Key Account Management Lessons

Phil Jesson

Phil Jesson presented his workshop, “Key Account Partnerships” to CEO members of Surrey-based Academy Group 14 recently. A terrific session, superbly delivered, with lots of great take-away value for even the most competent commercial business operations. Whether as a timely reminder for those already building true partnerships with their customers or as a practical introduction on how to understand where you are with your customers and how to grow from being just another “supplier” to a “partner” this is a great session for all.

Top 3 takeaways were:

1. Importance of doing regular audits of your key customers – and how to do it.
2. Key Account Plan for top 5 customers must be in place and updated regularly – and how to do it.
3. Strategic Bridges process and how to use it.

This was a superb session for our experiential business learning group and yielded the highest average scores of meetings to date. Phil’s style is involving and participative, his material solid and his preparation faultless plus lots of practical take-away value. Members commitment to specific actions within their business regarding their key customers was extremely high and I know the work has already begun in many cases.

Gordon Bromley

Gordon Bromley
Chairman – Academy Group 14 and Entrepreneurs Board 8

The Academy for Chief Executives, a leading provider of experiential business learning® facilitates peer groups of CEOs and Managing Directors who meet together every month to network and take full advantage of experiential learning. To hear great speakers like this every month and engage in The Board You Could Never Afford®, or to find a local group near you, visit www.chiefexecutive.com.

 

Questions Have More Power than Answers

Mark Fritz

Mark Fritz is an highly experienced international business man who brought great value to members of my Chief Executive Forum, Academy Group 11, when he presented to us recently. He was formerly a senior executive with Eastman Kodak and is now the head of his own company – Procedor – a training and management development organisation.

Valuable takeaway points were:

• Discussion is not an outcome.
• Agree outcomes and delegate them for further action.
• Don’t let your problem people steal your time.
• Character plus skills equals professionalism.
• Balance stress with recovery time.
• Differentiation between leadership and management.
• Think ahead, stay ahead and focus on next action.

Mark Fritz is a very accomplished speaker and achieved an excellent average score from my group members, who are not known for giving high marks!

I was more than a little pleasantly surprised by the power and substance of his subject. The takeaway value was enormous. This was Mark Fritz’s first Academy for Chief Executives workshop and my members were all very enthusiastic at the conclusion of the day.

Joe Adams

Joe Adams,
Chairman, Academy Group 11

The Academy for Chief Executives, a leading provider of experiential business learning® facilitates peer groups of CEOs and Managing Directors who meet together every month to network and take full advantage of experiential learning. To hear great speakers like this every month and engage in The Board You Could Never Afford®, or to find a local group near you, visit www.chiefexecutive.com.

 

What You Heard Is Not What I Meant

“I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I’m sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant”

Dr Graeme Codrington

Dr Graeme Codrington gave a very professional and content rich workshop to members of the SW London experiential business learning® group, Academy Group 11 recently.

His ‘Mind the Gap’ workshop was unique in that in the 6 years that I’ve been a chairman of The Academy for Chief Executives, I had never seen the subject of communications approached in such a thought provoking manner.

His talk gave new insights into how we should communicate with our work colleagues and potential clients in that the values in the various generations, vary to a marked degree, particularly when contrasting the “silent generation” with the “boomers”.

The language used, in the x-generation, baby boomers, silent generation, is in need of careful interpretation. Dr Codrington gives us new insights and how to base our language on the values that we have, while being aware of the differences in values inherent in the other generations. This was a master class performance for CEOs in all sectors but it was particularly vital to any Managing Director who manages the sales function.

I would not hesitate to recommend Dr Codrington as a speaker to any group who has an open mind and are willing to take on new concepts and approaches to the never-ending and exciting area of language and communication.

Joe Adams,
Chairman, Academy Group 11

The Academy for Chief Executives, a leading provider of experiential business learning® facilitates peer groups of CEOs and Managing Directors who meet together every month to network and take full advantage of experiential learning. To hear great speakers like this every month and engage in The Board You Could Never Afford®, or to find a local group near you, visit www.chiefexecutive.com.

 

How to read someone before you shake hands

Academy Group 23, chief executive mentoring and experiential learning group (with members from the North East of England) were revisited by speaker John Cremer this month. John once again enthralled this group of business leaders, this time on a different topic – “Reading someone before you shake hands“.

John (pictured, right) explained the different physical attributes, mannerisms and traits of various people in 6 broad types plus the in-betweens using many historical factors with great perception – part of an ancient stream of knowledge.

