Account Strategy for Major Sales

Programme content

The Buying Cycle
• The psychological phases of complex, comparative buying behaviour.

Account entry strategy – how to find and use the:
• focus of Receptivity
• focus of Dissatisfaction
• focus of Power.

Buying criteria
• Principles of competitive advantage – macro and micro, hard and soft differentiators.
• Decision guidelines – how customers evaluate competitive offerings.
• How to influence decision guidelines in your favour.

Customer concerns about risk
• Why sales stall close to the decision.
• Why selling skills don't help.
• How to resolve concerns to your advantage.

Implementation
• The 'motivation dip' and why it happens.
• Strategies to avoid motivation dip.

Account development
• Pro-active strategies to maintain your dominant position and handle competition.
• Building the long-term partnership.

Training design and methodology

This programme teaches a combination of strategic concepts, planning processes and skills. Its overriding objective is to ensure that trainees improve their effectiveness by integrating research theory into their real life selling strategy.

To achieve this the programme is structured as a workshop. Teams compete to make a major sale to a simulated key account. As the major concepts, processes or skills are introduced, trainees have to apply them to the simulation, make tactical decisions and roleplay with members of the simulated 'buying team'. They then receive objective feedback and evaluation of their performance.

After each key phase of the workshop, trainees apply their learning to create a strategic real-case campaign, which is formally presented to the trainers (and/or the trainees' own senior managers) on the last afternoon of the programme.

Materials

There are a number of exercises to consolidate learning, plus a library of user-friendly reference material giving detailed explanation of key concepts.

Trainees also receive 'The Toolbox', a system to help them devise, execute and monitor their campaign strategies for both the simulation and real cases.

Achieving maximum impact

In addition to skills and strategies described above, Account Strategy for Major Sales provides a process for major account management. Unless this process is customised and integrated into existing processes, and unless Sales Management actively supports it, ASMS can be no more than a high quality training course. We therefore seek the opportunity to work with senior managers before implementation to ensure that productive and sustained change can be achieved.