- Acquire a toolkit of excellent communication skills
- Build lasting customer relationships
- Run powerful and effective client meetings
Overview
Account Management is about creating a relationship with one or more customers and then understanding and actively influencing their current, medium and long-term requirements for products and services. We begin by covering twenty influencing skills that can be used to build positive working relationships with key customer personnel. Next we explore a six step planning process that we use to set goals for the year that are clear and challenging. The final step is learning to run dynamic and focused meetings with key people from within the account using the Boulden Prosper system™.
Learning objectives
By attending this highly interactive two-day course you will:
- Gain an insight into the ‘golden rules’ of successful account management
- Understand how to ‘cross sell’ in order to win more business from your customers
- Acquire a ‘toolbox’ of tried and tested influencing skills that will help you create and maintain rapport with the key decision makers
- Discover a simple yet authoritative planning process for setting annual sales goals for each account
- Master an elegant seven stage process for running high impact face to face customer meetings
Who should attend?
People with some experience of Account Management but with little or no formal training, who wish to further develop their skills.
Day 1
The inner game of Account Management
The phrase the ‘inner game’ is a term borrowed from sports psychology. It is a reference to the fact that what is going on inside a person’s head (their state of mind) is crucial to good performance. Here we consider the role perception and beliefs of expert Account Managers.
- Examining your current beliefs
- Reviewing expert beliefs
- Making changes that you feel are appropriate for you
Pairs exercise: applying the ‘Future Pacing’ technique
Day 1 (cont)
Influencing skills
The ability to influence and persuade is the key competency of Account Managers. Here we cover twenty influencing tools grouped into five ‘sets’ or topics. Mastery of this skills toolbox, which is based on NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) concepts, allows expert Account Managers to conduct face-to-face meetings with elegance and precision.
Creating rapport
Building a sense of trust and partnership with clients. Gaining a psychological ‘connection’ with other people.
- Matching and leading body language
- Matching and leading values
- Matching and leading jargon
- Matching and leading on sensory based language
Pairs exercise: practising the pacing and leading technique
Day 1 (cont)
Effective listening
Tuning into the underlying message that is being transmitted by the client or customer by paying close attention to their non-verbal behaviour.
- Notice non verbal behaviour
- Calibration
- Position perception
Pairs exercise: developing listening skills
Needs definition
This set of tools is concerned with asking high quality questions that map out precisely the client or customers’ needs and requirements.
- The logical levels concept
- Moving up logical levels
- Moving down logical levels
- Softeners
Pairs exercise: conducting logical levels interviews
Day 1 (cont)
Yes sets
Building a history of agreement into the conversation so that the other person gets into the habit of agreeing with you. These techniques help to generate a positive tone to the whole of a meeting, from the initial remarks to agreeing the way forward.
- Summarising
- Reframing
- Behaviour labelling
- Conditional close
Pairs exercise: handling objections with reframing
Dealing with Resistance
Using assertive tools combined with NLP techniques to explore and overcome obstacles that may be put up by a customer when discussing a particular topic or issue.
- Pointers
- Truth test question
- Feel/Felt/Found
- Use of metaphor
- Three step assertive technique
Pairs exercise: developing powerful metaphors using the three step technique
Day 2
The Boulden Account Planning process™
The Boulden Account Planning Process™ is in six steps. Completing the process enables the Account Manager to understand what actions they need to take in order to build and maintain their business relationship with each of the customers or clients that they are responsible for.
- Account database - Capture key pieces of background information e.g. size of organisation, contact telephone numbers, past buying history etc.
- Identify the Decision - Identify the ‘key’ people in the customer’s organisation as far as our Making Unit product is concerned. Develop a plan to build/maintain good working relationships with these people.
- Set ‘sales targets’ - Set specific, measurable targets for what we want from each account e.g. volume of business, prompt payment of invoices etc.
- Set ‘service targets’ - Set specific, measurable targets for what we are willing to do for each account e.g. deliver to set service standards, ensure a given level of product performance, provide marketing support etc.
- Create scorecards - Track the progress that is being made against sales and service targets by capturing them in a single document – (called a scorecard.)
- Develop an action plan - Identify the main activities that need to be taken in order to achieve the targets listed on the scorecards.
Case study: working with the Boulden Account Planning Process™
Day 2 (cont)
The Boulden Prosper System™
The Boulden Prosper System™ is a seven-step process for running powerful and effective review meetings with clients and customers.
Setting the scene
Looking in-depth at the first three stages in the Boulden Prosper System™. This involves setting clear goals for the meeting, establishing a relaxed atmosphere and confirming the topics that are to be discussed.
- Prepare the agenda
- Rapport building
- Outline the topics to be discussed
Pairs exercise: drafting the agenda
Day 2 (cont)
Understanding the customers point of view
Working with logical levels diagrams to identify customer needs, opinions and thoughts regarding each agenda item so we know precisely why they hold a particular point of view and how specifically they would like to move forward.
- Seek the customers’ views
- Probe the customers’ views
- Identify opportunities for ‘cross selling’ and ‘up selling’
Pairs exercise: probing to develop needs
Day 2 (cont)
Agreeing the way forward
Explaining how we think each issue should be dealt with and if appropriate challenging the customers’ views and suggesting alternatives before formally noting down what has been agreed.
- Express your views
- Record outcomes
Pairs exercise: putting an alternative point of view
Case studies
The use of role-plays to practise moving through all seven stages of the BMC Prosper System™ in one session.
Group exercise: role-plays
Feedback
Feedback is based upon peer review using a Boulden assessment checklist. Completing the assessment checklists is not only valuable to the people involved in a given case study, it also helps those completing them to gain an in-depth understanding of the building blocks that make up excellent Account Management.
Remote Training
All of our workshops can be delivered as Remote Training via e-learning modules plus Zoom based virtual workshops. Please see our Virtual Training page for more information.
