How well do you empower your people to reach their own full potential, supported along the way with good, timely, and accessible coaching conversations?

Now sure how to go about that? Then this episode is for you because I’m joined by a friend of the show, Lisa Brice, NLP Master Trainer and Coach and author of a new book called:

“Choose to be a coach - the be quick guide to coaching in the corridor, at the coffee shop or on the computer.”

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𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗔 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Lisa is a certified Master NLP Trainer, coach and business consultant. Her work is focussed on enhancing personal performance and intuitive leadership development. Her specialism is her Equine Assisted Learning which is built into her work with clients.

To support her work with Leaders, Lisa also holds a Diploma in Strategic Business Coaching from the CMI; is a Licensed HeartMath® Trainer and Coach; and is also a Systemic Coaching and Constellations Practitioner. (Lisabrice.co.uk)

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM Consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist in Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

Sales and Marketing is like stealing your neighbour’s cat…and in this episode, I talk to Bryony Thomas at Watertight Marketing to find out why.

Bryony is the creator of the Watertight Marketing methodology, captured in her best-selling book of the same name which acts as the hub to a suite of thinking tools that have been designed and refined over two decades and across over 2000 organisations. 

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𝗕𝗥𝗬𝗢𝗡𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗦 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

Bryony is an award-winning speaker, author, marketing strategist and the creator of the proven Watertight Marketing Methodology. She stops people from wasting money on marketing.

In 2008, she left her corporate role as Director of Marketing for Experian, a FTSE100 company, and set up her own consultancy. She believes that small businesses are a real lever of meaningful and sustainable change in the world, and she has built a proven methodology to help them to do just that.

Through her 12-month marketing transformation programme, book and speaking she reaches audiences far and wide, and today also has a team of licensed Watertight Marketing Practitioners.

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗢:

David is the principal KAM Consultant & Managing Director at KAMGuru.com, a specialist Key Account Management training and consultancy business, based in the UK.

David is a Speaker, Author and Performance Coach with more than a decade of hands-on and consultative experience in sales and management roles in the leisure, entertainment and telecoms industries.

How strong is your account management team when it comes to the skills of closing new business?

I’m not talking about taking repeat orders from happy clients here. I’m talking about applying the art of winning new business, creating opportunities, and closing deals, with existing customers.

In this episode, I am joined by Nashville-based David ‘Ledge’ Ledgerwood, Managing Partner at Add1Zero, a business that provides lead-to-close sales execution for tech-enabled B2B service companies ready to take the leap from 6 to 7-figure annual revenue.

He and his team spend their days, week in week out, sharpening the tools and crafting the processes for maximising revenue and sales opportunities. David truly is the expert here having personally closed more than $40million worth of deals in his career (with an average deal size of $150k plus).

With Ledge’s deep-rooted experience and expertise in predominantly selling software and services, and an impressive track record of having helped several companies grow from $0 to $5million in sales – I was keen to tap into his brain and find out:

• how he and his team define the sales process,
• what great onboarding looks like for him and
• how key account managers can use a methodical approach to insight-led selling (where every team member who interacts with clients is feeding information and intelligence back into the business to enable better marketing, better selling and great account management)

How informed is your sales approach?

Are you and your team acting as intelligence agents who are able to feed powerful insights into your sales approach back into the business? Thus providing higher levels of value to your key account customers and ultimately creating more opportunities for account growth?

For me, Ledge’s approach clearly works well for him and his team, I love the intentionality in his work.

You will have your own processes and ways of engaging with accounts and onboarding new customers, and it’s always nice to hear how other people work to then decide if there are any great ideas, new or otherwise, that could enhance our account management approach.

Did you hear something you liked? Or perhaps disagreed with?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Do get in touch and let me know what you’d like you to hear more of as well.

Like many of the episodes on KAMCast, LEARNING is the running theme and again, after listening to Ledge - we see more examples of how important it is to close the gap between sales and other departments.

David (‘Ledge’) is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Add1Zero, a business that provides lead-to-close sales execution for B2B services and tech companies ready to take the leap from 6 to 7-figures.

With start-up founder, executive, and sales experience spanning more than a decade, Ledge has led growth efforts at several companies into the 7-and 8-figure revenue stages.

