Why “Account” Management?

The term “Account” is deliberate. Organizations could have called the role and function Customer Management or Client Management. However, the term “Account” refers to more than just a person or an entity on the other side. It refers to a return expected on an investment made by a person or entity. In other words, the supplier is expecting business results, which may vary based on the type of account, through the investment and effective management of time and money.

What “type of account”?

“Type of account” is an ambiguous but an all-important phrase. It is the Account Manager's guide to create a road map to understand, manage and grow the customer account. “Type of Account” defines two key factors:

•  Expected operational and business results of the customer

•  Expected operational and business results of the organization

These two factors, in essence, should form the foundation of “Account Management.”

The client may be looking for profitability, ability to focus on the core business, operational efficiency, organizational stability, risk mitigation, service or quality enhancement, growth or access to better infrastructure, which the supplier should be able to provide through its own core competencies and scale.

On the other hand, the supplier organization may be looking for certain performance criteria based on size, importance, prestige, entry into new service or product lines, long-term growth or short-term opportunities.

The Account Management function should prioritize customer needs and organization needs as required and derive its individual and team objectives.

Defining and Managing Objectives

If the customers' profiles and their needs are analyzed, and further, the organization's expectations from the Account are defined, Account Management activities as relevant to the specific customer account take shape.

The Account Manager is, then, in a position to define objectives and set up a model to manage these objectives. this is done by managing two key factors:

Opportunities: It is important that opportunities are continuously targeted and sourced. this does not necessarily mean growth opportunities. this could mean enhancing the Quality of Services (QoS) and meeting the key requirements of the supplier and the customer. For example, if focusing on sales was the reason for a customer to buy into the suppliers' services, the Account Manager should look for opportunities that frees up the buyer's time towards sales.

Resources: Deploying and managing appropriate resources is the second key factor that contributes to managing objectives. the key word here is “appropriate.” It is often easy to throw resources into an Account to achieve the desired results. However, this is inefficient and expensive and can affect the long-term opportunities with the Account due to bottom-line issues. Typically, this method is not sustainable and may result in achieving client-side goals but missing internal requirements or vice-versa.

Managing objectives, both internal and external, as seen above have a clearly defined inward focused and an outward focused approach.

The Outward Approach: Managing relationships

The outward approach is based on the Account Managers' relationship with their account contact(s). It is through these contacts that opportunities are identified and acted upon. To make and maintain these contacts, firstly, it is important to manage the contacts' expectations to ensure that the relationship is mutually beneficial. However, it is very important to note that ‘being real' is an integral part

of managing expectations to enhance client contacts' perception of the Account Manager and the organization and also to get internal support from colleagues and peers. Secondly, contacts have to be maintained at various levels within the organization because an opportunity might lie in an unrelated department in the organization and may not come to the attention of the purchasing individual. Thirdly, it is important to keep close to the market chain because an opportunity or threat may lie anywhere between the Account Manager's own suppliers to the end-user. For example, if your client's competitors are moving on to a new technology that brings in significant process and bottom line improvements, it could mean lost business for the client, resulting in lost revenue for the supplier organization. Keeping a regular pulse on the market is, therefore, critical to the success of building a win-win relationship.

The inward focus: Managing resources

The inward focus is towards ensuring that the Account Manager has access to the required resources and that the resources are managed to gain optimal bottom line results.

The key resources are:

Infrastructure – Ensure that all infrastructure related elements like space, telephones etc. are provided and that they are in optimum condition. the Account Manager would have to think through the best use of these elements such as working across shifts etc.

Technology:	A laundry list of the technology required for the project are to be produced and the appropriate parties informed well in advance. Note that this is probably the most volatile of all resources and managing this as early as possible in the process may be vital.

People – It is important to map the skill-set requirements by account and to ensure that the skill-sets are required for the Account. Retaining and managing them to ensure that all parties involved are benefited through this cross-dimensional relationship could be key to an Account team.

In conclusion:	1.  Account Management involves managing the relationship for the present      and future. 2. Effective Account Management could provide the much needed competitive      advantage in the market. 3. Effective Account Management could give the organization key-supplier       status in the market.
Most importantly, when managing internal and external aspects of Account Management, the key to success would be to monitor the revenue and bottom-line and ensure profitability of the Account.