I need to protect my key account when the relationship hits a hard season.

I need to protect my key account when the relationship hits a hard season.

Most key accounts go through hard seasons: a budget cut, margin pressure, an economic downturn that lasts years. How your team responds in those moments shows the client how strong the partnership really is.

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

1. When something goes wrong, does your team take ownership right away?
2. Does your team gather the facts and find the root cause before it responds?
3. Does your team meet with the client quickly to talk through what happened?
4. Does your team have a corrective and preventive plan the client can see?
5. Does every team member know the contract terms and the client's rules of engagement?

Two or more no's, and a hard season could cost you more than it needs to.

Several years ago, I was getting ready to leave on a business trip when I received an email marked urgent from the Head of Contracts at one of our large life science clients: "Dear Taylor, I'm writing to notify your organization that we are suspending your services indefinitely while we conduct a full audit…"

We were out of compliance with a $5M contract. Out of a 30-page agreement, one of our team associates broke the client's rules of engagement. She was actually doing something we taught her to do in our sales training. It came down to a trust issue for the customer.

After consulting with my boss, we immediately went into action, ran our own investigation to gather the facts, set calls with the buyer, and developed a CAPA plan (Corrective and Preventive Action) to identify the root cause, fix what went wrong, and put controls in place so it doesn't happen again. We took ownership of the breach of trust.

After three months, we were back in action with this customer, but not before losing 30% of our revenues with them. The lesson was learned, and we maintained a good record with them for the next 15 years.

Hard seasons test the foundation of a partnership. Owning the problem quickly keeps the relationship standing while you rebuild.

Our system, the Vitality Index, gives your key account teams a growth strategy and the plan to run it across 21 growth drivers, including contract compliance, internal account investments and business reviews. It shows where they stand today, the work it takes to level up, and how to do it, until they reach a vital partnership that lasts.

When your key account hits its next hard season, what will your team do in the first 24 hours?

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.