Strategic Account Management Blog

The Chapman Group’s Blog has MOVED!!

Kandy Phillips — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:00:43 +0000

Thank you for following The Chapman Group’s blog. We have recently consolidated and updated our corporate website, ChapmanHQ.com, to make it easier to learn about The Chapman Group’s holistic solution offering. As such, our blog has moved to a new location.

Please visit our blog in its new location at chapmanhq.com/blog/ and take a spin through our new website while you are there.

About The Chapman Group
The Chapman Group partners with B2B sales and account management organizations to identify and solve sales and account management challenges resulting in stronger relationships, increased revenues, and higher margins for suppliers as well as our customers.

Webinar: Sales and Account Management Best Practices | Using the Voice of the Customer to Grow Relationships, Revenues, and Profits

Kandy Phillips — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:22:25 +0000

We’re hosting live webinars this month you should not miss!

Sales and Account Management Best Practices: Using the Voice of the Customer to Grow Relationships, Revenues, and Profits

Presented live on April 18, at 9AM– and 12 Noon EDT

Join us on Thursday, April 18th, 2013 for a live presentation on current best practices sales and account management leaders are implementing today that enable them to utilize Voice of the Customer data (surveying) to keep and grow critical account relationships, revenues, and profits.

This 40-minute presentation will be hosted by Dennis Chapman Sr, President and Founder of The Chapman Group, a sales and account management consulting firm, and go to resource for Fortune 1000 and mid-tier companies worldwide. Dennis will present best practices and strategies for engaging your sales force in maximizing voice of your customer survey data to:

Empower sales and account management teams to expand wallet share and grow profitability through a better understanding of the customer’s perceived sources of value

Empower sales and account management leaders with improved “predictive” dashboard analytics allowing them to make better decisions

Empower B2B organizations to place Voice of the Customer metrics at the heart of the sales and account management planning processes.

This event will be held twice on Thursday, April 18th at 9 AM EDT and 12 Noon EDT. Register today to guarantee your space in advance!

How to Register

Click the date and time to be directed to the registration page:

Or, copy and paste the link in your browser:

April 18, 2013, 9AM EDT webinar: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/847752582

April 18, 2013, 12 Noon EDT webinar click: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/285916110

Best Practices in Account Management Strategy… Now Mobile!

Kandy Phillips — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:57:54 +0000

The Chapman Group presents the final episode of the Tune-Up Strategy for Best- In-Class Strategic Account Management– a 5-part video series on expert Sales and Account Management strategies for improving relationships, revenues and margins with your top revenue-grossing B2B customers.

Part 5, ‘Measurements and Metrics’ defines the most proficient approach to implementing the precise metrics that help sales execs and account leaders effectively measure strategic account performance.

In part 5, you’ll discover metrics and measurement tactics that enable you to quantify the activities impacting your strategic accounts.

Download the Tune-Up Series Podcast

Click the link below to listen to the podcast now — or right-click and select ‘Save Link As’ to download the entire series on MP3.

Podcast: Tune Up Strategy for Best In Class Strategic Account Management

The Chapman Group President to Speak at SAMA’s Pan-European Conference in Berlin, March 10-12

Kandy Phillips — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:52:44 +0000

Dennis Chapman, President and Founder of The Chapman Group, will be presenting at SAMA’s Pan-European Conference and leading course instruction at the SAMA Academy for their most popular and highly-rated Certified Strategic Account Manager (CSAM) Program, both taking place this year in Berlin, Germany. This years’ Pan-European conference, which takes place March 10-12, is focused on how to bring mutual measured strategic value and aligning your company’s strategy, organizational capabilities and business performance for customer-specific solutions.

