I need to find the problems my key account hasn't asked us to solve yet.

I need to find the problems my key account hasn't asked us to solve yet.

Clients tell you what they need today. The next opportunity is often a problem they won't name until someone asks the right question.

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

1. Does your team prepare discovery questions from what it already knows about the account?
2. When a client says they're happy with their current vendors, does your team ask why?
3. Does your team look for problems the client may be living with or underestimating?
4. Can your key account manager (KAM) describe how the client's business would be better with your team as their partner?
5. When the client calls with an urgent need, can your team deliver where others couldn't?

Two or more no's, and your team may only hear about the needs your competitors already know.

A few years back, I met with a top prospect I'd been targeting for a solid year. She was spending over $10M annually and was the largest single entry point at this customer. At our first meeting, she said, "Taylor, I have enough vendors to cover all my needs (12) and I'm not looking to add any new suppliers at this time."

My first move was not to overcome this objection with a feature and capabilities dump. It was to deal with the elephant in the room. Why did she want 12 vendors? It seemed odd to me that they would need that many.

So, I focused the conversation on that question, and at the end of the discovery, it was clear why I was pursuing this relationship. I said to her, "I know my vision is to be your #1 vendor, to provide a service so valuable that you no longer need to depend on 12 different vendors for support."

The very next week, she called me in a panic. In 24 hours, we covered an area of her business that the other vendors had not been able to deliver in the previous two weeks. That turned into more opportunities, until eventually she stopped contacting everyone else and dealt exclusively with our team. We expanded the relationship across the globe, reaching $100M in annual spend at our peak.

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 problem has your key account learned to live with that your team could solve?

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.