In his career in sales, he has amassed an impressive deal closure sum of $40M, with an average deal size in excess of $150,000.

You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.

Do you tell your clients that you work in partnership?

What evidence do you have to reassure them that the statement is, in fact, true?

What are the qualities of a good partnership?

Does your team possess the skills required to forge strong win:win relationships, built on trust, transparency, transparency, comfort with change and interdependence and a focus on the future?

In this episode, I invite Fred Copestake, a sales consultant and trainer specialising in complex B2b sales environments, to get into this topic with me. He has spent the last 22 years travelling around the world to develop salespeople, in over 200 companies, to move from the transactional selling styles of yesteryear, into the collaborative selling styles of today and shaping the ‘business partners’ of the future.

As you will by now know, here at KAMGuru we are big believers in fostering a ‘valued partner’ relationship with your most important customers/clients. Partnering with your clients should be more than just a statement, more than something you simply ‘say’ on your website. It should be lived in the values, attitudes, behaviours, and skills within your teams and consistently demonstrated in your most important customer relationships.

In my discussion with Fred, we dig into his concept of ‘PQ – Partnering intelligence’. (He has even written a book on it).  We talk about what the concept is, and what qualities we should be developing and demonstrating in our key account relationships.

You will hear us talk through:

• The three biggest challenges that senior leaders will see when they look at their sales teams. As Fred describes - are your teams:

1. Displaying ‘busy busy busy’ behaviours where busyness is getting in the way of business?
2. Are they thinking in the ‘olde worlde’ ways and struggling to see new, and change, as a force for good and opportunity?
3. Do they have a ‘muddled mindset’ where the focus switches as we get closer to month-end and the targets take over?

• How we need to get comfortable with serving the customer whilst working together as equals - with mutual trust and respect.
• How do you feel about the notion that the customer isn’t, in fact, king (despite the old saying) and that we should see them as respected peers who are there to work with us to deliver mutually beneficial win:win growth?
• What the future of selling could look like in this fast-moving and ever-changing marketplace we work in.

In each episode we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success. In this episode we asked Fred to give us his killer question which was:

“Why would you NOT use partnering intelligence to build relationships with your most important

customers?”

There you have it. It's logical to just naturally want to build PQ into your sales skills toolkit – isn’t it?

Fred mentioned his PQ (Partnering Intelligence) Self Audit which you can take. Find out your Sales PQ now using this diagnostic tool.

Fred is the founder of Brindis, a sales training consultancy based in the UK. He is a Sales Consultant, Trainer, Speaker and Author with a special focus on...

How ‘in tune’ are you with the qualities, traits and characteristics that make up your personality?

How does your personality affect the results you have with your key account relationships?

If you are in tune with who YOU are, let me ask: how well can you read other people?

Do you use your knowledge and reflection to change the way you behave to better your chances of success? Or…do you act the same in every interaction you have with your customer contacts?

In this episode, we take a dive into an important topic in the world of building customer relationships: how well do you adapt your communication style with different customers?

I am going to challenge you to consider, for a moment, that rather than thinking of yourself as a classically labelled sales person… what if you were called a sales practitioner. In that vein…you could say: rather than being an account manager you were an account management practitioner.

How does that sit with you? Can you see how the change in language brings a change in focus?

To be a practitioner, you must continue to practice. To practice indicates that growth, development and improvement is always possible and we cannot sit back and assume that perfection has been attained.

Think of this episode as a moment to pause, reflect and decide how you will practice this imperative skill of shaping your communications style and personality preferences to elevate your results with your most important customers.

This is a full episode in 30mins of pure notable and actionable takeaways – so get your pen and pad out (and be sure to look at the full show notes on the website - as I couldn't put all the graphics in here for you).

To be an effective Key Account Manager in today’s world means more than simply being a well-trained salesperson, adept with the skills to win more business and sustain relationships.

