What would make the top executive at my key account walk away from us, and what is just noise?

What would make the top executive at my key account walk away from us, and what is just noise?

Some issues can end a partnership. Many of the issues that come up in a renewal can be worked out. A KAM who knows which is which spends time on what the top executive cares about and gives ground where it costs little.

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

1. Can your KAM name the risks the top executive would treat as show-stoppers?
2. Has your team checked each of those risks against what you deliver today?
3. Do they know which terms the customer will flex on and which they won't?
4. Have you modeled two or three partnership tiers that show what the customer gains at each level?
5. On larger opportunities, has the financial conversation started early, well before the RFP?

Two or more no's, and your team may spend the negotiation on noise while a show-stopper goes unnoticed.

We knew a key account was concerned about regulatory compliance. They operated in healthcare and drug development, where patient safety and government regulations, many of which were basically written in stone, were non-negotiable. Knowing this ahead of time, we documented the procedures we would follow to make sure our services did not cause the customer to miss any of these key regulations. We also knew of competitors they worked with that hadn't been proactive, and the client had been fined and suffered damage to its brand. We kept ourselves off the top executive's list of vendors not to use, and more importantly, we protected the client from future fines and fallout in the marketplace.

We knew the show-stopper before it ever showed up. Your team can find the show-stoppers at each key account and build a plan around them well before the renewal.

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 is the one issue that would make your largest customer walk away?

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.