Point system for ranking accounts
Sales = Unlimited points
Relationship = 30 points
Market/Guests = 20 points
Sales
Quantitative, sales figures
Bottle per month = 1 point
Example: C3 sells 7 cases per month = 49 bottles = 49 points
Relationship
Qualitative, Five Star system
1 star = Bad relationship = Actively against us = 0 points
2 stars = No relationship = Neutral = 5 points
3 stars = Early relationship = They know us = 10 points
4 stars = Good relationship = They like us = 20 points
5 stars = Great relationship = They love us = 30 points
Market and Guests
Qualitative, Five Star system
1 star = Bad market for us = Location or target customer is not aligned = 0 points
2 stars = Neutral market = Location or target customer is unknown or neutral = 5 points
3 stars = Average market = Market or target customer is mixed or average = 10 points
4 stars = Good market = Market or target customer is aligned with ours = 15 points
5 stars = Great market = Market or target customer is perfect for us = 20 points
Develop a quality and/or quantity based rating system for accounts: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum
Tag each account in CRM with its rating so we can find them
What is the drum beat of touches? Once a month for maintenance, once a week for growth?
Establish the schedule for reaching out to leads that asked to be followed up with at a later date.
Multiple Cardinal team members can visit each account, even if it’s “owned” by Doug or Adam. And talk to bartenders and servers as well as decision makers.
POS placement of glassware, signage, coasters
Menu placement
Cardinal special one night
Cardinal special on-going certain day of week
On-site event featuring Cardinal Spirits
Staff training on-site to learn about our spirits
Owner/manager/key person distillery tour
Staff distillery tour
New SKU placement
Custom spirit or label
Display stand in store
Display stand in prime floor real estate
POS placement of recipe pads or signage
Key person knows you by name
Dinner, lunch, or drinks with key person/people
Develop and script a steady “drip” campaign for next 25 accounts who might need more information or a stronger relationship before sales can begin to increase.
Include “about us” type videos, cocktail videos, cocktail recipes, snippets of information about each spirit you are pitching them, physical swag like a tshirt, other gifts.
1. Key Information tells us what we need to know about the key account.
2. The Long Term Plan allows us to gain a clear picture of where we are trying to go (Objectives) and how we plan to get there (Strategy).
3. The Short Term Plan concerns the actions we must take over the coming weeks.
4. The Traffic Lights give us a quick, accurate picture of our current position and how we should move forward.
Global, Corporate and Project.
Global information looks at the big picture, the world in which the major account operates.
Corporate information is about understanding the business you are dealing with. It is a broader, more commercial picture than the selling information. Many people who do not think in major account terms will feel this is not needed and ignorance in any of these areas creates a potential “banana-skin”.
Project Information: The third level of information is Project Information. This is the information we need in order to be able to sell a specific product, service etc. to the key account. It is the information which a good major account salesperson should be gathering all the time.
h2. 4. Traffic Lights:
• What are the factors that are in your favour? E.g. Product is approved, strong personal relationship. These are the green lights.
• What are the factors that are absolutely against you, that stop you achieving an objective? E.g. Kicked off preferred list, operations manager swears not to use you until xyz improves. these are the red lights.
• What are the factors which could go either way? E.g. Change of Financial Director, they buy a new Company. These are the amber lights.
It Can Only Be Done With Selected Customers
The final word from this definition is selected. Choosing the right major accounts is of critical importance for three main reasons:
• We do not have the resources to treat every customer as a major account.
• Not every customer wants to be treated as a major account.
• Selection allows us to prioritise our activities in line with our overall business objectives.
Many organisations grade their major accounts simply by the size of sales for the year but the organisations we see that are really moving forward in Major Account Management take a number of other factors into account. They also make sure that everybody knows who the major accounts are and why they are major accounts. It is important to be selective with the selection criteria you use! You will also need to apply some form of weighting to reflect your priorities. The fact that a major account does not meet all your criteria will not disqualify it from being a major account. It will just need to score higher in other areas to qualify.
The Key Skills
• Understanding the financial and legal requirements of the account
• Understanding of the company’s business objectives
• Understanding of the company’s commercial policies
• Build high levels of product awareness
• Understanding of the customer’s business objectives
• Identify the decision makers
• Understand the customer’s purchasing strategy
• Assess competitive activities
• Put together an account development plan
• Ensure effective sales order processing
• Build the right levels of revenue and profitability
• The Stages Of A Long Term Process
• Pre-sales
• Contract negotiation
• Implementation / Delivery
• Review
• Exploitation
Objectives For An Account Team
• Ensure that the customer is presented with a coherent and professional image of your Company as a business partner.
• Secure a long term business relationship with the customer as the basis for growing business.
• Penetrate the customer’s organisation and decision making unit creating new opportunities that can be exploited to accelerate account growth.
• Understand and document, on an ongoing basis, the customer organisations strategic business direction and organisation.
• Provide the company’s senior management team with feedback on the long term growth potential in the customer’s market sector and on critical success factors for exploiting it.
• Ensure that the company’s solutions are technically solid and based on a proper understanding of the current requirements and re-inforce the customer’s perception of the benefits of the company’s market focus.
• Ensure that the company’s total resource is delivered in a way that satisfies customer requirements and supports the objectives of the account plan.