In summary, the session included the following experiential learning key points:-

• Appreciating centuries of many varied historical factors that, through detailed analysis, can be used to categorise personality types,
• How we can use this information to better understand ourselves and others and use it to our advantage in both business and personal life,
• A greater understanding and compassion for oneself and others,
• Learning a rapid yet penetrating assessment of interpersonal dynamics,
• A deeper appreciation of your own and other people’s viewpoints and motivations,
• Recognition of habitual patterns in business relationships and also personal lives/ families,
• The ability to make an assessment of someone without carrying out a lengthy and/ or complex psychometric test,
• Relating well known people in the public eye to the lessons learnt (with case studies),
• A deeper understanding of how to interact with different types to yourself.

Feedback from members included,

“Excellent speaker and very thought provoking”
“Will help with difficult situations”

Peter Sutcliffe,
Joint Chairman with Karen Humble, North East, Academy Group 23

The Academy for Chief Executives, a leading provider of experiential business learning® facilitates peer groups of CEOs and Managing Directors who meet together every month to network and take full advantage of experiential learning. To hear great speakers like this every month and engage in The Board You Could Never Afford®, to find out more about the North East Group, or to find a local group near you, visit www.chiefexecutive.com.

 

Leadership at Sea – Who comes through?

Leaders Forum 2, chief executive mentoring and experiential learning group (with members from Central England) worked with Simon Walker this month.  Simon spoke to the group about his experiences as skipper of BT Global Challenge yacht Toshiba in 1996-7 and then as CEO of the business that organises the Challenge.  He did an exceptional job of drawing parallels between the lessons he learned then and the difficult job of leading a business through these stormy times.

4 key points really spoke to the business leaders present that morning:

In challenging times it CRUCIAL to clarify:
• Purpose (where are we heading?)
• Goals (what have we got to do to get there?)
• Roles (who has to do what to make it happen?)

Organisational change and turbulent market forces make it really important to keep revisiting these points to ensure they fit to the current situation:

1. Communicate, communicate, communicate: when the pressure is on it is important to increase the level of communication to ensure that everyone understands what is going on and their role in it.
2. Sort yourself out first: choose YOUR attitude – this will set the tone of the response from everyone else in the organisation. Real leaders choose and create the behaviour that they behave.
3. Cut up the elephant: break large and daunting tasks down into small chunks so that the people can see how they can succeed.
4. Finally – CELEBRATE successes. Even in the most difficult of times there are some positive things going on around you. Take some of these as an excuse to celebrate (even if just with a few doughnuts or a pizza) – it will give your crew a lift and remind them that there is life beyond the storm.

Simon did a great job of ensuring that his session was relevant to our members’ businesses.

Peter Pritchett, Chairman Leaders Forum 2

The Academy for Chief Executives, a leading provider of experiential business learning® facilitates peer groups of CEOs and Managing Directors who meet together every month to network and take full advantage of experiential learning. To hear great speakers like this every month and engage in The Board You Could Never Afford®, to find out more about the Central England Leaders Forum, or to find a local group near you, visit www.chiefexecutive.com.

 

Negotiating Better Deals

Academy Group 5, chief executive mentoring and experiential learning group (with members from the Coventry area) worked with Jeremy Thorn recently on how to ‘negotiate better deals‘. It was a very valuable and enjoyable session – the role-play was a particularly powerful source of learning: it really drove home the power/necessity of aiming high in negotiating – and of making the first bid whenever possible. (See Jeremy’s website at www.jeremythorn.co.uk.)

The main points that we all took away to implement in our businesses were:

1. PREPARE before the negotiation (don’t just go along to “see what they have to say”.)
2. AIM HIGH – deals often end up near the mid-point between the opening positions, so a tough opening moves the mid-point your way.
3. “Never give Owt for Nowt”: always trade concessions.

An excellent session which the group really enjoyed and found very valuable. Absolutely recommended.

Peter Pritchett,
Chairman Academy Group 5

The Academy for Chief Executives, a leading provider of experiential business learning® facilitates peer groups of CEOs and Managing Directors who meet together every month to network and take full advantage of experiential learning. To hear great speakers like this every month and engage in The Board You Could Never Afford®, to find out more about the Coventry Group, or to find a local group near you, visit www.chiefexecutive.com.

 

Ten Golden Rules for Persuading Others

We all need to be persuasive to get our points of view across effectively. But are there any ‘golden rules’? Here are ten, well proven. We probably knew them already – but do we always apply them?

