Making sure that your most important customers increase their spending with your company is a crucial revenue strategy. But are your sales teams really building effective and executable plans for growing your key accounts? Are you leaving money on the table with your best opportunities for growth? Most companies are. This webinar features guest Mark Lindwall of Forrester.

1. How to Drive Key Account Growth
Mark Lindwall, Senior Analyst
Wednesday, 22 October 2014

2. Agenda
› Are You Leaving Money On The Table?
› Key Account Growth Strategies
› Engage Buyers With Empathy
› Embrace Complex Decision Making
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3. Are You Leaving Money On The
Table?
Understand accounts at a deeper level
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4. Account?
What is an account?
Account?
Account?
Account?
Account?
Organize Accounts By Legal Definition
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7. Leaving Money On the Table
Account win = $3.6 million!
Looking through the lens of FedEx as a legally defined entity, Forrester
estimates that FedEx spends roughly $395 million on storage.
FedEx Source:
Total Revenue (TTM) 44,287 (Million) Morningstar
IT Budget as a % of Revenue 7% $ 3,100 (Million) Forrester
Spend on Infrastructure 75% $ 2,325 (Million) Forrester
Spend on Storage 17% $ 395 (Million) Forrester
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10. Accounts are complex, but they are also
entirely knowable – with the right approach
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11. Implications for territory planning
Make a customer list based on a legal construct:
• Define and organize entities using legal and financial
standards
• Segment territories and accounts to best solve
customer problems.
Assign accounts based on how a company is legally
structured and defined:
•Map current spending and identify upside opportunities
inside existing accounts.
• Align resources to best solve customer problems.
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12. Determine Your Account Growth
Strategy
Use the Five-E Framework
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13. Not all buyers are the same
B A
D C

14. Drive key account growth by moving from existing to
desired relationship levels
C A
D B
Extend
Sell more
products to
new budgets
centers
Enrich
Sell same
more of same
to existing
buyers
Enlarge
Elevate
Sell
transformation
solutions to C-level
execs
Expand
Sell process
solutions to
current or new
departments
Sell new or
complimentary
products to existing
buyers
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15. Implications for account planning
Inventory your account relationships:
• Analyze relationships at and within each relevant
business entity.
• Identify which buyers you currently work with and what
their decision drivers or motivations are.
Establish one or more of the five strategies, to
move relationships to higher value:
• Make rep assignments based on ability to align with
relevant buyer types.
• Establish accountable account plans and supporting
actions to elevate relationship value.
C A
D B
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16. Sample Visualization
to Segment/Prioritize Accounts
Potential Value
Current Performance

17. Sample Visualization –
Large Account Strategy
FedEx Supply Chain
FedEx Trade Network
FedEx Home Delivery
FedEx Home SmartPost
FedEx Custom Critical
FedEx Office
FedEx TechConnect
FedEx Freight
d
FedEx Services
d
FedEx SupplyChain
d
FedEx Ground
High Low
Penetration
Tactical Strategic
Solution

18. The Answer Is Buyer Empathy.
What’s Your Question?
Understand buyers at a deeper level
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19. Common meeting agendas of sellers
Source: Forrester Q4 2013 Global Executive Buyer Insights Survey

20. What makes a conversation valuable for
executives
Source: Forrester Report - “What Do Executive Buyers Find Valuable?“

21. Salespeople are misaligned with
executive buyers
Are vendor sales people frequently prepared for your meetings in the
following ways?

22. Salespeople are misaligned with
executive buyers
Are vendor sales people frequently prepared for your meetings in the
following ways?

23. Howoftendoyouaccept follow-on
meetings?
26%Average
14%UK
10%US
IT decision-makers Business decision-makers
Base: 418 Global IT and business decision makers
Source: Executive expectations of sales interactions online survey, Q4, 2012
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24. You get delegated to the people you
sound like
…and relegated to their spending
authority as well

25. You get delegated to the people you
sound like……so message to their level

26. Implications for aligning with buyers
› Close gaps in buyer empathy, executive
selling skills, knowledge, and behavior
› Improve account and buyer planning
› Provide buyer-centric sales content
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27. Embrace Your Customers’ Decision
Making Process
Navigate Agreement Networks
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28. A traditional sales relationship
Your Seller
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29. A more complex view of relationships
CIO
Vice-President
Manager
Your Seller
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30. Today companies are an interconnected
web of domains and processes
Processes
Integrated workflows
… comprised of many different departments
and groups – each with budgets

31. Decisions and funding are determined
by agreement networks
Your Seller
Multiple sales within a sale…
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32. Implications for navigating agreement
networks
Altitude Levels
Role Maps
Understand buyers altitudes and desired outcomes:
• Determine what level of buyers will be involved in
decisions for your solutions.
• Identify which buyers you currently work with and what
their decision drivers or motivations are.
Inventory your account relationships:
• Analyze relationships at and within each relevant
business entity.
• Identify which buyers you currently work with and what
their decision drivers or motivations are.

33. CEO Level
CXO Level
VP Level

34. Key takeaways
1. Sales and marketing professionals must understand
and plan for growth across complex accounts.
2. Inventory account relationships and grow using
strategies to elevate buyer value.
3. Prepare reps solve business problems (vs. pitching
products) to align with executive buyers and budgets.
4. Equip reps to navigate agreement networks who make
decisions and fund purchases.
5. To capture more wallet share sales teams need
information and planning tools to execute growth
strategies in key accounts.
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35. Thank you
Mark Lindwall
mlindwall@forrester.com
@MarkLindwall