Dennis Chapman will be presenting ‘Cycling Voice of Customer Feedback into the Strategic Account Plan and Strategic Action Planning’ on Monday, March 11th and Tuesday, March 12th. This presentation will speak to the value and process of gathering and interpreting critical facts and insights from strategic accounts and will also provide examples utilizing acute customer knowledge to develop and substantiate the strategic account plan and relevant strategies in account management. At the SAMA Academy which takes place March 12-14th, Dennis Chapman will be educating participants and certification candidates on ‘Managing the Overall Relationship & Business Outcomes’, a discipline that focuses on the role of a Strategic Account Manager as the overall relationship manager which involves:

Building team vision and identity
Aligning account and team goals
Managing business and national/regional culture impact
Leading the team without direct authority
Working with the network
Managing the key processes
Coaching and developing in the team

About the Strategic Account Management Association | StrategicAccounts.org
The Strategic Account Management Association’s (SAMA) Universities and Academies are intensive workshops dedicated to expanding knowledge and capabilities in strategic account management (SAM). SAMA University offers five of the Strategic Account Management Association’s most popular SAM skill–building workshops.
For more information on the Strategic Account Management Association’s events and/or their Certification Program, please visit: http://www.strategicaccounts.org/events/

Takeaways from the 7th Annual Net Promoter® Conference

Kandy Phillips — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:30:25 +0000

As a sponsor of the 7th Annual Net Promoter® Customer Experience Conference and consultant to companies utilizing the NPS® metric, we gained valuable insights at this year’s event that we’d like to share with you on how organizations:

• Gain senior leadership support and involvement
• Understand the driving factors behind promoters, passives and detractors
• Adopt and utilize VoC feedback in their sales and account management programs
• Close the loop through joint scorecards and action plans
• Determine the ROI of their VoC program

We’ve produced this brief 5-minute video explaining these key takeaways with recommendations on developing a Prescription for Success for your organization.

Tune-Up Strategy for Best-in-Class SAM | Part 4: Influencing Right Action with the Right Insight

Kandy Phillips — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:26:48 +0000

Do you have the right knowledge and strategy to effectively keep and grow customers? In this segment we help organizations answer this question by addressing the must-know elements critical to optimizing the bottom line through Customer Facts and Insight.

This video examines the drivers and emerging best practices of having the right knowledge for:

• Voice of the Customer Feedback: Knowing how to move satisfied customers to long-term loyal and committed partners
• Internal Team Feedback: Measuring the impact of your customer facing resources
• Relationship Data Points: Measuring the alignment between your organization and the Customer.
• Strategic Account Plans: Developing an ongoing internal/external account review strategy.
• Joint and Balanced Scorecards: Closing the loop with metrics on collaborative customer/supplier performance

Learn more about these and other best practices for sales and account management from The Chapman Group on our website at ChapmanHQ.com.

B2B VOC | The 7th Annual Net Promoter® Customer Experience Conference

Kandy Phillips — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:23:52 +0000

If you plan to attend the Net Promoter® Customer Experience Conference in Miami, Florida, be sure to attend our session on Friday from 1:00-1:45pm ET!

VOC Data : The Currency for New and Improved Opportunities

Cedric Singelton, Director, Customer Relations, Starlims

Starlims, a division of Abbott Laboratories, is one of the leading providers of laboratory information management systems. When Cedric was brought on board to develop their customer care program, he understood it was essential to focus on 3 areas: data integrity, prioritizing information, and the importance of goal setting. Cedric will share how his company employs NPS® and the communication strategy they use to help them act on the feedback. B2B. Science, Technology.

Attend our workshop to learn how our Fortune 1000 clients like Abbott have optimized Net Promoter® investments and increased their Net Promoter® Score by gathering detailed drivers from surveying results with The Chapman Group’s Loyalty Index-based methodology.

Get actionable insight to take your Net Promoter® Score to the next level!

You could also leave our workshop a WINNER of one of three select prizes.

Prizes| Apple iPad Mini | $150 Amazon Gift Card | $100 SkyMall.com Gift Card

Winners will be selected from workshop attendees and must be present to win!

Part III: Process | Tune-Up Strategy for a Best-In-Class Strategic Account Management Program

Kandy Phillips — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:16:02 +0000

Part III of ‘The Tune-Up Strategy for a Best-In-Class Strategic Account Management Program’ series covers strategically developing best-in-class management processes for the predictable, repeatable and measurable events that occur within the following segments of strategic account management:

• Relationship Management

• Account Management

• Opportunity Management

• Customer Engagement

• Value Selling/Delivery

Watch and learn how to champion these best practices to optimize the processes within your strategic account management program.

