How to out-think and out-sell your competitors strategically

Overview

The Mills Strategic Account Management framework gives you a structured approach, which you can use to identify and win sales opportunities.

The Mills Strategic Account Management framework shows you:

• How to develop a strategic and tactical plan for each sales opportunity
• How to strategically align yourself with your clients
• How to protect your clients from competitors
• How to identify the key players and influencers in the buying decision process
• How to improve the strategic relationship and account management skills of your sales force.
  

Strategic Account Management - 3 Days

1. The Art of Strategic Account Management
   Targeting your key accounts
   How to assess an opportunity
   Locating the key decision makers
   Setting strategic goals
   Preparing an account entry and support strategy.
   
   
2. How to Differentiate Yourself, Your Business, Your Solution
   The concept of differentiation
   Hard and soft differentiation
   Speeding up the decision cycle.
   
   
3. Competitive Analysis
   The V for Vulnerability
   Strategies for countering vulnerability
   Changing decision criteria
   Increasing your strengths
   Exposing your competitors.
   
   
4. Creating a Competitive Edge
   How to customers chose between competitors
   Influencing your customer's choice
   Establishing the winning edge.
   
   
5. Opportunity Analysis
   How to identify and analyze promising sales opportunities
   How to identify your customers key business drivers, market issues and competitive challenges
   How to recognize the major trends and technologies impacting on your customer
   How to analyze your customers current business model
   How to use business model thinking to strengthen and revitalize your customers business.
   
   
6. Assessing the Size of the Opportunity
   Is there a defined need?
   What is the funding available?
   What is the business impact?
   How urgent is the need?
   
   
7. Assessing the Value of the Opportunity
   What is the revenue potential?
   What is the profit potential?
   How sound is the customer financially?
   What risks does the sale entail?
   How strategically important is this sale?
   
   
8. Assessing Your Ability to Compete
   What are the customers decision criteria?
   Do we have a superior value proposition?
   What is the strength of the existing relationship?
   How credible are we?
   What access do we have to the decision makers?
   How do we culturally and politically fit?
   
   
9. Customer Intelligence
   Who are the customers buying influences and what are their decision criteria?
   What are the customers' decision-making milestones?
   
   
10. Drawing an Influence Map
    Who are the key buying influences?
    What is their attitude to our proposal?
    How does the power structure operate?
    How can we influence decision making within the influence network?
    
    
11. Relationship Management Strategy
    What key relationships do we need to manage?
    What are each influencers personal and business needs?
    What influence strategy should we use?
    How do we overcome the sources of resistance?