Articles
What a freelance key account manager can do
By Carsten Bjerregaard, Marketingcapacity.dk (Link to the article. Copying/publishing without agreement is not allowed)
A Key Account Manager - commonly referred to as a KAM - is responsible for a hand-picked group of a company's important customers. Key customers. The key account manager has the business responsibility for retaining and developing the customer. And from the customer's perspective, the KAM is responsible for offering the company's products, services and solutions on the best terms and for making the collaboration as smooth and fruitful as possible.
What is key account management?
A company and its customers have a common interest in working together in the best possible way. So that the customer gets the most out of their purchase and therefore has an interest in continuing the relationship. Or to put it another way: that the company makes it as easy as possible to be a customer and get the optimal solution within what the company can offer.
A Key Account Manager therefore has many tasks:
- Sales
- Consulting
- Problem solving
- Configuring solutions
- Customer service
In relation to the customer, the Key Account Manager is responsible for:
- Having an overview of the buying center of the customers in your portfolio
- Building relationships with all relevant customer stakeholders
- Understanding customer needs
- Understanding how the company's products benefit the customer's business
- To be able to advise the customer on how to best purchase the company's products
In addition, the Key Account Manager has a duty to stay up to date and informed about the market in which the company and its customers operate. They need to know what competitors are offering, at what price and on what terms.
What else is a Key Account Manager called?
The key account manager role is a further specialization of a sales consultant, a customer advisor, a salesperson, a representative, or whatever you want to call it. It's a desire to move the customer contact closer to the customer in order to help and service the customer even better.
How do key account managers create value?
The key account manager creates value on 2 'fronts':
For the business:
- By increasing the engagement that the customers in his portfolio have with the company and by:
- Increasing sales from businesses
- To create such strong relationships that customers stay longer (i.e. increase loyalty or stick-rate, if you will)
- Increase the contribution margin
- Preventing potential problems in the collaboration
- Resolve issues as they arise so they don't damage the relationship
For customers:
- The key account manager creates value for their customers by advising on the 'right' solution to the customer's problem or need
- By making sure the customer takes advantage of any discount or bonus schemes offered by the company
- By making sure the customer always has an up-to-date overview of the options available to them
- By educating relevant people at customers on how to best utilize the products they buy from the key account manager's customers
- By supplementing customers with data that they can use in their further work (e.g. a key account manager can provide analytics on how his product works in relation to a potential end user)
- The key account manager can also provide feedback back to the company. This could be about products that customers want, or it could be about other aspects of the collaboration. For example, it could be about new desired ways of collaborating or billing
You could say that the more complex the products, the more complex the market, and the more complex the buying process, the more both parties benefit from the key account manager. He is like a diplomat who creates mutual understanding - and ensures that the mutual benefit of the relationship is maximized.
What types of key account managers are there?
There are probably as many types as there are KAMs. Because it's so much about personal performance. And we're not all the same.
But there's also a difference in what the job entails. In some KAM jobs, it might be end-user knowledge that is important (if the end-user is a retail customer), while in other jobs it might be more technical sparring (e.g. in relation to heavy industrial products and semi-finished products).
What does a key account manager need to know?
We often see a Key Account Manager with a degree in business studies. Cand. Merc. HA, HD, HH or whatever it may be. Because the business aspect is naturally so important. But in addition, there are a large number of requirements/desires that you can attach to it if you want to find a skilled Key Account Manager:
- Experience. The more experienced the KAM, the better advice they can give (both ways). The more situations the KAM has experienced, the greater their range of possible solutions. The first time a customer rattles the sabre in a collaboration, it's easy to get rattled. The more times you experience it, the more likely you are to resolve any issues to everyone's satisfaction.
- Sociable. As mentioned, a company and its customer have many common interests. But there are also opposing interests. For example, price will often be a subject of negotiation - perhaps even with a certain amount of pressure. Therefore, it is important that the Key Account Manager has strong social skills. That he can use his personality and communication to de-escalate a situation instead of escalating it. Something as old-fashioned as friendliness and a genuine interest in helping others weighs heavily in the collaboration.
- Credibility and integrity. Customers want an advisor they can trust. For example, if the KAM promises a certain discount, the customer should get it. Conversely, it will disappoint the customer if there are opportunities that he hasn't been told about to make a better deal. Finally, there is the personal confidentiality that can support good collaboration. If, as is often the case, the Key Account Manager is frequently in the customer's locations, he/she must be able to be discreet and keep a close eye on what he/she is experiencing.
- Negotiation skills. In principle, an ongoing collaboration is a long series of negotiations. And sometimes the negotiations are very concrete. For example, if you have annual contracts or agreements. So the ability to think win-win and find solutions is an important attribute of a Key Account Manager.
The whole idea of a Key Account collaboration is that the relationships must be close in order to strengthen both parties' benefit from the collaboration. This only succeeds if the key account manager can handle the deep insight he gains into both camps with integrity, discretion and decency.
Key points in the Key Account Manager's work
The KAM works with, among other things:
- Budgeting and forecasting customer purchases at home in your business
- Customer briefings - including news (for example, an FMCG key account manager will tell their key retail customers about an upcoming campaign that can sell products out of the customer's store)
- Status meetings - how is the collaboration going, are there things we need to be aware of
- Any input for marketing
- Provide input for the development of new initiatives to strengthen collaboration - new products, new forms of collaboration, new business models, etc.
- Customer events - both professional and social
- Analytics development - e.g. how potential end users use and view a product
- Development of presentations, presentations and agreement proposals
Again, the key account manager is largely responsible for activity and development. He is the one who must drive the process and develop customers.
Why a freelance key account manager?
In the past, most people might have thought of freelancers for one-off projects. However, many companies have now realized the benefits of working with freelancers on a long-term basis:
- You can cover needs that don't justify a permanent position
- In periods when you don't need it, you don't pay for the skill
- In a long-term relationship, the freelancer gets to know the company almost as well as a permanent employee
- Compared to buying the desired skill set from an agency - such as an advertising agency - working with freelancers is usually much cheaper
- You have the flexibility to rethink the overall competency profile of the person responsible for an area
- More and more really talented people prefer to work freelance
- A freelancer can still look at your business 'from the outside' - which is a valuable thing when thinking about creative
- Freelancers can bring fresh, outside inspiration to your business
How do you find a good freelance key account manager?
Finding the right freelancer can be difficult. And above all, it can take a long time. Because there are many freelancers within the same field, and even if they boast the same skills, there can be a big difference when it comes to the way they work and the work they deliver. When you ask Marketingcapacity.dk to help you find a freelancer to work with, the process is simple:
- You describe your needs to us (either in writing or verbally - we'll confirm in an email)
- We screen our 600+ profiles and, if necessary, the market through our channels
- We nominate a list of candidates and talk to them according to your needs
- You will be presented with 3 candidates that seem to meet your needs
- During the 3 meetings (at your location or digitally) you can ask questions and see examples of their work
- You choose the freelancer you would like to start working with
- We set it up in our systems with time tracking etc. so you have an overview and full control
In other words: After describing your needs, simply set aside 2 hours to meet with 3 hand-picked and screened candidates. That's your guarantee of a good result with reasonable effort.
