Strategic accounts managers are responsible for managing the business relationships with an organization’s larger customers, known as Strategic accounts or key accounts.
Since Decision Logic sells SaaS to client partners in markets of Strategic, Enterprise, and small to medium-sized business sectors. The Strategic market represents our larger customers or accounts where the business leaders are positioned to represent a larger impact partner. Strategic accounts are considered to represent 100 units and above unless otherwise decided by Operations and Sales as strategically poised for growth or expansion to other brands.
The account managers have an internal role, in assisting with sales activities to achieve success for each account and an external role, liaising with decision-makers in the customer organization to assess their needs and provide relevant upgrades to products and services.
Account managers require a minimum of a high school diploma and previous sales and/or account management experience, or equivalent operations experience. At a senior level, candidates for the position should a bachelor’s degree in business administration, marketing, or a related subject and substantial experience in the organization’s market sector. In this case, that could be technology, hospitality, strategic clients, and ideally a combination.
Account managers represent an organization’s important customers. The account manager collaborates with the Sr. Strategic team and Client Success to develop a plan to maximize sales/upgrade opportunities while protecting loyalty by ensuring the highest levels of customer satisfaction. This position identifies the important decision-makers, sets out a contact strategy for building relationships with multiple decision-makers, face off models for the executive and leadership teams and outlines potential revenue opportunities for each product that the organization sells to the account. This role works to lock down recurring revenue, maintain customer lifetime value, and look for opportunities to expand.
The account manager seeks to gain product knowledge to build confidence of customers, teammates, and help customers achieve their goals with the product. The work to gain an understanding of the current roadmap, and help the customers achieve ROI and maximize stickiness in the relationship. Account managers advocate for the client in prioritization meetings while helping the company balance business objectives for overall maximum growth.
This role will set up a meeting cadence agreed upon with their accounts sharing development and roadmap items, account progress, engagement in the system, and ROI.
To increase ROI to customers, account managers must influence many different decision-makers, including admins, champions, operators/franchisees, senior executives and managers of departments that use the product or service. The account manager determines the role each decision-maker plays, calculates his/her relative importance and influence and maintains the relationship throughout the purchasing process. They bring potential risk and issues to the executive and management teams and strategize risk mitigation. They also bring confidence to the stakeholders and decision makers through delivering how the company’s overall business objectives meet the industry needs which benefit the accounts.
Account teams collaborate with marketing and product development teams to coordinate programs that will build business with key customers. They provide marketing colleagues with information on customer needs so that the marketing team can create communication programs that maintain a high level of contact with decision-makers and keep them up to date with the organization’s products and services. Account executives work with product development teams to understand new products and improve existing products to meet the needs of key accounts.
Customers represent the largest proportion of an organization’s revenue; the loss of a customer could prove extremely damaging. Account executives work with customer service and technical colleagues to see that the customer receives the highest standards of service from all parts of the organization. They also monitor competitive activity to identify any threat to the business. By building strong relationships and maintaining customer satisfaction, the account executives aim to create a level of loyalty that competitors find hard to overcome.
Conducting bi-annual(at minimum) or quarterly business reviews are needed to maintain high levels of communication with all the stakeholders. Additionally, maintaining a pulse on development priorities, and delivering roadmap discussions help build confidence and trust with the clients.
This position has the growth potential for cross training, increased leadership opportunities to Senior Strategic Accounts, Sales Support/Sales Engineering, Director status, and potential in other departments. The Senior level individual brings deep understanding of the product and industry to help guide and train Strategic account management team in offering existing solutions to their partners/clients, as well as offer business case for future enhancements. They seek to do what is right for the client and the team. They look for solutions and how those are best achieved.
To become a leader of the team, this individual would work with operations, client services, and development to balance needs of accounts with the overall growth of the product and the company. The team member would need to insure success in their current department before cross training and multi-department support would be available.
Requirements
Account managers require a minimum of a high school diploma and previous sales and/or account management experience, or equivalent operations experience. At a senior level, candidates for the position should a bachelor’s degree in business administration, marketing, or a related subject and substantial experience in the organization’s market sector. In this case, that could be technology, hospitality, strategic clients, and ideally a combination.
Benefits