This video marks the 3rd segment of our 5-part series on tuning up your strategic account management programs for 2013.

You can catch the recap of the full video series on the SAM blog:

Part I – Account Segmentation

Best practices for working with the right customers/accounts

Part II – People

Best practices for developing best-in-class account management teams

Part III – Process (Now on TheMetricsChannel)

Best practices for optimizing strategic account management processes

Coming Up…

Parts IV – Knowledge

How to get the ultimate knowledge to keep and grow high-value strategic customers

Part V – Measurements/Metrics

How to measure for the expected outcomes of account performance

Register to receive these and other updates on SAM news, trends and best practices on our homepage at ChapmanHQ.com.

Get to the Heart of Customer Experience | 7th Annual Net Promoter® Customer Experience Conference

Kandy Phillips — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:39:17 +0000

The Chapman Group is a Proud Sponsor of the 7th Annual Net Promoter® Customer Experience Conference…Register now for 40% off:

https://www.regonline.com?eventID=1142739&rTypeID=690700

Register to Attend the 7th Annual Net Promoter® Customer Experience Conference

Date: Thursday, January 31, 2013 to Friday, February 1, 2013

Location: Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach

Over 500 B2B and B2C professionals have already registered – don’t miss this event!Click to Book Now for 40% Off General Event Registration: (or copy and paste the following url in your browser)

https://www.regonline.com?eventID=1142739&rTypeID=690700

We also invite you to attend The Chapman Group’s sponsored session at the event,

VOC Data : The Currency for New and Improved Opportunities

Presented by Cedric Singelton, Director, Customer Relations, Starlims

Friday, February 1, 1PM

Starlims, a division of Abbott Laboratories, is one of the leading providers of laboratory information management systems. When Cedric was brought on board to develop their customer care program, he understood it was essential to focus on 3 areas: data integrity, prioritizing information, and the importance of goal setting. Cedric will share how his company employs NPS and the communication strategy they use to help them act on the feedback. (B2B. Science, Technology.)

About the Conference

At the 7th Annual Net Promoter® Customer Experience Conference, you can hear from thought provoking speakers Joseph Jaffe, Richard Owen, Wendy Lea and Don Peppers; absorb NPS and CX best practices shared by representatives from Dell, First Services Direct, Kronos, HouseMaster, ShelfGenie and more; and discover the latest NPS trends. Come to the Eden Roc in Miami January 31-February 1, 2013 and be part of the experience!

We Hope to See You There!

Tune-Up Strategy for a Best-In-Class Strategic Account Management Program Part II: People

Kandy Phillips — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:47:26 +0000

Have you ever had a bad customer service experience that made you want to stop buying from a company? — Or, have you ever committed to buying from a particular company simply because you enjoy how you are treated by the people there who serve you? If either has happened to you, then you can appreciate that the people who handle customers have a significant impact on customer-behavior.

Simply put, good customer service = repeat business, referrals and loyalty.

In Strategic Account Management, the account team is expected to develop loyal , committed customers. While price breaks and demand fulfillment capabilities may attract buyers, it’s the people (account team) managing the account — and their collective aptitude that impacts the ongoing relationship with the Customer.

The interaction between your account team and the Customer can make or break the Customers’ perception; how the supplier organization values their business and their unique return (ROI) from doing business with you. When your account team is misaligned to the Customer’s needs, the Customer will seek out alternative suppliers to better address/meet their needs.

In order to decrease competitive threats and cultivate growth opportunities within your existing accounts, take the time now to assess the aptitude of your account management teams; the individuals within your organization working directly and indirectly with Customers.

Following the tips in our latest video will help you recognize opportunities to lead your account teams to improve and increase relationships, revenues and margins– AND, become a key competitive advantage of doing business with your organization.

Incorporating an effective team-building strategy into account planning is a best practice that will help you to realize best-in-class leadership. Continuing Education for your account and executive teams will support the execution of your strategic account management objectives.