Strategic Account Management |Smart

Overview

Why Attend

This course is designed to transform participants into business advisors and high-yielding and profitable relationship managers whom clients rely on and companies value. The course provides a practical road map to understanding and growing existing and high-potential accounts. Participants will learn how to create account development plans, craft solid business relations with accounts, and harness retention strategies profitably. The course also provides a strong focus on quantitative approaches to account qualification and showcases best practices in service management necessary for growing and retaining strategic accounts.

Course Methodology

The course includes self-assessment tools, planning and analytical templates, and psychometric self-assessment instruments to measure personal abilities to accommodate different personality styles. Group exercises and case studies will also be integral parts of the training methodology used.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Define the functions and process of strategic account management while highlighting its importance for the commercial organization
Identify and prioritize strategic accounts to measure their profitability and qualify their strategic importance for their company
Classify the different levels of customer relationships to enhance the way they interface with such customers
Develop customer-focused plans and strategies needed in the development of strategic accounts
Build core strategic account competencies related to research and service management to meet the ever-changing challenges in the market

Target Audience

This course is targeted at cross functional personnel who seek to understand modern customer management practices to improve cross functional support and develop personal careers in strategic account management. The program is also conceived for sales managers who oversee the development of key customers as well as key account managers responsible for managing the relationship and the performance with strategic customers.

Target Competencies

Account planning
Networking skills
Cost to serve computations
Account classification models
Customer retention and loyalty
Customer research
Service management
Developing performance reports

Course Outline

Introduction to Strategic Account Management (SAM)
- The changing nature of sales force activity
- Definition of strategic account management
- Differences between 'sales' and 'strategic account management'
- Competencies of strategic account managers
- The strategic account management process
Account Analysis: qualifying and profiling accounts
- Account analysis insights
- Account analysis methods:
  - The single-factor models
  - The portfolio models
- Important criteria for determining account profitability:
  - Computing the cost per call
  - Break-even sales volume
- Profiling the top 10 characteristics of your SA
- The strategic account identification and selection software: SAMS
  - Guidelines for using SAMS
  - Interpreting the SAMS report
Strategic account relational development model
- Business partnership defined
- The partnership skill set
- The strategic account relational development model:
  - Pre-relationship stage
  - Early relationship stage
  - Mid-relationship stage
  - Partnership relationship stage
  - Synergetic relationship stage
- Reasons for divesting partnerships
The strategic account planning process
- Two layers of planning
- Prioritizing efforts
- Important business analysis:
  - Customer analysis
  - Past business analysis
  - Competition analysis
- Identifying opportunities
  - SWOT analysis
- Developing account strategy
  - TOWS analysis
- Monitoring account performance
  - Aligning the account plan with KPIs and metrics
  - Using a balanced scorecard to monitor overall account performance
Account research and service management
- Types of data needed to research accounts
- Crafting questionnaires to identify account needs and expectations
- The 'customer expectations benchmark' research
- Reasons for integrating customer service in SAM
- Harnessing actionable service leadership
- The value of customer loyalty and Life Time Value (LTV)
- A road map for building customer loyalty and retention

Schedule & Fees

2026 Schedule & Fees

4 - 8 Oct, 2026

English

Per participant USD 2,900

4 - 8 Oct, 2026

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Oct, 2026

English

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Oct, 2026

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

2027 Schedule & Fees

3 - 7 Jan, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

3 - 7 Jan, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

24 - 28 Jan, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

24 - 28 Jan, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

4 - 8 Apr, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

4 - 8 Apr, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Apr, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Apr, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

4 - 8 Jul, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

4 - 8 Jul, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Jul, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Jul, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

3 - 7 Oct, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

3 - 7 Oct, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

24 - 28 Oct, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

24 - 28 Oct, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900