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CONTENTS
4. COSTS.......................................................................................................................................................12
4.1. KEY ACCOUNT SELECTION & CATEGORISATION ..............................................................................12
4.2. KEY ACCOUNT PLANNING ................................................................................................................12
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500
Experience has shown that the most efficient and beneficial method of implementing the Key Account
Management Process is by following the steps shown below:
Key Objectives
Account Account
& Account
Analysis Im plementation Monitoring
Selection Strategy Planning and Actions
setting
4 weeks 8 weeks
The Key Account Selection Matrix provides a solid methodology for analysing, identifying and prioritising
key accounts using account portfolio management. It is an invaluable tool, which will guide you through a
step-by-step process and enables you:
The axes of the Key Account Selection Matrix are defined as follows:
Account Attractiveness is a measure of the potential of the key account to yield growth in your
organisation’s profit.
Relative Customer is a measure of an organisation's actual strengths in each key account (i.e.
Satisfaction the degree to which it responds/ performs to customer needs).
The four-box Key Account Selection Matrix is shown below and it demonstrates the following:
• relative attractiveness of the various key accounts based on criteria selected by the organisation
• relative strengths of the organisation in each of these key accounts in terms of elements of customer
satisfaction
High Integrated
Interdependent
Selectively Co-operative
Invest
Invest Basic
Account
Attractiveness
Manage for
Maintain
Cash
High Low
Relative Customer Satisfaction
By examining the Key Account Selection Matrix, the following strategies should be applied to a customer
depending on where it is located on the matrix.
• PEST Analysis
• Porter Five Forces
• SWOT Analysis
• Value Chain
• Customer Satisfaction Assessment
• Key Account Profit Potential
• Contact Mapping
• Opportunities
• Actions
• Forecasts and Budgets
Investigating how a Key Account actually manages these core activities can be substantial task for a key
account team, involving, as it does, a deep understanding of the detailed processes of the customer. This
Directors Firm infrastructure Directors Firm infrastructure Directors Firm infrastructure
could include understanding what happens to your goods when they are delivered, where they are stored,
how they are handled, how they are moved, how they are unpacked, how they are used and so on. The
purpose of such detailed analysis is to explore what issues and problems are faced by your customer, with a
view to making improvements.
This technique allows us to understand if we are talking to the decisions makers in the organisation. It will
also identify where alternative approaches need to be made in order to change the nature of the relationship.
Managing Dir
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Many of the techniques mentioned above will lead to actions and these will be captured and itemised in a
typical Action Plan as shown below:
Objective
Strategy
The Account Plan should be flexible enough to take to take into consideration specific company issues from
the list of contents shown in the table. The Cranfield research has identified that the typical contents of an
Account Plan are as follows:
2.2.5 Monitoring
A key stage in the successful implementation of a Key Account Planning Process is the successful
introduction of a performance monitoring and review process. This would include a review of the following
key criteria:
Component
Component
4. Costs
In addition the Account Planning software can be purchased to speed up the process and this will be based
on the number of users.