We all have to influence and persuade others, whether at work or at home, and most of us find that coercion and manipulation rarely works well for long. There are indeed very many, better ways…

1. Build Trust
   Even some 2,300 years ago, the philosopher Aristotle recognised that logic alone may not be sufficient to persuade others. To be truly influential, he suggested it may be essential to demonstrate first a common ethos, or a shared set of values. We don’t have to like each other, but we do have to trust each other! (Try being persuaded by someone you don’t trust?)
2. Build Empathy
   Aristotle went further: he also suggested that after building on shared values, it is far easier to persuade others by employing pathos, or an understanding of ‘what it is like to be them’. That is why it can be so smart to hear the other side’s story first, before we give them ours. (This is also why it can be invaluable to ‘walk a thousand paces in another’s moccasins’ – we do need to understand each other!)
3. No lies – no exaggeration
   It is often tempting to gild arguments with a little ‘poetic licence’, but note that exaggeration, let alone falsehoods, build neither trust nor empathy. Once even one lie is spotted by others, the rest of our arguments may be discounted and even rejected, however valid they may be overall.
4. Build your case from the bottom
   Especially when time is short, it may seem attractive to give others our conclusions first, before providing the reasons. Wrong! If those we seek to persuade do not like our conclusions, they won’t be listening to our justification. They will be spending all their energy in finding reasons why our conclusions must be wrong. So build your case up from the bottom, so that your eventual conclusions may well then appear to be the only logical outcome possible.
5. Keep it short
   While some people hate arguments of any kind, far fewer welcome long explanations. So keep yours short, sharp and crisp. You can always amplify them later if you need to.
6. Keep it relevant
   Many arguments fail to persuade because they didn’t seem relevant to those being persuaded. You need to know what may be relevant to the other side. Refer back to Golden Rule 2!
7. Use only a few good arguments at a time
   Some feel it helpful to support a case by giving all the arguments. Not so! In most debates, a strong case needs only two or three really good supporting reasons, at least to start with. By adding more, apart from increasing the chance of confusion, we not only dilute the impact of those really good reasons we could have focused on, we also offer more hostages to fortune for incidental, nit-picking debate. You can always declare your subsidiary reasons at a later stage, as additional reinforcement if you need to.
8. Be positive and confident
   If you don’t really believe in your case, why should anyone else? Unwarranted, blind confidence is clearly crass; overwhelming confidence may suggest that the issues have not really been properly thought through. But a lack of confidence may suggest that the case being presented really is rather flimsy.
9. Watch and listen for reactions
   As they say: ‘Those persuaded ’gainst their will, are of the same opinion still’! So don’t take minimal reaction to your proposals as silent acceptance – they may be no more than ‘dumb insolence’! Although some may express their reactions to your proposals quite verbally, some will indicate their silent reaction quite clearly by even unintended body-language, while others will need time to digest what you have proposed before you can expect any useful response. Don’t miss these cues, and give people time to ponder on any difficult propositions.
10. Different folks – different strokes!
    However you may like best to be persuaded, do not fall into the trap in thinking that all others will. Psychological research (by Dr Susan Brock, based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®) shows that some people need ‘the facts’ to be persuaded, without which any proposition may seem unsupported. But others may far rather have ‘the logic’, a very different appeal. (For them, ‘facts’ may be two-a-penny, but the overall rationale may be far more convincing.) Equally, others may focus much more on the emotional content and consequences to be persuaded, whether on the impact of any conclusions on ‘service’ to themselves or others, or on their inherent ‘vision and values’ of how people should be treated, which by the way are rarely open to logical debate alone. So be ready to appeal to all possibilities?

I wish you really productive persuading!

By Jeremy Thorn
Jeremy@JeremyThorn[dot]co[dot]uk
www.jeremythorn.co.uk

Jeremy Thorn has managed both small and large sales forces internationally and is the prize-winning author of ‘The First-Time Sales Manager’, ‘How To Negotiate Better Deals’, and the tips booklet ‘115 Essential Tips on Pricing’. He is a regular guest speaker to experiential business learning® organisation, The Academy for Chief Executives, and others on a variety of practical business topics, including ‘Bringing Home the Bacon’ on ethical sales skills, ‘How to Negotiate Better Deals’ and ‘Team Breakers and Makers’. Jeremy is the past founding-Chairman of QED Consulting and an experienced Non-Executive Director or Chairman of a number of technically-driven businesses in the UK and overseas.