Strategic Customer Advocate

Key Account Manager Role Overview

The Key Account Manager plays a vital role in prospecting, maintaining and expanding strategic relationships with large customers.

Assigned to three to five key vertical markets, the Key Account Manager is responsible for achieving sales targets and objectives in assigned strategic vertical markets.

The Key Account Manager represents the entire range of products and services to assigned markets, while leading the customer account planning cycle and ensuring assigned market needs and expectations are met by the company.

Key Responsibilities:

• Establishes productive, professional relationships with key personnel in assigned vertical markets.
• Promotes/sells/secures orders from existing and prospective customers through a relationship-based approach.
• Coordinates the involvement of company personnel, including support, service, and management resources, in order to meet performance objectives and customers' expectations.
• Meets assigned targets for profitable sales volume and strategic objectives in assigned markets.
• Proactively leads a joint company-strategic account planning process that develops mutual performance objectives, financial targets, and critical milestones for a one and three-year period.
• Proactively assesses, clarifies, and validates customer needs on an ongoing basis.
• Leads solution development efforts that best address customer needs, while coordinating the involvement of all necessary company personnel.

Performance Metrics:

• Establishes, develops and maintains business relationships with current customers and prospective customers in the assigned territory/market segment to generate new business for the organization's products/services.
• Makes telephone calls and in-person visits and presentations to existing and prospective customers.
• Researches sources for developing prospective customers and for information to determine their potential.
• Develops clear and effective written proposals/quotations for current and prospective customers.
• Expedites the resolution of customer problems and complaints.
• Coordinates sales effort with marketing, sales management, accounting, logistics and technical service groups.
• Analyzes the territory/market's potential and determines the value of existing and prospective customers' value to the organization.
• Creates and manages a customer value plan for existing customers highlighting profile, share and value opportunities.
• Identifies advantages and compares competitors' products/services.
• Plans and organizes personal sales strategy by maximizing the Return on Time Investment for the territory/segment.
• Provides management with oral and written reports on customer needs, problems, interests, competitive activities, and potential for new products and services.
• Keeps abreast of product applications, technical services, market conditions, competitive activities, advertising and promotional trends through the reading of pertinent literature and consulting with marketing and technical service areas.
• Participates in trade shows and conventions.
• Accurate weekly forecasts of sales figures.

Organizational Alignment:

• Reports to the Regional Director.
• Enlists the support of sales specialists, implementation resources, service resources, and other sales and management resources as needed.
• Closely coordinates company executive involvement with customer management.
• Works closely with Channel Account Managers and Pre-Sales Engineers to ensure customer/business partner satisfaction and problem resolution.
• Maintains high customer satisfaction ratings that meet company standards.
• Proactively assesses, clarifies, and validates customer needs on an ongoing basis.
• Leads solution development efforts that best address customer needs, while coordinating the involvement of all necessary company personnel.
• Completes required training and development objectives within the assigned time frame.