"Preventative Diagnosis" Can Help You Save Those Large Accounts

by Miller Heiman

We all know that our large accounts are our most important accounts. In fact, our research shows that typically more than half a company’s revenue comes from a very select few accounts. Yet, all too often, we try to manage those large accounts the same way we manage our smaller accounts. Continuing to do so is likely to put those accounts at risk. That’s why you should periodically take the time to analyze and identify those large accounts that might be headed for trouble.

Identifying a large account that is due to be analyzed means bringing to the surface hidden problems before they become overwhelming. To help you perform this kind of "preventative diagnosis," we suggest you ask yourself the following questions:

Is there any inconsistency in your account planning, over geography or over time? Do you and your company have a consistent plan for handling this large account’s various regional (or international) business units? Do you understand how the units fit together? Or do the organization and purchasing structures of the parent account sometimes seem like impenetrable labyrinths? What about time? Does your account planning show a purposeful evolution from one year to the next? Or is each quarter’s plan an entirely new species?

Do your account strategies ever fail to impact, positively and indisputably, on your company’s revenues and profit? What’s the perceived link between your strategies and the money you’re asking from the account? Can you document that link, or are you guessing? Do you have a clear understanding of how the account got to be large? Or did it just get that way by momentum? Perhaps most important of all, do the strategies that you adopt for this customer impact positively on his or her revenue? If the relationship you’ve established so far isn’t showing up on the customer’s bottom line, he or she is a top candidate for analysis.

Do you ever wonder about the reliability of your company’s system for reviewing and measuring account plans? If an account plan is working (or not working) how early does your company know it? How frequently, and in how disciplined a fashion, do you track progress on individual objectives for this large account? If a given goal proves unrealistic, can you "regroup and reset" quickly? Or are you sometimes left hanging, planning midcourse corrections too late?

Do you ever lack the budget to do the job? Is there a reasonable degree of congruence between your account plans and the resources that they require? Does your company’s top management understand that this large account is critical not just to your success, but to the success of the firm? Are you usually able to convince them that the expected return on investment from this account justifies spending resources up front? Or are you often a day late and a dollar short?

Are you insecure in your position? Do you feel confident that you understand this large account and your place in it as external manager? Do you know who makes the decisions, and on what grounds? Have you fully explored the sales possibilities in the account beyond those currently on the table? What about the competition? How firm is your position compared to theirs? And–most important of all–do you know how decision-makers in the large account feel about your place in their business? If you’re not sure what they feel–or if you’re unsure about any other aspect of your position–mark this up as a major gray area.

We urge you to be brutally honest in your responses to these diagnostic questions and to trust your instincts as well as your head. Isolate those large accounts where you are uncertain about your position. Then set about working to improve it.

Adapted from Successful Large Account Management Robert Miller and Stephen E. Heiman with Tad Tuleja © 1991 by Miller Heiman, Inc., All rights reserved with permission of Warner Books. Inc.