May 5th
The SAMA Knowledge Series
Part 3: SAM Skills and Competencies (The SAMA Competency Model)
In case you missed it, check out Part 1: The SAM Process and Part 2: The Strategic Customer-Centric Organization
While coronavirus has upended most aspects of daily life, both personal
and professional, it has brought into focus the incredibly valuable
skills inherent to the SAM/KAM role. As companies look to respond
and pivot, suddenly the SAM’s deep customer and industry knowledge,
strategic thinking abilities, interpersonal skills and more have
become invaluable assets.
With so much of a company’s future value tied up with the health
of its relationships with its most important customers, we would
argue that the skills and competencies of strategic account managers
have never been more important. While there exist some important
differences in the implementation of strategic account management
within various industries’ business models, there is remarkable consistency
around the foundational skills desired in strategic account managers.
The SAMA Best-in-Class SAM Competency Model identifies five areas of job competence or capability as well as the three or four primary skills associated most strongly with each one. Under each competency is a short list of the key behaviors, actions, and/or activities most relevant to that skill.
Below the competencies, you can find links to an excerpt from the SAMA book, “Customer Value Co-Creation,” as well as to relevant blog posts, podcasts and more for a deeper dive into the skills that make a great strategic account manager.
Competency 1.0 – Understanding organizational priorities
Activities:
•Ability to understand your company’s and the
customer’s industries, markets, and
• Determine customer’s buying behavior and metrics
for supplier relationships
• Map organizational structure and relationships
to identify champions, influencers and decision makers
• Understand your company’s corporate strategy
and business objectives, and those of the customer
• Document knowledge of everywhere the customer
“touches” your company and everywhere your company could potentially
touch your customer
• Profile the customer’s competitive position
vis-à-vis its competitors as well as your competitors’ positions
vis-à-vis the customer
• Identify the key internal company stakeholders
and functional resources currently and potentially required for effective
management of the customer’s business and opportunities.
Skills:
• Customer orientation
• Company knowledge
• Industry knowledge
• Customer knowledge
Competency 2.0 – Strategic account & opportunity planning
Activities:
• Ability to incorporate business intelligence
and determine a go-to-market strategy through internal planning sessions
• Define and manage the solution development
process, develop a differentiated value proposition and value the
ROI for both the customer and the company
• Manage funnel of short- and mid-term opportunities
and pre-formulate specific project management requirements
• Provide for post-deployment customer support
and evaluation
• Engage the customer in the planning process.
Skills:
• Strategic thinking
• Financial/business acumen
• Value analysis and opportunity insight
Competency 3.0 – Joint solution development, co-creation &
reaching agreement
Activities:
• Ability to communicate credibly and effectively
at the customer CxO level, demonstrating understanding of the customer’s
financials and financial strategy
• Provide thought leadership about the customer’s
business issues and priorities, uncovering and validating key challenges
• Engage the customer in the account planning
process and work collaboratively to identify value-based solutions
• Co-create innovative solutions in areas of
highest joint potential and innovation … Quantify the differentiated
solution/value proposition vis-à-vis competitors demonstrating mutual
ROI
• Sell high and wide throughout the customer
organization, managing Procurement and multilevel relationships with
the support and coordination of the account team
• Negotiate and reach agreement on company engagement
and specific deals, specifying resource commitment and allocations
internally and at the customer.
Skills:
• Communication & influence skills
• Value co-creation
• Negotiation skills
Competency 4.0 – Multifunctional account team leadership
Activities:
• Ability to create a team vision and strategy
for effective account plan development and execution
• Build and align the account team to the customer’s
key functions and requirements, jointly developing team goals and
KPIs
• Establish trust, motivate and coach team members
through regular communications
• Input information on account data, activities
and best practices
• Structure role and deployment of internal executive
sponsor/s for account team goals and customer relationship objectives.
Skills:
• Interpersonal relationship skills
• Team leadership
• Cultural knowledge and sensitivity
Competency 5.0 – Overall relationship & outcome management
Activities:
• Requires accountability for the sustained health
and improvement of the overall customer relationship through regular
business reviews against the performance dashboard and customer communications
• Maintains and augments role as a trusted thought
leader in individual customer relationships and owns the customer
satisfaction/loyalty metrics
• Maintains the internal network of relationships
and aligns the internal and external commitments leading to execution
of company and customer requirements and the achievement of desired
business outcomes.
Skills:
• Corporate customer relationships
• Process discipline
• Business outcomes
The SAM role
The role of a strategic account manager exists to fulfill the business objectives of a corporate-level, customer-centric strategy designed to ensure the firm’s future for long-term growth and profitability.
Part 3 of the SAMA book " Customer Value Co-Creation " deals exclusively with the skills and traits needed to be an amazing strategic account manager. Read it here .
From strategic account management to strategic ecosystem leadership
Never has there been a better opening for SAM programs and strategic
account managers to take on a bigger role in securing the future
of their organizations. While many traditional SAM traits will remain,
the overarching trajectory will see SAMs having to become even more
strategic than they are currently.
The practical manifestations of becoming more strategic will take three
distinct shapes:
• SAMs will take alignment to the next level by
becoming
drivers of strategic development cross-functionally and inter-organizationally.
• Strategic account management will be liberated
from the shackles of the seller-buyer dynamic by transforming from
account management to ecosystem or stakeholder management.
• SAMs will develop new processes and skill sets
that will make the future one of
leadership, rather than of
management.
The SAMA Podcast
If anything, your customers expect more from you than ever. If you
can be a source of stability on the one hand and bold ideas on the
other, you will earn yourself a lifetime of customer loyalty. Easier
said than done. The first two episodes of the SAMA podcast address
exactly this topic.
Episode #1 What’s the single most important piece of advice for account managers guiding their customers through crises, like our current one? Avoid the impulse to speculate. So says SAMA’s Chris Jensen, who on 9/11 was a DHL sector head responsible for his company’s relationship with two of its most strategic accounts. Chris shares this and other pieces of hard-earned wisdom from 9/11’s aftermath in the first episode of the SAMA podcast. Listen here.
Episode #2 Still trying to predict what coronavirus will mean for your business? Much of it will depend on the value your own customers can create using your products and services. Find out what else you should be focused on during these unprecedented times, according to one of the smartest strategists working in sales excellence. SAMA's Harvey Dunham interviews Whetstone Inc. President & CEO Adrian Davis in episode 2 of the SAMA Podcast. Listen here.
The future of SAM
In case it wasn’t obvious before, it should be now: The world is changing,
and the SAM role is changing alongside it. In this excerpt from “Customer
Value Co-Creation,” Francis Gouilliart makes five predictions for
the future of SAM. Read them
here.