Every company needs a professional responsible for managing accounts and maintaining an excellent relationship with clients. A person who is committed to the company’s objective, do you know what position I’m talking about? Of course, I’m referring to the Account Manager.
Digital transformation has influenced the most diverse areas and is reflected in all sectors, as we constantly see in digital marketing , for example. It even greatly influences the way customers consume and increasingly demand more from companies.
It is within this context that a very important function arises in the commercial area: the role of the Account Manager or Account Executive.
Find out why this function is so important within any company and understand a little more about it.
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What is an Account Manager?
In an increasingly competitive business poland telegram data environment, this position emerges with functions that are essential to the success of any company.
The Account Manager or Account Executive is the professional responsible for managing a company’s clients .
It is up to this professional to keep customers satisfied and optimize the company’s performance.
This is no easy task these days. Consumers are increasingly demanding and expect the company they buy from to know them well enough to meet their needs.
This is why the account manager has the challenge of making the user experience unique. The success of any company will depend on this task.
Differences between an account manager and a key account manager
Now that it is clear what an account manager this is what allows is, another very similar term arises: the key account manager.
The Key Account Manager or “KEM” is a professional whose task is quite similar to that of the Account Manager.
The fundamental difference is that the KEM is responsible only for the company’s most important accounts, those that bring the greatest financial returns.
While the Account Manager can handle a large number of clients, the Key Account Manager will only be responsible for a small number of accounts. This number will vary depending on the dynamics of the company and its way of working.
To give an example, we can say that while an Account Manager is in charge of 10 to 20 accounts, a KEM can only be in charge of 1 or 2.
In some cases, depending on the volume of transactions and the size of the company, one KEM is not sufficient to serve a customer. In this case, the KEM is responsible for managing the team responsible for this function.
Satisfying a key customer completely is essential and may not be an easy task. The KEM must interact with other areas of the company to achieve the complete satisfaction of this customer.
Your dedication to important accounts must be total, not only to maintain returns but also to increase them.
What are the duties of an account manager?
Now that we know that the focus of the b2b sale lead Account Manager is to improve the relationship between the client and the company, let’s look at their functions in a little more detail:
Managing information and trends
Information is an ally for the account manager, and by information we mean the broad meaning of the word. This professional needs data on:
- Competitive players : to find out what others can offer our customers.
- customer needs : what we can do to better satisfy them and meet their expectations.
- trends : in this way we will have the ability to take advantage of new opportunities that may arise.
Knowing how to use all the information to your advantage is one of the essential characteristics of a good account manager.
Optimize relationships
Maintaining excellent customer relationships is essential to the success of any account manager.
To do this, it is important to identify the person or people responsible for making decisions within a company.
A good relationship with these people, giving them the confidence and support they need, is essential to keep businesses active.
Managing the business
An account executive must know the business he works in in its entirety, only in this way will he be able to transmit the confidence necessary to do good business.
They must also have the autonomy to create offers and be able to offer the client what they really need without causing harm to the company.
Managing the team
In some cases, the account manager or key account manager, to be more specific, may not be able to handle an account and will therefore need to work with a team.
You must know how to do it in the best possible way so that everyone works in synchrony and the client feels completely supported, through integrated communication.
Managing the strategy
The account executive must be responsible for creating a unique and personalized strategy for each of the clients.
Only in this way will you be able to carry out work with positive results at each stage, which can be verified when analysing the KPIs .
What is the relationship between account managers and digital transformation?
With the digital transformation, the consumption process has taken on new dimensions. Access to information is increasing and with it the demands of customers to satisfy their needs as well.
Competition is growing and the fight for a larger market is increasing every day. What was once limited to large companies has now spread to even the smallest ones.
Digital transformation has democratized the market and allows more and more companies of all sizes to compete for important clients.
Thanks to these changes, account managers are now available to enable companies of various sizes to reach a segment of the market.
By doing a good job, any business, regardless of its size, can reach a sufficient market segment that allows it to continue growing more and more.