(Or what your new Vice President or Director of Worldwide Strategic Accounts would accomplish in his first 90 days.)
Why Strategic Accounts? Simple. Customers hate bureaucracy and want a single point of contact. You need sustained growth and a Reliable Revenue Engine. This plan offers what your customers want and you and your shareholders need.
Try this test:
Run a Sales Analysis report showing Customer Lifetime Value, including all revenue sources like services, licenses, maintenance, etc. Sort it by Total Revenue, so your best customers are at the top. Take the top 20% of customers and calculate what percentage of your overall firm’s revenue and profits they represent. The results may shock you. Then ask yourself, “Did we treat these key customers like the very special firms they are? Have we locked our competitors out?”
Looking at “Customer Lifetime Value” across companies one finds frequently that 20% of customers provide about 80% to 98% of profits. But rare indeed is the firms that treats them in a manner that thrills them, while delivering a reliable revenue engine and locking out competitors. It’s NOT about great products. It’s about a strategic, symbiotic bond between a company and its key customers and future customers.
In fact, think about your business. Your shareholders are looking for reliable revenue growth. Your competitors lie awake at night, dreaming up ways to steal your best customers. One could argue that a Strategic Accounts Program is a fiduciary responsibility. You need a plan – and the first good plan deployed wins the battle. Time is of the essence.
In this plan, we pick our best customers and build a small team to get “as close to the sun” as possible – the best possible alignment with the goals of our customers. We will become a true trusted advisor. We’ll deliver sustained revenue growth, providing that Reliable Revenue Engine shareholders want. We’ll lock out our competitors so they don’t stand a chance.
Mine is a low-risk, low-cost pragmatic approach to design, build and deploy a world-class Strategic Accounts Program to protect and grow your Reliable Revenue Engine. At the same time, it breaks down the “walls” between Marketing, Professional Services, Product Development, Pre Sales and Executives.