Becoming the #1 vendor in the world's largest life sciences company is a team sport.

One of the things I'm most proud of in my past job was receiving the Supplier of the Year award on behalf of my company at one of the largest life sciences firms in the world.

Out of 80+ global suppliers in our service category, we became #1 in just 2 years. I attribute our success to three things: we built an account team that aligned to the size and scope of the opportunity, we empowered people to contribute through collaboration, and we followed a system so well structured, everyone, no matter experience level or job function, could contribute. The award from the customer was the culmination of 1000s of plays our team executed that led to becoming best in class.

In the beginning, we started with three people. When I met the account team for lunch, they didn't seem very optimistic about our future together. This account had been through a long list of NAEs already, but revenues hadn't changed much. Two years later, we won Supplier of the Year with over 50 people now supporting the customer from all departments, functions and regions.

Before I could do anything, I needed to right size my team to fit this opportunity. Three people weren't going to cut it. So, I started hunting. I found people in the trenches of our company, names of people that were doing great things already and some that were having a challenging year. I could see all of them benefiting from being on this team in some way that mattered to them.

Next, I invited all of them, 60+, to join our account community and to be part of helping grow this account for the future. We created a safe way for them to decline or accept with no strings attached. I let them know why I wanted them to join us and how we would try to help them with their career goals. If they accepted, we added them to every team call and distribution lists. If they declined, I sent them updates and included them on any account related emails. Over time, some of the ones that did decline decided to join us.

Then, we had to strengthen our account community by giving them a place and space to share, ask questions and learn from each other. I treated these meetings like customer events because for me, these were my internal customers. Any time we were together, we took time to celebrate and build relationships. When apart, we kept connection through virtual team meetings done on a regular cadence.

We gave them an operating system that showed them the work we needed to accomplish together. The system showed everyone our progress (where we stand in the account), our strategy (what we want to accomplish each quarter) and our monthly plan (how we would execute). We asked for their help and were happy to support them as they attempted to support us. This system created a lot of visibility into the strategic objectives they could help plan and execute on. They were encouraged to bring ideas on how we would accomplish them. This gave every action they took real meaning and purpose because it was tied to a greater cause.

We made sure our communication included real-time updates and feedback from the customer. We regularly shared customer success stories and new opportunities for growth and improvement.

Lastly, we made sure everyone was included in customer meetings, especially in the QBRs (quarterly business reviews). We invited team members from all across the world to join these business reviews and contribute. The team helped me build the content (see my article on QBRs). We took time to introduce and highlight our top performing people to our key stakeholders at the customer. Our team got to tell their stories and share how we helped the customer win in their markets.

Building winning account teams in key accounts may seem daunting, and there are some late work nights to be sure. But as I demonstrated here, it's really just another system to follow. Nothing here is “magic” or a secret formula we used. And if you follow the system well, you do see some of this work takes care of itself. Meaning, you don't have to build everything yourself because in a good system, when one part improves, it impacts the other parts. A rising tide lifts all ships. This is how you achieve exponential growth. Also, with a good system you end up with more time because you are leading and following with precision. Everyone is using a common language and is singing from the same sheet of music.

Building Account Team Collaborations is just 1 of 21 growth drivers in the Vitality Index, The Key Account Growth System. It diagnoses and scores your accounts, builds the exact growth strategy the team needs now to increase sales, and guides execution until you become a Vital Partner to your accounts, and hopefully, Supplier of the Year! For the growth driver, Account Team Collaborations, we handcrafted over 48 plays to help you or your account teams make the most of every opportunity in key accounts.

Growing key accounts can be complex, so we distilled this type of work into a system everyone can use no matter what level of experience you bring to the table. It was built from the same approach we used to create some of the largest partnerships in our industry that have lasted decades and are still running.

Winning, growing, and protecting key accounts has been our life's work for the past 30 years. In the Vitality Index, we don't tell you what to do. We show you, because we lived it. This is the system we wished we had years ago. But now, it's here! If becoming a top-producing account team is important to you, then the Vitality Index can help.

We made a sample for you to try. This is not the actual system, but it will show you a practical plan for growing a live customer in your portfolio. This snapshot will give you a diagnostic, analysis, and an actual growth plan for where you currently sit across two of the seven Domains: Relationships and Competitiveness.