KEY ACCOUNT GROWTH
Executive Summary
A global technology and IT consulting firm transformed its sporadic and resource-intensive Key Account Management Program into an efficient, high-performing growth engine, achieving double-digit growth in 50 key customer accounts.The Challenge
In the competitive landscape of technology and IT consulting, the client faced significant challenges with its Key Account Management Program. Despite some successes, the program was inconsistent and inefficient. Sales teams were skeptical about its value, marketing resources were stretched thin, and previous centralized initiatives had failed to deliver sustainable results.
Senior leadership set a clear objective: achieve double-digit growth in 50 key customer accounts. The challenge was to turn this sporadic success into a scalable and reliable growth strategy.
The Journey Begins
The journey began with in-depth consultations with the account teams to understand their goals and past program failures. The objectives were clear:
- improve the company’s image
- increase RFIs and RFPs
- expand into new buying centers
- meet more buyers
- increase and retain revenue.
However, achieving these goals within the existing constraints seemed daunting.
The Solution
The solution emerged from the realization that the new program needed to be personalized, quick to implement, easy to scale, and impact driven. The program design incorporated a 5-step framework, focusing on simplicity and required minimal time commitment from the account leads and their teams—only one hour per month.
The Five Step Framework
- Discovery of the business objectives & internal capabilities
- Design a simple & smart key account program that leverages your existing content infrastructure & teams
- Build and onboard the key components and technologies that will support the program
- Activate the monthly program to protect and grow wallet share
- Scale to meet the account and go-to-market team’s needs
Key Features:
- Minimal Time Commitment: Required only one hour per month from account teams.
- Tailored Communication: Monthly communications tailored to each account’s short, mid, and long-term objectives.
- Scalable and Flexible: Leveraged existing resources to build a foundational program customizable to specific account needs.
This new approach ensured the program was account-specific, team-driven, timely, intelligent, and agile. It moved away from the previous one-size-fits-all methodology, focusing instead on hyper consistency and measurable impact.
The Transformation
The implementation of the program led to significant transformations and achievements:The Impact
The outcomes were impressive:
- Account Growth: Achieved in 100% of customer accounts.
- Buyer Group Awareness: Increased by 250%.
- RFP Increase: 30% rise in the number of RFPs received.
After meeting the foundational objectives the program was then scaled to include an additional 200 enterprise customer accounts.
Conclusion
By industrializing its Key Account Management Program, the global technology and IT consulting firm achieved its strategic growth objectives. The program’s focus on personalization, scalability, and minimal time commitment turned a struggling initiative into a robust growth engine, fostering a strong partnership between marketing and sales.
Key Takeaways for Senior Executives
- Industrialized Approach: Streamline and scale key account management programs.
- Personalization: Tailor strategies to specific account needs.
- Collaboration: Strengthen sales and marketing partnerships.
- Resource Efficiency: Design programs requiring minimal time from account teams.
“Thank you for a terrific partnership in helping us deliver real value outcomes.
Your effort, commitment, agility, quality, and attitude are highly valued.”
Director, Global ABM Programs
This case study demonstrates that with a strategic, industrialized approach, businesses can transform their key account management programs into high-performing growth engines, achieving remarkable success even amidst resource constraints.
