Key Account Manager Skills And Competencies
The kam is tasked with defining the individual approach of the sales personnel to specific consumers in order to create strong and lasting relationships.
Key account manager skills and competencies. Key account management kam defines the relationship between the business and the consumers. Top 6 key account management skills. Top 10 skills and expertise you need as account manager. Leaders in any function need some key skills in order to manage people lead strategy and model organizational values and mission.
Competencies for key account managers a view from a practitioner taskforce acknowledgments this report is based on the work of the group exploring key account manager competencies in 2005 6 from warwick business school s strategic sales and customer management network. If you ve recently been surprised by the loss of a key account or if you suspect a key customer may be on the verge of jumping ship it may be time to check in with your key account managers and be sure they have what it. The main objective of the key account manager is to manage a group of important consumers key accounts in order to achieve designated sales. Key account managers have a big job.
Whilst there are many technical and commercial skills that can be acquired through training and development it s important to recognise that some people are more predisposed to succeeding in key account management than others this often comes down to attributes linked to personality such. They not only need top notch selling skills but also strong leadership communication and management chops. These competencies include integrity and honesty project management customer service driving results organizational awareness driving performance through others presentation skills change management planning and attention to detail and business acumen. This study of 397 respondents from companies with formal strategic account management organizations reveals that top performers operate very differently than others to achieve much stronger results and has important implications for sales training organizations.
All key account management training developed by sales is not simple is focused on building expertise in these core competencies whether you are just starting out or are an experienced kam. In this guide we re going to share some insights on key account manager soft skills and attributes. Here are the top six skills a key account manager needs to succeed. Manager competencies can improve management skills and influence the behavior of others which can result in a positive impact on the bottom line.
Because of this there are specific skills every key account manager needs in order to provide the greatest value and make your company indispensable to their key customers. Possession of required skill knowledge qualification or capacity. As i collated the results it struck me that while it was acknowledged by many that the role and skills required of an account manager vary from industry to industry and job to job the group were fairly unanimous in what they believed the most important skills were. We encourage you to rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5 and discuss with your manager which competencies you want to focus on as you become a world class kam.
At the top of the list is communication.