I need to know which patterns in my key account keep producing the results we get.

I need to know which patterns in my key account keep producing the results we get.

Results in a key account come from patterns. The same habits and the same blind spots keep producing the same numbers, quarter after quarter. Find the pattern and change it, and the results change with it.

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

1. When results stall, does your team look for the cause behind the number?
2. Can your team name the habit that keeps producing your current results?
3. Is every opportunity in your pipeline linked to an objective the customer stated?
4. Does your team review what it's learning about the account every week?
5. When you change how the team works, do you track whether the results change with it?

Two or more no's, and your team may be chasing results while the pattern keeps producing them.

Several years ago, I took over a key account team. They were organized and experienced, and some of them were very accomplished. On my first day, I reviewed their pipeline, expecting to see at least 17 deals, one per rep. I found zero. Then I looked in our customer orders system and found a handful of opportunities.

We didn't have a customer order problem. Our problem was that we didn't have any deals linked to solving our customers' business problems, which limited the orders we were seeing. The old system trained the reps to look for purchase orders, not problems.

We spent seven weeks training the team to create deals that reflected the customer's business problems. The new standard was this: a deal enters the pipeline when it's linked to a customer's stated objective, written from the customer's point of view, and includes the metrics for measuring the customer's business outcomes. Each week, we met to discuss what the team had uncovered and to move these deals forward.

Within 90 days, that same 17-person team had uncovered 80 new opportunities. They were real customer problems that had been sitting in plain sight inside accounts the team already managed. The new pipeline was north of $20M. Our close rate was 30%, and it produced roughly $6M in new revenue.

We didn't hire anyone. We didn't change the accounts. We didn't bring in a new tool. We changed the system, and the results followed.

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 habit on your team keeps producing the results you get in your key account?

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.