Managing Major Account Info Overload

Major account managers are a strategic lot of sales professionals and the lifeblood of your organization.

In order to monitor the avalanche of information available on huge accounts, these managers must fine-tune their sleuthing and selection skills.

Since the information universe is ever expanding, it is important for major account executives to know what to track.  Selling Power, a site for sales leaders, suggests the following focal points for customer knowledge:

• Business strategy, business models, cost structure, profit sources, and financial changes.
• Economic environment.
• Competition and the competition’s business model and strategy.
• The customers’ customers. Understand how they attract and create customers.
• The industry they live in.
• Legal challenges and partnerships.
• Key executives, their roles and key executive changes.

For more on what information to track and some of the challenges faced when mining all this data, read the full article at Selling Power.  Additional clarification is presented in the video titled “The Role of Strategic Account Management,” featuring Bernard Quancard, president and CEO of the Strategic Account Management Association.