I need to find the gaps in our service before my key account does.

I need to find the gaps in our service before my key account does.

Most partnerships have gaps: a slow response, a quality miss, a process that frustrates the client's users. Teams that hold their accounts through hard seasons find those gaps first and own them.

Five questions to see if your team can do this job today:

1. Does your team ask the client's users for feedback on a regular schedule?
2. Does your team document each gap and its impact on the client's business?
3. Do you share what you find with your executive sponsor, even when it's unflattering?
4. When you find a gap, does your team take ownership and present a plan with owners and timelines?
5. Does your team invest its own resources to close the gap before the client asks?

Two or more no's, and the client may find your gaps before you do.

We were averaging $1.8M annually in revenue with just one of 80 business units in this account. We were allowed to run client surveys, so we built one to coincide with our quarterly business reviews and shared the feedback with our executive sponsor in real time.

The #1 issue cited was quality. The #2 issue was responsiveness. Many of the internal clients had not received a response in weeks, and in some cases, had not received one at all. The #3 issue was reputation, as users had started working with "rogue" suppliers.

Our solution was to expand our sponsor's team with five of our own dedicated resources to help improve service, quality, and responsiveness to all business units. We did not increase our pricing.

After 12 months, we reported our results at our year-end business review. Our latest survey showed a best-in-class NPS across the board, and we had grown from 1 business unit to 80.

Our system, the Vitality Index, shows your key account teams where they stand today, the work it takes to level up, and how to do it, until they reach a vital partnership that lasts.

What would your key account's users say is your biggest gap right now?

We built a free, 4-minute Key Account Risk Assessment. It gives you a risk score for your key accounts across team alignment, account planning, account transitions, and visibility. Link in the comments.