Individual account management
| Individual account management |
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Individual account management is the process of maintaining a balance or an account of an individual in financial, real estate or any other advisory firm by a dedicated manager is called individual account management.
Account management is a broad topic of managing clients in various industries. In order to provide individualized client service, individual account management enter the game.
Dan Weilbaker and William Weeks in their literature study, highlight that selling has developed enormously nowadays and there are various types such as key account management, large account selling and global account selling [1]. That is the reason why account management goes hand in hand with marketing, sales and production.
The general agreement was for salesmen to be accountable for selling to companies only within their own geographic region. As buyers needed greater quality service and lower costs, some businesses began assigning a single seller to lead and develop a few accounts. The enhanced service and responsiveness to the key account client was valued by those clients who were looking to off-load some of the charges normally handled by their own representatives [2]. Moreover, suppliers also happen to gain, as study by Homburg, Workman and Jensen (2000) points that actively managing key accounts seems in enhanced supplier performance [3].
According to Storbacka, individual account management focuses on co-creation of value and is both outside-in”, that classifies business and renewal opportunities by strongly learning the customer's value-creating process, and “inside-out”, that executes the strategy in order to reach agreed corporate aims[4].
Advantages of individual account management to buyers
Among various benefits of account management, the most valuable are following:
- Improved service quality: Account manager has more time for each client and hence has time to ask questions about the service and improve it when needed.
- Individual offers: Client's demand may be satisfied by tailored offer specially for a particular client which makes service more unique and stands out from competitors.
- Long-term relationship: the clients contact only one person from the suppliers side (the key account manager) and that's how account manager can build a relationship with the client as he is the only route for all incoming enquiries.
- Better contract terms: key account customers are in a solid status to negotiate lower prices, credit and other contract terms because of their relevance to suppliers.
Footnotes
References
- Dan C. Weilbaker & William A. Weeks (1997) The Evolution of National Account Management: A Literature Perspective, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 17:4, 49-59, DOI: 10.1080/08853134.1997.10754110
- Homberg, C., Workman, Jr, J.P. and Jensen, O. (2002) A configuration perspective on key account management, Journal of Marketing, 66, April, pp. 38–60.
- H Vyas, P. (2012). Key Account Management. Indian Institute of Management.
- Millman, T. and Wilson, K. (1996). Developing key account management competences. Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, 2(2), pp.7-22.
- Philippe Gosselin, D. and André Bauwen, G. (2006). Strategic account management: customer value creation through customer alignment. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 21(6), pp.376-385.
- Salojärvi, H, & Saarenketo, S (2013), The effect of teams on customer knowledge processing, esprit de corps and account performance in international key account management, European Journal Of Marketing, 47, 5/6, pp. 987-1005
- Storbacka, K. (2012). Strategic account management programs: Alignment of design elements and management practices. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 27(4), pp.259-274.
- Weilbaker and Weeks (1997) op. cit.; Abratt, R. and Kelly, P.M. (2002) Customer–supplier partnerships: perceptions of a successful key account management program, Industrial Marketing Management, 31, pp. 467–76.
Author: Mariia Gordiyenko
