Account Development Essentials: Driving Revenue and Profitability by Understanding Your Measurable Value Add

 

I have posted a number of times recently on the topic of Account Development but there is one area that sits within this that I thought would be worth drilling down on further because of its importance to help organisations to:

• Reduce churn

• Increase renewal rates

• Improve close rates

• Increase opportunities

The topic? ………………

 

Driving Revenue and Profitability by Understanding your measurable value add.

In today’s fast paced environment, it is so easy to hurtle forward to the next opportunity / crisis / project, etc and it is noticeable that only the best organisations have the desire to stop and assess their value from the customer’s perspective.

I was thinking about this recently when I was reviewing some research that highlighted a ‘31 point difference in the capability of world class sales organisations to capture and measure the value that they are adding to their strategic accounts vs the average organisation.’

Having discussed and explored this with a number of my recent clients, it is clear that it is something that the best do but the average does not. In fact, the average are often not even aware of the need to do it!

Let’s step back and look at the customer’s perspective:

• Typically external organisations are brought in to provide the capability to execute on a project

• Every project has a mandate

• The mandate then develops into a business case

• The business case typically will highlight specific success criteria

• Customer will buy into the proposal that has a value proposition that outlines how those success criteria will be met

(It is at this point that things often then stop from the sales organisation’s perspective, meanwhile the customer goes on to…)

• Measure the return that they are getting against the benchmark success criteria

Why then do we often not know what the return is?

Often, it is because there is a disconnect between the new business team who uncover the requirements and the account team who manage the ongoing relationship (and who are in the best position to measure value).

The implications of this are significant, for example, if we don’t know the true measurable value add, what happens when the customer asks for a discount because they have been approached by a cheaper competitor? If there is no measurable value add to refer back to it becomes very difficult to negotiate on anything other than price.

What about the new business team’s proactive approaches to new customers – how are they providing a compelling ‘hook’ that persuades the busy decision maker to allocate some of their time?

My suggestion therefore is to think about the cycle below for engaging with your customer where value is at the centre of thinking throughout:

 

 

Call to action:

For each customer engagement as yourself:

• What is the driver for the project?

• What are the customer’s measurable success criteria?

• What is their benchmark level?

• What is the delta in performance that you have helped to drive?

Knowing and understanding this is critical to help you sell on value and keep the spectre of commoditisation away from your front door!

Let me know your thoughts.

 

To talk to us more on account development, please get in touch by emailing info@sbrconsulting.com or call us on +44 (0) 207 653 3740.

At SBR we’re dedicated to providing whatever support our clients require to guide them through the ongoing crisis. You can sign up to receive regular updates and join over 4,000 others who enjoy access to our unique research insights, expert guidance and advice.

Improve your sales now