Whether you are a ‘hunter’ or, as with many Key Account Managers, a ‘farmer’, the playing field has changed, and we now work in an environment where it is less about ‘how you sell’ and more about ‘why the customer buys’

Some of the topics I share and discuss my views on in this episode cover:

• Evolving old ABC to new ABC

Consider updating Glengarry Glen Ross’ ABC - Always Be Closing, to a more modern KAM- related ABC of:

Analyse how the customer thinks and works

Build a bridge to their world and

Communicate in their language not yours

• The impact your FILTERS have on your brain’s processing of information (Through our five senses, the human body sends 11 million bits of information per second to the brain for processing, yet the conscious mind seems to be able to process only 50 bits per second!
• An account manager’s true roles is to influence with integrity and support the customer to CHOOSE the right solution for them.
• Using a psychometric tool to help you to assess and analyse how you “show up” (consciously / unconsciously) – does not give you a ‘free pass’ to behave in ‘stereotype’. Rather, they are designed to help you to (honestly) assess yourself and design your own results through adaptation and flexibility. (I share more below about how we use the Lumina Spark Model we use with clients here at KAMguru – scroll down).
• If Key Account Management was a little like speed dating, we would need to get pretty good at speed reading someone else’s personality if we are to stand a

Do you have LOYAL customers?

What does loyalty mean to you? Is it a destination where happy customers, who love what you do, gather to bathe in the success that your product or service has brought them? Or is it more than that…? Rather than a destination, is it an on-going journey of moments that inspire your loyal customers to commit to you, time and time again, whilst shouting from the rooftops to all who will hear their recommendation to work with you?

How often do you find yourself telling your clients that you are different?

And, when you are comparing your business to your competition, could you - hand on heart - say that you truly offer something that no one else does?

The likelihood is, as we’ve said so many times here on KAMCast, is that the real difference is in you, our team and the EXPERIENCE you provide your customers.

In a journey of moments, how well do you craft an experience that inspires your clients to commit data, time and eventually money before starting the whole cycle again?

Do you deliberately and intentionally inspire the emotions YOU need in your clients to motivate them to WANT the products and services you can offer?

In this episode, I am joined by Drew Davis, bestselling author and internationally acclaimed speaker. He was dialing in from across the pond, so you’ll have to forgive the odd connection glitch in the matrix on the recording!

In our conversation, we look at how Key Account Managers need to be thinking more like marketeers in the way they inspire their key clients - constantly engineering what Drew calls ‘The Loyalty Loop’ for repeat business and account growth.

You’ll hear us talk about the 7 key drivers of the Loyalty Loop and how we can create a series of customer interactions/encounters that leave an impression. (Which ultimately grows the revenue with your key accounts.) Listen to the full episode to hear the detail.

The drivers are:

1. Raise anticipation
2. Maximise the honeymoon phase
3. Re-inspire them
4. Answering their trigger questions
5. Scale comradery (at KAMGuru we refer to this as KAM being a team sport)
6. Remove friction from the experience
7. Crucial concern (YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS ONE)

Through our really interactive discussion we talk about:

• identifying moments of commitment
• engineering the emotions you need your customers to feel at the right moments in the customer journey (Drew suggests quite simply for you to attach the appropriate emoji to each interaction to gauge if you’re getting it right for the customer)
• how KAM, as a team sport, maximises the value of your brand-to-person relationships (getting the sales and marketing team to work with you on the customer's journey of moments)
• where to start to craft different experiences that see you really standing OUT from your competition

I really loved the 7 drivers of the loyalty loop. I feel like they help us focus our attention on deliberately engineering a seamless and ongoing journey of interactions the leave an impression, increase customer growth and retention and leave a legacy that you and the team can be proud of.

One of my big takeaways was a confirmation that if you create a great experience and concentrate on loyalty - you get more of the clients you want and charge more for what you do because the experience is different

When you think about your customer experience… the big moments, the little moments, the micro-moments… how are you...

When was the last time you had a conversation about racism?

Perhaps, like so many, these conversations are triggered within your circles, by high-profile cases of injustice in the media or by your own personal experiences on the receiving end of overt or covert prejudice.

Or perhaps… like so many, you have NEVER had a conversation, within your circles, about racism. What about at work, in your business, with your team, or with your customers?

This episode is a conversation about race in KAM. And where KAM is all about effectiveness, I really wanted to explore this important subject that can consciously or unconsciously impair your ability to maximise the success and growth of your most important customers.

With diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and anti-racism high on the agenda in the business world, I think it is so important that we have these conversations.

My wish is that, by listening to this episode, it will spark a conversation within your business, and with your team and that the learning, the growth, and the empathy continues.

We venture into a discussion that includes:

• talking about our own experiences of race in the workplace (including the privilege I acknowledge as a white male in business)   
• exploring how bias may show up in the engagements with customers and business partners     
• discussing the role of an ‘ally’ and how getting comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations can create truly empathetic relationships

How are you going to continue the conversation and who with? I wonder what your experiences have been, whether on the receiving end of prejudice or from a place of privilege.

Has race or racism ever impaired your effectiveness with your key accounts?

Understanding the context and communities we are sitting in, day to day, week to week, month to month is key to empowering our teams to maximise relationships

What awareness do you have of your own biases and how can you raise that awareness when interacting with others?

How much attention do you pay to the evolution of language and are you running the risk of using outdated terminology that could offend your contacts and peers?

With understanding being a key driver for KAM relationships - how does this conversation about race help us understand each other and ourselves better to maximise the relationships with key customers? 

I’d like to thank you for listening to this episode today and, in doing so, taking part in this important conversation. If you have something you’d like to share or throw into the conversation, please do get in touch.

In each episode, we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture, and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success.

In this episode I asked Sharon to give us her killer question which was:

“How much better would your account management be if you were to work intentionally on the

biases that might impact your decision making?”

And…how will you go about doing that? Wow. The challenge has been laid folks.

Sharon is an award-winning leadership...

How much attention are you paying to the customer experience with your Key Accounts?

Do you surprise and delight your clients on a regular basis or, have you fallen into the trap of leaving this up to marketing at the front end of the sales cycle?

With customers experiencing thousands of ‘moments’ every day in all areas of their lives, what are you doing to ensure the moments they share with you, exceed their expectations?

For me, the thing about experience is that it is too important to be left to chance. Too important to rely on us simply being good at what we do and going the extra mile from time to time.

We need to be intentional. We need to take a step back and examine the moments we share with key customers and identify areas of improvement, ensuring we maximise the chances of being rewarded with long-term loyalty.

I invited Experience Consultant, Victoria Taylor, to join me on this episode, to dig into this topic.

Having worked in a wide variety of industries including bespoke travel, media, and advertising, Victoria now works with her own clients including Warner Entertainment Group, Lamborghini, Disney, P&O Cruises, Experian, and a host of independent hospitality brands. She is on a mission to help them to raise the bar in their customer experiences.

 In our conversation, you’ll hear us talk about:

• Why Account Managers need to be involved in crafting special moments for key customers (rather than leaving it to the marketing or customer experience team)
• Flesh out some examples of great customer experience (and what makes it great)
• The link between the employee experience and the customer experience

Creating an EXPERIENCE for your Key Accounts

What are your thoughts and reflections on the customer experience you currently create for your key accounts?

If you were a client of yours, would you be delighted in the moments you shared?

Do you personalise your client interactions so that they truly feel special and valued?

When the moments you create for your customers are not driven by the brand, they are driven by you!

How would you personally score in a customer feedback conversation?

With any experience being personal, how often do you proactively seek a conversation to gain feedback for your key contacts, on a mission to clarify their expectations and how you are performing against them?

How are you reflecting your brand?

Are you a walking, talking ambassador for your company, LIVING its values rather than just laminating them on the wall?

Remember that the employee experience and the moments we share with each other will directly affect the moments we share with the customer.

To create intentional, well-crafted, brilliant experiences for our customers, we cannot leave it to chance.

Take a moment to reflect and ask yourself: what do we do now, and how can we make it better?

I’ll be exploring this more in upcoming episodes of KAMCast so please do get in touch and let us know your thoughts on this topic and any specific questions you have, which you’d love to see answered in an episode.

Victoria describes herself as human-centred experience consultant who works with brands to ‘raise the bar’ in experience by differentiating themselves through thinking, creating, and ‘doing’ customer experience differently.

Her areas of consulting specialism focus on: audience...