and defend profitable customers against hungry competitors. This seminar looks beyond the traditional view of sales and marketing as a management activity focused on generating revenue from satisfied customers and dwell deeper into the web of relationships that surrounds organizations and how they operate within this network in order to be successful. It focuses on the development of mutually beneficial relationships with an organization’s stakeholders, explores the tactics and strategies used to develop or improve the image and reputation of an organization, and examines the principles of customer acquisition and retention.

Major highlights of the course:

• Understand customers better and how longer term relationships can add value to organisations

• Acquire the tools and techniques necessary in developing client relationships to strategically benefit you and the organisation

• Gain an appreciation of key & strategic accounts and increasing confidence in managing these

• Deploy the marketing mix to think – and act - cohesively and focuses the resources appropriately in the development of key accounts

• Generate an understanding of the total process of relationship marketing and strategic market planning

By the end of this programme participants will be able to:

• Create and nurture sustainable accounts relationships that maximize annual revenue and accounts retention

• Understand the principles of strategic accounts management and the importance of major growth customers

• Evaluate methods to defend key accounts against competitors & the importance of keeping relationship fresh through an accounts plan

• Analyse organisations’ current relationship marketing strategies & make right decisions when deploying limited resources to achieve the best returns

• Generate recommendations for improving & embedding a relationship marketing orientation through appropriate strategies & techniques

This course is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• Aspiring and new accounts professionals aiming to develop their planning and customer management skills

• Existing accounts professionals who wish to augment their current knowledge and skills in this area.

• Other professionals involved in accounts management & client development such as:

  • Accounts professionals

  • Client service professionals

  • Sales professionals

  • Marketing and product professionals

  • Business development professionals

Learning and teaching within this seminar will be based on a series of mixed-mode lecturer-facilitation and seminar work in a workshop style. The intention is to explore the concepts of accounts management and client development in depth, applying lecture content in a practical context. Frequent use will be made of student-led discussions to encourage the application of learning, communication skills, and group work.

Day One

Developing a Client

• Course overview and learning objectives

• Understanding your organisation and how it thinks about account management

• Marketing and the relationship with client development

• Planning and managing the meeting

• Developing clients as part of a team

• Reducing the gestation period of sales

Day Two

Client Based Strategy

• The logic of a sales strategy

• Writing clear and objective proposals

• Market based strategies

• How to present your money offer in an attractive way

• Simple strategies for immediate gain

• Develop yourself as a product

Day Three

Understanding Key Accounts

• The role of the key account manager

• Basics of long term relationships

• Key account planning: analysis of the key account

• Analysis of the competition

Day Four

Processes of Account Management

• Planning your process for effective account management

• Developing a strategy for your customer base

• Strategies to assist with key account planning

• Managing the key account relationship and relationship marketing

• Establishing your own internal and external networks

• Building client relationships that last

Day Five

Critical issues for Long Term Success

• Partnering with key accounts and insights to Strategic Account Management

• Global account management

• Strategic market planning

• Differentiating yourself

• Course review and participant feedback