Why would my key account spend more with us next year?

Why would my key account spend more with us next year?

If you lead key accounts, you've likely had this thought during planning season. Customers spend more with partners whose value shows up in their own numbers: revenue gained, costs saved and risk reduced, tied to what their leaders care about.

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

1. Does your KAM know how this customer measures success, in their own metrics and financial terms?
2. Did your team capture a baseline before the work started, so you can show what changed?
3. Can you state your results in dollars the customer's CFO would accept?
4. Would your champion be proud to forward your results to their boss?
5. Has anyone who controls their budget seen your results this year?

Two or more no's, and your customer may have no reason on paper to spend more with you.

Our largest account was falling behind on delivery with several of its own customers, by an average of 30 days across multiple projects. One late project cost them an estimated $55K a day in direct costs and $800K a day in lost revenue. Our services weren't the cause, but we built our solution around their own metric: 95% on-time delivery every five days. That gave them objective evidence of our value, in their own terms. They began earning bonuses, renewals and expansion opportunities from their customers. They expanded and extended our solution several times, and the partnership has lasted more than 20 years.

If your success doesn't point to their success, then it's not a proof point. Your team can start building that proof now, in the customer's numbers, so their leaders have a reason to spend more with you next year.

Our system, the Vitality Index, gives your key account teams the strategy and the plan, and shows them what to execute across 21 growth drivers, including proof points, value differentiation 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.

What result could your team show your largest customer's CFO this quarter?

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.